Acquired Book By: I started hosting with Prism Book Tours at the end of [2017], having noticed the badge on Tressa’s blog (Wishful Endings) whilst I was visiting as we would partake in the same blog tours and/or book blogosphere memes. I had to put the memes on hold for several months (until I started to resume them (with Top Ten Tuesday) in January 2018). When I enquried about hosting for Prism, I found I liked the niche of authors and stories they were featuring regularly. I am unsure how many books I’ll review for them as most are offered digitally rather than in print but this happily marks one of the blog tours where I could receive a print book for review purposes. Oft-times you’ll find Prism Book Tours alighting on my blog through the series of guest features and spotlights with notes I’ll be hosting on behalf of their authors.
I received a complimentary copy of “Forever A Father” direct from the author Lynne Marshall in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Why I wanted to read this story:
Even before I started reading the story, I appreciated what was being disclosed in the Author’s Note as I love reading all the little ‘extras’ included with stories. Harlequin puts these notes right at the beginning of the books – this way, it feels like you personally know a bit of keen insight about the characters, the setting or the thread of narrative your about to embark inside! Before I mention what warmed my heart about the note itself – I wanted to say, I love reading about families. Either the traditional kind or the unconventional – I love when people come together where love is concerned and where children also play a part in their story.
This novel is about a single Mum and her daughter, Anna whose become smitten with her boss, the doctor; in of itself, this was enough to draw my eye into wanting to read the book! I love second chance romances and new beginnings – those two themes are some of the most uplifting to be reading and this is why I love seeking them out! I also, was thankfully remembering to ‘double-check’ if this was a series in-progress or one which was just about to begin: cheers, dear hearts, Jorie finally finds a ‘first’ of a series for Harlequin! Laughs with mirth.
Now, back to the author’s note – my smile grew as I read Keela is from Ireland and the doctor is one of three brothers of whom has a family who owns one of the hotels at this seaside slice of paradise! I oft wondered what it would be like to live so close to the ocean – of hearing the serenity of that setting as the waves crash and the gulls cry. The saltiness of the air and the fact, your never in wont for conversation as there is a high volume of people constantly coming and going. All in, you can see what was so very tempting for me to be reading this novel!
PS: Isn’t the cover art delightful? You can almost see why Anna felt such a strong kinship with the doctor and he to her – he had a natural instinct for children even if part of him feared he might not yet be ready for fatherhood (per the extract I recently shared).
Forever A Father
“Will you be my dad?”
Ask me anything but that.
Once upon a time, Dr. Daniel Delaney had it all. But he lost it in the blink of an eye, and he won’t let himself fall again—not even for his dedicated new assistant, Keela O’Mara, and her adorable, lonely little girl, Anna. Resisting a starry-eyed four-year-old is tough enough. Denying her perfect, loving single mom may be more than Daniel can handle…
Places to find the book:
ISBN: 9781335465641
on 22nd February, 2018
Pages: 218
Published by: Special Edition (@HarlequinBooks) | imprint of Harlequin
Formats Available: Ebook and Paperback
Happily there are more installments for this book series:
Soldier, Handyman, Family Man | Synopsis | Pub Day: 20th March, 2018
Reunited with the Sheriff | Synopsis | Pub Day: 17th April, 2018
Converse via: #Contemporary #Romance & #Harlequin
About Lynne Marshall
Lynne Marshall has been traditionally published with Harlequin as a category romance author for more than ten years with over twenty-five books, and more recently with TULE Publishing, she has also gone hybrid with self-publishing. She is a Southern California native, has been married to a New Englander for a long time, and has two adult children of whom she is super proud. She is also an adoring grandmother of two beautiful little girls, a woman of faith, a dog lover, a cat admirer, a meandering walker, a curious traveler, and an optimistic participant in this wild journey called life.
my review of forever a father:
Oy vie. Men! As we first gather our impression about Daniel, we soon learn he has one classic fault most men have along with him: selective hearing and/or listening (honestly, they are quite exchangeable at times!) when it comes to listening to women. It isn’t that they don’t appreciate what we have to share, it’s the fact they get bored I think at times listening to how we discuss things. Men like short conversations, women prefer ‘discussions’ therein lies the root of the issue but in this regard, it is also a fact when it comes to multi-tasking it’s simply not their strong suit!
As there is a sparked conversation between Daniel and Keela about ‘missing supplies’ and you just have to smile – because how realistic is this scene? How many of you can raise your hand and nod along realising the same could be true about a man in your life who didn’t remember or pay attention to something you reminded them about whilst lateron they claim you never told them? I instantly liked Keela – from her calm mannerisms to how she knew instantly how Daniel had forgotten what she had told him! Laughs.
On a serious note, it was quite an interesting back-story to have Daniel move into the medical profession which saved his own athletic career – there is something to be said for how physical medicine and not narcotics have a way of working with the body, allowing it to find ways to self-heal and to re-condition what was injured as a way of bringing forward full recovery. I am a fan of this approach as I think too often doctors would rather prescribe something than take an alternative approach to wellness. I am only too thankful my own father has doctors who listen to their patients and allowed us as a family to approach my father’s recovery (from stroke) to be predominately through natural medicine intervention with just a maintenance of blood pressure medicine.
Ooh, my… the scene I shared in the extract has arrived – it was beyond hilarious! Not only is Anna a very resourceful and self-reliant young girl but Daniel is your typical guy who over-thinks things a bit too much! Anna simply needed a bit of help but here was Daniel – trying to sort out how a child would fit into his schedule, irked she needed him which would distract him from his project and of course, instead of seeing the humour of the situation, you almost felt Daniel was growing more stressed out than what could be considered warranted! On the flipside, I am unsure if Keela knew what she was asking when she wanted Daniel to do her a slight favour in watching Anna! Except to say, Daniel surprised us all in the end!
