Customer Reviews

The Blind - Date Proposal (Harlequin Large Print (Numbered Paperback))

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This might just be Jessica Hart's best book, to date. It's romantic, warm and heartfelt, with realistic characters. Kate is the befuddled, but warm and charming heroine who hasn't had any luck with men in her life, and Finn is her uptight, cold boss, a widower who gradually turns into Kate's love interest. Finn's 10 year old daughter, Alex, was a very realistic child character (which I don't often see in a romance novel). It was a pleasure to see Kate grow into a stonger person over the course of the story. You could easily see this book as a movie and it would be great (are you listening, Hollywood?) It's an excellent read, and I recommend it highly.

Temping secretary Kate Savage has told her friends about her horrible boss so, when they set her up for a blind date with a widower with stories about a terrible secretary, the friends think they have a magical match. The two will be able to exchange war stories, relax, and get to know each other. Except the war stories are about each other. And there's no way Kate is going to get interested in Fin McBride--even if he is a hunky sort.

After a miserable date, Kate wonders if she'll be fired. Finn tells her it would be too much trouble to hire another temp, but he seems to keep a close eye on her. When Kate rescues an abandoned dog and brings it into the office, it's almost the limit for Finn. The office is no place for animals. His daughter, visiting the office because his housekeeper had a medical emergency, doen't agree and what nine-year-old Alex wants, she tends to get. First she wants the dog--and then she wants a mom. Kate tries to persuade herself, and Finn, that she's a party-girl, completely not ready to settle down with a man. Since Finn only talks about practical things and has never recovered from his late wife's death, that doesn't seem to be a problem--except when Kate falls in love--hard.

Author Jessica Hart writes in a breezy urban style. American readers will delight in the little Britishisms that litter her style. Everyone will laugh with Kate at her dating disaster, and it would take a hard heart indeed not to feel sympathetic for Kate's problems. Kate makes a wonderful heroine, sassy and unwilling to back down from a fight, but always willing to help out the underdog. Finn's daughter Alex was a delight, avoiding the saccarine sweetness that marrs some romances. Finn is the perfect befuddled male, sexy and kind but clueless.

THE BLIND-DATE PROPOSAL is a funny and enjoyable read. I couldn't put it down.

Kate is a thoughly charming main character and really makes this book a fun read. When I was young and ambitious Kate may have irritated me because her ambition is to be a housewife. However, reading this now as a stay-at-home mom I completely sympathized with her.

The Blind-Date Proposal by Jessica Hart
Harlequin Romance # 3761 - August 2003
City Brides trilogy - Book # 2

When Kate Savage's ex-boyfriend claimed to their mutual employer that Kate was stalking him, she'd been asked to resign and wasn't given a glowing reference. This forced her to sign on with a temp agency, which put her in as Finn McBride's temp PA. Kate's vivacious personality quickly clashes with Finn's straight-laced regime, and neither seems overly impressed with the other. Kate's flabbergasted when her best friend sets her up on a blind-date and it turns out to be Finn, esp. after it's been well discussed how she hates her new boss! Finn's a widower and he's been coaxed by his sister to find a mother for his nine-year-old daughter, thus his agreeing to the blind date. When his housekeeper has to go out of town to nurse her ailing mother, Finn is forced to bring his daughter, Alex to the office, as it's a school holiday. Alex takes to Kate immediately and when Finn's PA is ready to return to her job, he asks Kate if she'll be a live-in nanny housekeeper, and then to pretend to be his fiancée while his meddling sister comes for a visit. It doesn't take long for Kate to have feelings for Finn, but it's pretty obvious to her that he's still very much in love with his late wife.

This was a marvelous read! I connected instantly with Kate and her adventures. She's the sort of girl who is constantly putting her pretty foot from her mouth. Finn is so devastatingly attractive and he's been through so much, she can't help but fall in love with him and his daughter. Finn doesn't believe there is another love of his life out there, even though Kate and her quirkiness charm him. I enjoyed this very much and rooted whole-heartedly for their HEA. I'm looking forward to Bella's story next!

City Brides trilogy
Fiancé Wanted Fast! by Jessica Hart - Harlequin Romance # 3757 - July 2003
The Blind-Date Proposal by Jessica Hart - Harlequin Romance # 3761 - August 2003
A Whirlwind Engagement by Jessica Hart - Harlequin Romance # 3765 - September 2003

It's not very often that a romance published under the Harlequin/Mills & Boon or similar labels has me laughing out loud, but this one did - and laughing with the book, not at it.

Kate Savage is kind and impetuous, and always helping out some creature in difficulty, whether it is a little old lady or a lost animal. Sometimes this leads her to do things which make difficulties for her employers.

Kate recently lost both her job and her boyfriend at the same time - he was a manager at the company where she worked, and she told him off for bullying a junior employee, whereby the rat didn't just dump her but got her fired. So currently she is temping. At the start of this book she is having trouble getting on with the new boss, Finn MacBride, for whom she is working as a temporary PA while the permanent holder of the post is recovering from a broken leg. He's handsome in a severe kind of way but strict and apparently unemotional and they don't get on well at all.

The book begins with the blind date from hell as two of Kate's friends introduce her to an "eligible widower" - and to the shock of both parties it turns out to be her boss. After a disastrous evening which is hideously embarrassing for both Kate and Finn - though quite amusing to the reader - you might think that not even in a twopenny romance novel could these two characters get together.

But then Kate finds a lost puppy on her way in to work on a day when the combination of a school training day and a housekeeper called away to deal with a sick mother forces Finn to bring his nine-year-old daughter Alex to the office. Although Finn complains about having his office turned into "a branch of animal rescue" Alex falls in love with the puppy, and suddenly things get complicated ...

Kate and Finn are rather more normal, less ridiculously perfect, and more realistic than the characters in most romance novels, and this book has been written with a good deal of sympathetic humour. Definately a cut above the average romance.