Listen to Your Heart

by Fern Michaels

The latest book from New York Times bestselling author Fern Michaels is a mysterious story of love, family and triumph.Orphaned twin sisters Josie and Kitty Parsons operate a successful catering business in New Orleans. Kitty, the cook, is engaged to be married. Josie runs the business, writes a popular food column for the local newspaper, adores her white Maltese dog, Rosie, and misses her mother. Josie is also hoping for love.

But when a drop-dead handsome business tycoon's huge Boxer, Zip, dashes up onto her porch and instantly bonds with Rosie, Josie is thrown for a loop. Fortunately, her mother is "up there", watching out for her...and sending her subtle messages. If Josie listens to her heart -- and to her mother -- maybe she'll find that dream love she always hoped for.

Listen to Your Heart is an inspirational, heart-warming book that is perfect for Mother's Day -- and beyond.

Genres: Romance, Fiction, Contemporary, Audiobook, Contemporary Romance, Mystery, Dogs

223 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2000

About the author

Fern Michaels isn’t a person. I’m not sure she’s an entity either since an entity is something with separate existence. Fern Michaels® is what I DO. Me, Mary Ruth Kuczkir. Growing up in Hastings, Pennsylvania, I was called Ruth. I became Mary when I entered the business world where first names were the order of the day. To this day, family and friends call me Dink, a name my father gave me when I was born because according to him I was ‘a dinky little thing’ weighing in at four and a half pounds. However, I answer to Fern since people are more comfortable with a name they can pronounce.

As they say, the past is prologue. I grew up, got a job, got married, had five kids. When my youngest went off to Kindergarten, my husband told me to get off my ass and get a job. Those were his exact words. I didn’t know how to do anything except be a wife and mother. I was also a voracious reader having cut my teeth on The Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, Cherry Ames and the like. The library was a magical place for me. It still is to this day. Rather than face the outside world with no skills, I decided to write a book. For some reason that didn’t intimidate me. As my husband said at the time, stupid is as stupid does. Guess what, I don’t have that husband any more. Guess what else! I wrote 99 books, most of them New York Times Best Sellers.

Moving right along here . . . Several years ago I left Ballantine Books, parted company with my agent, sold my house in New Jersey that I had lived in all my married life and in 1993 moved to South Carolina. I figured if I was going to go through trauma let it be all at one time. It was a breeze. The kids were all on their own at that point. The dump was a 300 year old plantation house that is listed in the National Registry that I remodeled. Today it is beyond belief as are the gardens and the equally old Angel Oaks that drip Spanish moss. Unfortunately, I could not get my ghost to relocate. This ghost has been documented by previous owners. Mary Margaret as we call her, is “a friendly”. She is also mischievous. It took me two weeks to figure out that she didn’t like my coffee cups. They would slide off the table or counter or else they’d break in the dishwasher. I bought red checkered ones. All are intact as of this writing. She moves pillows from one room to the other and she stops all the clocks in the house at 9:10 in the a.m. at least once a week. When the Azaleas are in bloom, and only then, I find blooms on my night stand. I have this glorious front porch and during the warm months I see my swing moving early in the morning when the air is still and again late in the day. She doesn’t spook the dogs. I always know when she’s around because the five of them line up and look like they’re at a tennis match. As of this writing we’re co-habiting nicely.

Most writers love what they do and I’m no exception. I love it when I get a germ of an idea and get it down on paper. I love breathing life into my characters. I love writing about women who persevere and prevail because that’s what I had to do to get to this point in time. It’s another way of saying it doesn’t matter where you’ve been, what matters is where you’re going and how you get there. The day I finally prevailed was the day I was inducted into the New Jersey Literary Hall of Fame. For me it was an awesome day and there are no words to describe it.
I’ve been telling stories and scribbling for 37 years. I hope I can continue for another 37 years. It wasn’t easy during some of those years. As I said, I had to persevere. My old Polish grandmother said something to me when I was little that I never forgot. She said when God is good to you, you have to give back. For a while I didn’t know how to do that. When I finally figured it out I set up The Fern Michaels® Foundation.

READ FERN MICHAELS' FULL BIOGRAPHY HERE: http://www.fernmichaels.com/biography/

Reviews

[Elena · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is how it starts off: The hero comes to heroine's place with his big dog who makes a mess. Her dog jumps at the man's throat and the heroine verbally attacks the poor man, threatening him with a gun because his dog ripped up her dog's toy?!!?!?!?!?
Ummmm ok ?! Starts off DEMENTED!

Another thing - i am actually listening to the AudioBook > the narrator sounds like she has a speech impediment (i'm really sorry and no offence meant-i've listened to her before and she did NOT sound like this!!!) This was just ridiculous > every single "ir" and "er" is pronounced as "oy" > so "first" is "foyst", "birth" is "boyth" , "perfect" is "poyfect", etc.... I keep thinking this is done on purpose as a joke, but this is not even true to the southern accent ... IT KEPT ANNOYING ME THE WHOLE TIME (first time this ever happened)... :(((

Ok, more than half of book in now... Why is he mugged and does not call anyone for 2 weeks?! He can't even use the telephone himself, the nurse has to make calls for him, but he won't even let her tell people what happened and where he is?! And his stupid friend going to pick up Zip > who just steals someone else's dog from their back yard?! "oh there is two of them, well i'll just take you both home" > what?!?!

So i'm just gonna keep on rambling...
What's with the old women coming to cook for Josie/Kitty's catering for free? Why would anyone do this?! And why was Josie thinking that this was such a great idea (not pay for another cook, but get some old ladies to work for free)? Sounds ridiculous, esecially since one of the ladies is PAYING Josie to organize/cater the Mardi Gras party for her...

