Review: Heartstrings and Diamond Rings by Jane Graves.

Rowena’s review of Heartsrings and Diamond Rings by Jane Graves.

Hero: Brandon Scott
Heroine: Alison Carter

HE’S THE MAN OF HER DREAMS . . .

In a world full of frogs, Alison Carter is determined to find her prince. Maybe her dating past is more Titanic than Love Boat, but she’s seen enough happy marriages to know that true love is possible. No matter what, she won’t give up on happily-ever-after. If she can’t find Mr. Right, she’ll simply hire someone who can.

SHE JUST DOESN’T KNOW IT YET

When Brandon Scott inherits a successful matchmaking business, he thinks his prayers have been answered. Set up a few lonely ladies, collect the fee, how hard can it be? No one needs to know he’s not really a professional matchmaker-especially not his first client, the beautiful, spirited Alison. Soon he’s falling for her-and her dreams of kids and carpools. But Alison is getting close to figuring out his secret, and if she learns he’s deceived her too, she’ll walk right out the door, taking Brandon’s heart with her.

This is the second book by Jane Graves that I’ve read in the last couple of weeks and it’s another book that I highly enjoyed. I’m a sucker for contemporaries so it doesn’t take much for me to inhale them but this book did a great job of grabbing my attention and not letting go. Brandon Scott needs to make thirty thousand dollars in the next six months so that he can fund a huge project that he needs to get back on top (since he hates being broke) and a sure fire way to get his hands on that kind of cash is take over his late grandmother’s matchmaking business since she charges $1,500 a pop. Match a few people up for a few months shouldn’t be too hard, right?

His first official client comes to him in the form of Alison Carter. A woman who’s had a string of bad luck when it comes to men. She just recently dumped a guy she thought was going to propose marriage to her when instead, he proposed a threesome with her…with her friend that had big boobs. Unlucky is what Alison has been in love and she can’t for the life of her figure out what’s so wrong with her that nobody wants to make an honest woman out of her so she decides that she’s done with men until her best friend Heather suggests checking out a professional matchmaker and after that talk, she decides to give it a go.

Only problem is, the woman she thought she was going to see ends up being a man instead of the gentle old woman she was imagining. Alison’s got one of those personalities where she sees the best in everyone and against her better judgment, she decides to let Brandon set her up.

Brandon is only in town for the next six months or however long it’ll take him to make the thirty grand he needs to take with him to Houston on that big deal that’ll make him rich again. He’s itching to get that money so when Alison comes to him to be matched, he can see that she’s not that interested in being matched up by a guy so he says what he needs to say in order to get her to agree to the job. She hands over the check and Brandon gladly takes it.

My favorite part of this book was the romance that blossomed between Brandon and Alison. They were so adorable. You saw them transition from strangers to friends and then to lovers. I loved that the way Alison is portrayed in the beginning of the book stays with her throughout the entire book and yet you could still see that she grew so much as a person from beginning to end. It must be hard to do that. I felt that Graves did a wonderful job of staying true to who Alison was and seeing Brandon fall in love with that woman made me love him all the more.

Now, I don’t say all that about Alison to paint her as this pushover because she wasn’t. She was just a woman with a big heart who had so much to give to a man and up until then, nobody wanted what she was giving. She saw the good in people and that didn’t stop, even when the shit hits the fan and you wouldn’t blame Alison for being a little vindictive and bitchy over it all. I loved seeing Brandon fall in love with her and to see his struggles with everything and Alison, it was just too cute.

I think another thing that I loved about this book was that I know that Heather and Tony were in a previous book and they’re in this book, played pretty big roles (at least Heather did) and they didn’t come off as cheesy. Often times when we see recurring characters, especially couples who have had their own stories, when we see them again they’re all over each other and they can’t get enough of each other and it’s all kind of corny and cheesy as all get out but that wasn’t the case with Tony and Heather. They were still going strong but they didn’t feel the need to shove their happiness down our throats. And they weren’t pregnant or anything like that and I loved it.

I really enjoyed this book and I can’t wait to read more from this author. She writes great contemporary stories with characters that will stay with you long after you’ve put the book down. The secondary characters really stand out in this book and I just really enjoyed it. If there was anything that I didn’t like about this book, it would be how long it took for Brandon to come clean about what was really going on with Alison. There were times when he could have said something and he knew he could have said something and he chose not to. I was disappointed in him at those moments but not enough that it chipped away from my enjoyment. Nope, I enjoyed this book too much to hold that against Brandon. Though, it did help Brandon’s case that he was so flippin’ hot! Yes, I can be shallow like that. =)

All in all, this is a wonderfully entertaining story about a matchmaker and his client who he can’t seem to match with anyone because he finds out later, nobody is as perfect for her as he is.

Grade: 4.5 out of 5

This book is available from Forever. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

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