Deeply Desperately by Heather Webber

Deeply, Desperately: A Lucy Valentine Novel
Author:  Heather Webber
Publisher:  St. Martin's
Publication Date:  August 3, 2010

The irrepressible star of Truly, Madly, is back in business. This time, Lucy Valentine will go to the ends of the earth to find true love for her clients…and maybe even herself.

Lucy wants to breathe new life into her family’s Boston-based matchmaking company. But how? Even though she comes from a long line of ancestors blessed by Cupid with psychic abilities, a freak accident left Lucy with only one special skill: finding things. Car keys, socks in the dryer, needles in haystacks...and now, in a stroke of professional genius, lost loves!

It’s not long before Lucy’s on a winning streak, helping old flames reunite and create new sparks. Business is booming. But when Lucy finds herself involved in a possible case of murder, she realizes she’s in too deep. Enter Sean Donahue. Lucy’s handsome fire-fighter turned private-eye neighbor, Sean is just the man she needs to help her on the job. Could he also be the man she’s been looking for all along? When it comes to Valentine, Inc., falling in love is always serious business…

My thoughts ~

When I found out that Heather Webber was not continuing the Nina Quinn series I wanted to cry. It was one of the first cozy books I had read, and I loved the entire series. I was sad to see it end. BUT, luckily for me, and the rest of her fans, she has since brought us Lucy Valentine. And boy, do I love Lucy!

While Lucy does not possess the same talents as her father in being able to read people’s auras and know who they will best match with romantically, she does have her own special gift. She is able to find lost things, simply by holding the hand of the person that has lost them. She has turned her gift of finding lost items into finding Lost Loves, a new department for the family’s matchmaking business Valentine, Inc. Will Lucy be able to find the lost loves of her first two clients? Clients who could not be more different. First is Faye the distraught mother, brought to her via the police, who is looking for her daughter that went missing two years ago, presumed dead at the hands of her cop husband. Then there is the ever so adorable elderly gentleman Leo, who is looking for the love of his life, the woman he lost so many years ago. As if these two cases aren’t enough to keep Lucy busy, she’s also dealing with a father who has started acting very peculiarly, harassing/threatening letters she has begun to receive in the mail, a mother and grandmother who have exposed more than they should, a budding (gasp) friendship with reporter Preston Bailey, and Marisol’s quest to turn them into PI’s to prove that Em’s fiancé is no good for her. Then there is her new escalating  relationship with Sean. A relationship, that while she wants to take it to the next level, is afraid to because she fears it will fall prey to Cupid’s Curse (well that and they can't seem to "get together.")

One of the things I love best about this book is that fact that it’s set in Boston, and that I can picture myself in each and every setting. For me, it helps me feel even more a part of the book, as if I’m taking each step with the characters. However, even if this book had not been set in Boston, I would still have found myself deeply entrenched in it. While this is the second book in the series, see Truly, Madly: A Novel, it can be read as a stand alone (but you really shouldn't miss the first one).  There is never a dull moment in Deeply, Desperately, nor is everything what it appears to be. Just when you think you’ve got something figured out, you should think again. This book has everything a great book should have ~ fun, romance, psychic ability, mystery, humor and a quirky cast of characters that you’ll fall in love with immediately. The only problem I have with this book is that it ended and that I’m going to have to wait until February to find out what the Lovable Lucy gets herself into next in Absolutely, Positively: A Lucy Valentine Novel.

FCC Full Disclosure ~ I received this book from Romance Book Tours