Be My Valentine by Debbie Macomber

Are you looking for a couple of nice Valentine stories to inspire your romantic side on this upcoming holiday? If so, Debbie Macomber has placed two of her stories in one volume and published them under the title "Be My Valentine."

The first story is "My Funny Valentine." Dianne and her children Jason and Jill were abandoned by her husband and father of the children. Dianne has an overbearing mother whose only fault is that she doesn't want to see her daughter lonely and have to raise the children herself. So like any mother, she tries to arrange "dates" for Dianne. With less than stellar results, the children try to find a man for their mother too. Its just days before the big community center dinner, and Dianne has locked her keys in her car. Does this just turn the key to unlock her bad luck with men.

She meets Steve Creighton, a tow truck driver. She knows that her back is to the wall to find a date for the dinner. She makes a preposterous offer to him. She will pay him $100 to attend this dinner with her. With her mother and children asking questions as to how they met, she invites Steve to her house for dinner. Of course, he brings the tow truck over and a stuffed animal for the children in order to look good in their eyes. Her demands on him for this one dinner get more and more ridiclous as the story progresses. Will this date just end costing her money or does it open the door to romance and a better future?

They attend the dinner and some startling discoveries are made on the part of Dianne. Some of the things that happen in the context of this book are downright laughable. Surely you have found yourself in some pretty strange circumstances. Telling the ending of the story would make you not want to read it for yourself. But you certainly won't be disappointed in the story.

The second story in this book is called "My Hero." Bailey York is an aspriring romance writer. No matter how many times she revised her manuscript, she just can't seem to get the hero right. So she is in search of finding a real-life hero in order to model for the Michael in her book. It seems as if this man she knows from the subway would have some of the same desired characteristics that she wants for Michael. So she tries chasing him down in order to get to know him.

What she doesn't realize is that their lives, Bailey's and Parker's have definite similarities to Janice and Michael's. They begin to date but they always claim that they are doing "research."
Research takes on many more meanings and they share their deepest secrets. Bailey has rewritten the whole Michael in her story "Forever Yours," but realizes that Janice has some faults now. Or are these faults just Bailey's herself?

This story captivates the romance reader's imagination and it is very difficult to put this book down until you complete it. Flowers and research opportunities will challenge this twice left at the altar female and burned in love man to be saying "Be My Valentine."