As you start to learn more about Keela’s past – specifically want led her to move from Ireland to America and the conditions of her divorce, you start to piece together a woman whose tried to keep her chin up whenever life felt like dragging her back down. She’s the kind of Mum you want to rally behind because she’s doing the best she can to do right by Anna whilst trying to maintain her own goodwill and outlook on life. If anything, she simply needed a break and Daniel gave it to her when he hired her so soon after she graduated college. Her story isn’t a rare one but what makes you endeared to her journey is how willing she was to re-invent herself and find a path towards her future when all she had were the uncertainties of how to adapt to a life outside of being married.
Aye. And, there… right as your beginning to feel Daniel was an upstanding kind of bloke he goes off his head and says things in haste which make you question why bothered trying to have this conversation ‘now’ rather than awaiting til ‘later’ when his head wasn’t as emotionally charged! It wasn’t that he said something untrue, it’s simply how he chose to say it! I am thankful Keela was giving him the cold shoulder as to be honest, he truly crossed the line when he tried to make her feel like she’d lose everything she worked towards accomplishing just because life might throw her a few curve balls she wasn’t expecting. In that instance, he was the worst boss you could have because he didn’t take into account real-life difficulties and the unpredictable ways in which mumhood had it’s fair share of challenges which might pop up out of the blue.
I truly love big families in stories – mostly as I came from a smaller close-knit one myself, it makes it fun to read about families which are different from mine. Seeing Daniel next to his brothers, turnt the tables a bit on our perception of him up to this point. You almost had the thought he needed a bit more self-confidence and self-esteem when compared directly to his brothers! I almost wondered if he felt they had something he didn’t yet possess himself? It was rather curious! Also, I loved his grandfather immediately! So charming and his happy spirit is what wins you over as soon as you meet him; plus his admiration for Anna is winsome in itself!
Whoa! I wasn’t quite prepared for the medical emergency that evolves after the meeting of Daniel’s family – I was quite impressed with how detailed it was due to how well executed Ms Marshall relaid the scene as it was unfolding! I used to read and watch a lot of medical dramas – however, in the years since my teens, I’ve found myself recoiling a it from my love of them. I can take small scenes here or there inside the fiction I’m reading but what I appreciated in this novel is how well apt Ms Marshall is for medical narrative! I can see why I spied several Medical Roms on her list of past stories! She truly does have a knack for giving you a surge of emotion in such a short expanse of time on the page!
Your heart truly swells with joy when you see how Daniel surprises Anna for her fifth birthday! It was one of my favourite scenes because it shows the truth about how three strangers: Daniel, Anna and her mother Keela were slowly becoming a family without even realising it.
The joy of reading Forever A Father is watching Daniel start to come out of his self-controlled cocoon – he has been purposefully placing his heart on hold, of downplaying his own needs for finding someone he could trust and for finding a proper way to exit the grief which was starting to overtake his life. In essence, he needed someone like Keela to enter his life – to give him a renewal of hope in finding a woman who could walk with him rather than being too independent to where his help was never needed or wanted. That was part of the key to the message – of finding someone to trust but also, of trusting in them to recognise the needs you have and will not disappoint you if times turn adverse.
on the contemporary writing styling of ms marshall:
Ms Marshall writes this novel as if you’ve previously been introduced to her style – meaning, she has a very distinctive voice in her novel. You can tell she likes writing about her characters – as Daniel has a very self-assured personality straight out of the gate, whilst Keela takes a bit to understand as Daniel is introduced first; as he should be as his family is at the center of this new trilogy. I liked how honest and thoughtful Ms Marshall approached showing how Daniel was not prepared to be involved with a child and how he fought against his own natural instincts to be an engaged participant in the life of a child who was put into his care. He was battling through a lot and Marshall owns this journey of his by revealling how difficult it was for him to adjust to Keela and Anna.
Marshall put down the foundation for the trilogy in this installment – especially as she hinted at Daniel’s brothers needing their own ‘happy ending’ after adversity had also touched their lives. It feels like a trilogy built round the second beginnings each of the boys experience in turn – as one is struggling with PTSD, Daniel has grief and depression to work through and the third brother has his own issues to work through which is why in-part the brothers boomeranged back home. They each needed time to recover and to put their lives back together. It’s touching they would feel comfortable enough to return back to the hotel, to be with their parents and to feel a measurable comfort in being back in their hometown. It speaks to how they were raised and the closeness they feel within their family; plus, coming home is oft an act of healing all of it’s own.
This blog tour is courtesy of: Prism Book Tours
Click through via the badge to find out what else awaits you! 
{SOURCES: Cover art of “Forever A Father”, “Soldier, Handyman, Family Man” & “Reunited with the Sheriff”, book synopsis, author biography, author photograph of Lynne Marshall, Extract for “Forever A Father” and the Prism Book Tours badge were all provided by Prism Book Tours and used with permission. Post dividers & My Thoughts badge by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets embedded by codes provided by Twitter. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: Book Review Banner using Unsplash.com (Creative Commons Zero) Photography by Frank McKenna and the Comment Box Banner.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2018.
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Thank you for the amazingly thorough review. I greatly appreciate it.
Good evening, Ms Marshall,
It was my pleasure! :) I truly love to blog the heart of the stories I am reading – I love sharing an interpersonal journal of thoughts I had whilst I’m reading and this is how I approach how I showcase the stories on my blog. I want my reviews not only be reflective of what I thought or felt as I read but what inspired me as I read the story. I liked finding how you layered your novel dimensionally – especially how you curated such a strong voice for the medical bits as sometimes those are the trickiest portions to come across as authentic and real. I’m thankful you’ve re-visited my blog and had the joy of seeing my notes on behalf of your story! Many blessings to you!