Review: The Little Shop of Hopes and Dreams by Fiona Harper

Nicole Harrison is planning the proposal of the century. Too bad its not her own…

Nicole, a born organiser and true romantic, has created her dream job when she sets up the Hopes & Dreams proposal agency – staging YouTube worthy proposals…until she’s hired to plan a proposal by gorgeous photographer Alex Black’s girlfriend.

Alex is the New Year’s kiss that Nicole hasn’t been able to forget – and now she’s planning his wedding to someone else! But if she lets herself fall for Alex’s charms, her reputation and business will be ruined before it’s even got off the ground! Suddenly the girl whose always prepared is at a loss…and falling head over heels.

Review: this book was a bit like a nice warm hug and a satisfying mug of hot chocolate all rolled into one. It had been a while since I'd read this kind of book when I picked it up and I was very happy to be back in my comfort zone! The storyline was lovely. I like the idea of a proposal planning agency, people put so much thought into these things and so it makes sense for someone to actually make a business around it, and yet it was realistic as well because Nicole was having money issues and relied on getting new clients to stay afloat.

Nicole was a lovely character, a little bit of a mystery in some respects, and i thin k that's what she wanted to be, bu she really grew and flourished as the book went on, really coming into her own by the end. I totally wanted to cheer for her in the last few moments of the book because I respected her and i loved the ending that this author wrote for her. The other characters in the book were all pretty likeable too. There is a bit of a love triangle scenario (of sorts) and normally this makes me dislike people in the book if they're trying to be with someone they're not supposed to but i like them all, especially Nicole's friend Peggy. She has a Doris Day obsession and i LOVE this, just like Charlotte's obsession with Elizabeth Taylor in Sex and the City!

The setting is fairly simple but beautifully described. We are not flown to any particularly exotic locations but that's OK, sometimes it's nice just to stay closer to home. I loved the ending and the kind of epilogue and overall i just found this book a satisfying read. It wasn't the fastest of books, the pace was some times a little slow but that is the only thing that stopped this from being a five star read for me. You'll be guaranteed a lovely time if you pick up this book!