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Thursday, March 8, 2018

"Heart's Desire" by Catherine Lanigan

On Tour with Prism Book Tours
***Premiering as The Sweetest Heart on the Hallmark Channel March 17th 9 PM ET***

By now, you know that I'm loving comparing books and the movies based on them. So when I came across a tour for Catherine Lanigan's Heart's Desire, which was being made into a Hallmark movie, I just couldn't resist 😉.


Heart's Desire
(Shores of Indian Lake #2)
Catherine Lanigan
Contemporary Romance
Paperback & ebook, 191 pages
August 1st 2014 by Harlequin Heartwarming
Goodreads│Amazon│Barnes & Noble│Harlequin

His homecoming is bittersweet…for both of them

Café owner Maddie Strong is finally ready to take her burgeoning cupcake business to the next level. With the help of handsome businessman Alex Perkins, her future's all mapped out. Until her first love comes home.

At seventeen, Maddie adored Nate Barzonni with her whole heart and soul. But when he asked her to elope, she'd said no—she couldn't let him throw away his dream of becoming a doctor. Then he vanished from her life for eleven years. Now the cardiac surgeon has returned to Indian Lake asking for a second chance, and Maddie has to choose between her new life…and the man she never stopped loving.

Heart's Desire is the second book in Lanigan's Shores of Indian Lake series (which now includes nine books). I haven't read book one (or any of the other books), so I struggled a bit with all of the characters. Not only are there many plot threads going on, but the story is told from many, many perspectives. You'd expect to read things from the main characters' points of view, but Mrs. Beabots? Some lady named Louise? Every time the book shifted to a perspective that wasn't Nate's or Maddie's, I was jarred out of the story. I would've enjoyed the book more had it been only told from two points of view.

I loved reading about Maddie's quest to franchise her Cupcakes and Coffee Cafe. The whole process was fascinating—and complicated, as Alex, the investment firm employee helping her secure an investor, had more that business on his mind. Then, just as everything seemed to be going right with Maddie's business (and with Alex), her ex-boyfriend Nate showed up. The scene where Maddie first saw Nate was one of my favorites in the whole book 🙂.

While I was interested in the romance, the love triangle drove me a bit crazy. Love triangles are never my favorite, but I don't mind them if they're done well—especially if it's not completely obvious which two should end up together. In Heart's Desire, there's never a doubt that Maddie should choose Nate ... and I highly disliked the way she carried on with both men. I also didn't like her indecision after she made her decision. I just wanted to grab her and say, "If you're not sure, take your time! No rush!"

Obviously, I had a few issues with this novel, but overall, I did enjoy the story. And I'm super excited that it's soon to be a Hallmark movie! (You can see a preview here.) 3 stars.

 Content note: The Harlequin Heartwarming line, of which Heart's Desire is a part, promises clean romances—no explicit sex or language and traditional values. These are not inspirational romances, so they won't include much mention of God or faith. Heart's Desire does use "God" as an expletive a couple times. Overall, though, I consider these romances to be the book equivalent of Hallmark movies ... which is particularly fitting in the case of Heart's Desire!

 Book note: Heart's Desire is being re-released as The Sweetest Heart (to match the name of the Hallmark movie) next week.

Other Books in the Series


About the Author

Catherine Lanigan is the international bestselling and award-winning author of over forty-five published titles in both fiction and non-fiction, including the novelizations of Romancing the Stone and The Jewel of the Nile. Ms. Lanigan’s novels have been translated into over twenty-four languages. Lanigan was tasked by the NotMYkid foundation to pen a collection of compelling and informative true stories of teen addicts. Ms. Lanigan’s SHORES OF INDIAN LAKE series for HARLEQUIN HEARTWARMING includes LOVE SHADOWS, HEART’S DESIRE , A FINE YEAR FOR LOVE, KATIA’S PROMISE, FEAR OF FALLING, SOPHIE’S PATH, PROTECTING THE SINGLE MOM, FAMILY OF HIS OWN, HIS BABY DILEMMA, TOO CLOSE TO THE FIRE (2018) and MY RACING HEART (2019).

The Hallmark Channel will air HEART’S DESIRE on March 17, 2018.

Ms. Lanigan is a frequent speaker at literary functions and book conventions as well as inspiring audiences with her real stories of angelic intervention from her Angel Tales series of books. She is an outspoken advocate for domestic violence and abuse and was honored by The National Domestic Violence Hotline in Washington, D.C. She has been a guest on numerous radio programs including “Coast to Coast” and on television interview and talk show programs as well as blogs, podcasts and online radio interview programs. She writes a monthly blog for Heartwarmingauthors.blogspot.com. Visit her at www.catherinelanigan.com, on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter@cathlanigan.com, Pinterest, Goodreads and Google+.


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Ends March

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free through Prism Book Tours. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."
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