In Not As Planned we finally get to the last of the Ladies Who Brunch – Noelle. And just like in Penelope’s story, we see a side of Noelle we haven’t seen before. Remember Noelle is the one who has been uber-focused on having a baby, having a family of her own, and after patiently – and not always so patiently – dating and searching for the right man, someone who wants her and would be a good dad, she decided it was just time to take control of her own destiny. And she did, in a big way. She had baby Scarlett with a surrogate. Officially. Someone whose history and genetics and characteristics she knew, but who she never met. And she’s fine with that, even if not everyone is supportive. (Of course the other Brunch Ladies – Charlotte, Amelia and Penelope – are there for her and always will be.)

Throughout the course of the series so far we’ve seen a Noelle who is frustrated then sad then desperate then resigned then determined and always brave. Now the Noelle we see at the beginning of Not As Planned is fierce and so grateful to have her beautiful baby, but she’s human and we see that she’s also overwhelmed, exhausted, a little resentful and sometimes doubting herself. Her job is going well, Scarlett is healthy and practically perfect, her friends are always there for her but sometimes she feels so alone, so unable to keep up, as if she’s on a treadmill with each day just a repeat of the previous one. Just like a mom. And men? Ha ha ha. What are they? She gave up dating before even having Scarlett and now she wonders how she could find the time or the energy and questions whether anyone would be interested in this woman in mom jeans.

Not so fast. Enter Grant Thomas, dashing airline pilot. Sexy glasses, sexy salt and pepper hair, sexy physique – well, let’s just admit it, sexy everything. Who Noelle stumbles into in the coffee shop line while having an embarrassing wardrobe malfunction. As in falls into. And this sexy sexy sexy sexy man gives her the shirt off his back. Literally. So take a second and swoon now, I know you want to. And then swoon some more when you find out how Scarlett is immediately taken with him, and the feeling is mutual.

Grant is not exactly on the market himself. He would love to have a family of his own. Family is so important to him. He adores his nephews. But he has some past history that has scarred and scared him, and some secrets that he is afraid to share. He doesn’t want to do one-night stands but his flying schedule doesn’t exactly lend itself to a stable, long-term relationship.

There’s a lot of heat in that brief coffee shop encounter but Grant doesn’t get Noelle’s number and is immediately smacking himself in the head over it. But thanks to the wonders of fiction she just happens to be on the plane he’s flying in the next few weeks, and this time he doesn’t hesitate. From there we have a wonderful sweet and romantic story of the push and pull, the attraction versus the fear, the wanting to take it slow but feel so magnetically drawn it’s hard to resist. Some thoughtful, sweet heart-melting moments, some perfect dates, and some confusion and misunderstanding and second-guessing. It’s a delightful story. You’ll have your fingers and toes crossed the entire time you are listening wanting this perfect family to come together, to jump in and do it because the three of them are meant to be. And speaking of listening, this story, and all the stories in the series, are meant to be audiobooks. Everything is sweeter or funnier or steamier when you hear it spoken. For Not As Planned we are lucky to have Connor Crais and CJ Bloom as our exceptional narrators. Once again wonderful pacing and clarity and emotion. I didn’t want my daily walk to end so I could keep listening.

Thanks to Home Cooked Books for an advance listening copy of Not As Planned. This has been such a wonderful series. I have loved every minute of listening. I am fervently hoping that author Harlow James will keep on with more of the wonderful characters we’ve met. I voluntarily leave this review; all opinions are my own. ( )

The heroine has decided to be a mother at her own terms and used a sperm donor to have her beautiful daughter. As a new single parent, the heroine then meets the hero at a coffee shop. The two hits it off, but they also faced obstacles that obstructed their happy ending together. The couple will have to make hard decisions if they want their happy ending to come to fruition.

This is the fourth book in The Ladies Who Brunch series. It features a single mother struggling with new parenthood and a pilot hero who has faced hardships in his past. I enjoyed the sisterhood camaraderie that encompassed this whole series and how each lady are faring in this book. This book also delves into realistic situations that single parents encounter in their lives, which is integral to the new reality that the heroine is doing right now. And it's touching how much the hero has faced in his life, which makes him such a great book boyfriend in this story. There is only a very small part that I felt could have needed more details, but it wasn't detrimental to my enjoyment of the book. Overall, a very solid addition to The Ladies Who Brunch series and I look forward to reading the next book in the future.

**Thanks to the author for the review copy. All opinions and thoughts in the review are my own.** ( )