Claire, a pastry chef struggling to make her restaurant succeed, is too busy to pursue romance. That doesn’t stop her loving but meddling mother, Helen, from setting her up on dates.
Even after Helen promises to stop her matchmaking efforts, she can’t help herself. She convinces Eric, a pediatrician, to meet Claire at a gallery event. Eric and Claire feel an immediate connection, and their meeting becomes a magical first date.
But the longer Eric and Claire see each other, the less comfortable Eric feels about hiding the fact that Claire’s mom set them up.
Meanwhile, Claire loves to talk about how she trusts Eric, and how they met by chance. How will she react to the truth?
Stand-alone title based on the Hallmark Channel Original Movie
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Title: Love by Chance
Series:
Author: Kacy Cross
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Published: December 26, 2019
Publisher: Hallmark Publishing
My Rating: 4 stars
Love by Chance is the novelization of the Hallmark Channel Original Movie – and it hits very close to home on bringing a movie into book form. While Claire has set aside any romantic aspirations for right now during her busy career her mother certainly has no such reservations. Helen is not above meddling, interfering, and outright lying about her matchmaking efforts to the point of now endangering her own secure, long-lasting marriage.
Eric is a sweet guy who kind of got caught up in Helen’s matchmaking to the point of faking a chance first meeting with Claire – and continuing to grow closer, care more for, and want a future with the woman who he’s basically lied to throughout their relationship. Awkward anyone?
Okay, so let’s be frank here – I wanted to throttle (in the kindest way) Helen on so, so many occasions. Overlooked boundaries much? It’s obvious she loves her daughter and wants a happy ending for her but… really? She went beyond, way beyond and I’ll admit that small lie grew bigger and bigger to me as the story went on.
The interesting (to me) part of this story was watching two people fall in love and one knowing they have something huge to confess and being afraid to do that because everything they want in life could be part of the falling apart of their relationship. I liked Eric and Claire individually and as a couple. I really wanted there to be a way to get past that first lie – and eventually, there was but not before some serious hurt and harm were done to people who should have been treated better by those that “love” them.
I enjoyed myself in this world – I had not seen the movie before reading the book so I went into that world through the author’s words. If you love having a favorite Hallmark Movie in book form then you’ll want to add Love by Chance to your collection.
*I received an e-ARC of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley. That does not change what I think of this story. It is my choice to leave a review giving my personal opinion about this book.*
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