"Where did you get that dress? Taiwan?!" >> WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?! That would be deserving of a kick in my book!

"Russle up some food, woman, i'm starving!" >>> YOU ARE 3 HOURS LATE FOR A DATE AND NOW INSTEAD OF TAKING HER OUT, YOU ARE DEMANDING SHE COOK YOU FOOD?!?!?!?!?! What a freakin' gentleman.... !

Josie talking to her dead mom started off as an interesting touch in the book, but then i think it just took over everything else. From a quirky heroine, Josie transforms into a nut-job! She constantly talks to her dead mom and it just kept creeping me out!!!

They are getting married after 2 dates?!?!?! A very unbelievable relationship, without any chemistry or foundations... I could not see Paul and Josie together at all... Very little time was spent on describing their relationship! There were more pages spent on Josie talking to her mother's ghost than her future husband!!!

Estranged niece with a deaf kid?! Bad touch... Really not appropriate for this silly book... Making light of every issue is just not ok, no matter how stupid the book is, it's not ok to make it seem like money fixes everyone's problems... some things are just inappropriate... And I just loved how this "niece" (after all these years of not caring or contacting her family) picks up and packs up her kid in literally under 10 minutes when she;s told that they will be taken care of financially!!!!

Finally his bi*ch mother has the audacity to say "I have never stopped loving you , son, but that love was locked up in my heart, hidden away, believing that someday when I was ready I could open it up and you would come running to me with open arms" >> when you are ready to love your kid?!?!?! WHEN YOU ARE READY?!?!?!?!?

Overall impression: "Stupid book that all of a sudden wanted to be serious, by introducing emotional issues, death of parents, not being able to let go of deceased family members, family estrangement, hearing impairment, poverty, betrayal... etc"

[LINDA BOURG · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven't read anything by Fern Michaels in quite a while. I chose this book because it was written about New Orleans and i am from Louisiana. I enjoyed the story line , Kitty and Jose Dupre' take over the family catering business. It was nice to read about the recipes they served because it is on point with all the cajun dishes they would prepare. This book had a slight touch of paranormal to it, being that the girls mother died and they didn't get to say a proper goodbye to her. The scent of lillies of the valley, pearl necklaces and a woman in a pink dress flashing by now an then. I enjoyed the way Josie talked to her deceased mother and asked for her opinion on things. Throw in the cute puppy dogs that can't be separated and the man of her dreams and you have a wonderful little love story also. I enjoyed this book, it was a little slow at first but then i began to relate to the story a little more.

[Arlith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of it envolves people chasing after their dogs. The two dogs like each other, so the dog's owners fall in love. There's a touch of supernatural stuff about this too...her dead mother's perfume can be smelled sometimes. To me, this book was trying to be too many things, and didn't suceed with any of them.

[Sheila Samuelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating: 5 Stars!!
Review:
Even tho this was the 4th Novel ive read by Fern i have to say this one is My 2nd Favorite by her with "To Have and To Hold" being My First.

The Characters were fun and enjoyable to read about. Josie was definately my favorite with her Determination and Spunkiness.

The Setting was beautifully described which made me feel like i was actually in New Orleans while reading especially when the scenery was described.

Overall a Good Contemporary Novel!! Can't wait to read more by Fern in the future!!

[Cyndy Aleo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fern Michaels has been a bestselling romance author for decades, and I hadn't read a single one of her books. With Listen to Your Heart , I can now say I have read one of her books. I don't expect that number to increase any time soon.

Listen to Your Heart is set in a pre-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, which Michaels insists on calling N'Awlins for at least the first half of the book, in case you don't understand that people from Louisiana have an accent. (NOTE MY BLANK AND POINTED STARE). She introduces twins Josie and Kitty who are running their parents' catering business, by having a potential client attacked by Josie's dog. The stilted dialogue of this meeting should have been a warning to me, but I soldiered on; Michaels is fond of short, declarative sentences in huge, rambling chunks that would have even a native New Yorker hard-pressed to repeat aloud without fainting for lack of oxygen.

Naturally, as this is a romance novel, Josie is attracted to the potential client, as shown by her insta-hate, which is actually insta-love. After their dogs have several more madcap meetings, the two finally have a date where we realize that the insta-hate is in fact, insta-love, which is a good thing, because it's the last date for quite some time. In between Date One and Date Two, Paul is mugged in NYC (of course, because Central Park during the day even in 2000 was a thug-filled crime epicenter), can't call anyone for two weeks (the nurses do it for him because... nurses have time to make phone calls for patients? The hell?), and then finally returns home, shows up three hours late for Date Two, and proposes.

I can tell you, were this to happen in my real life, Paul would not see the light of day. However, Michaels believes this is twu wuv and you can guess what happens next.

Of course, there's more to this: a convoluted plot involving one of the wealthy members of "N'Awlins" society that you can see the resolution to coming from ten miles away, with Michaels practically shouting it with a bullhorn. Even that sub-plot has several plot holes and a quick happy ending tie-up that had me rolling my eyes.

The prose itself is readable, and I bumped it up a half-star simply because I managed to get through the whole thing without flouncing, which was dicey at times. Several times. Many several times. Romance has come a long way in the past 12 years, and anyone who doubts it should read this book. Make note of the mango use. You'll thank me later.

[Nancy Rushing · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very cute book. Just adorable. Really like Fern Michaels books. ❤️

[Julie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I bought this book as a $0.99 deal for my Kindle and was excited to finally something of Fern Michaels' books. I love it when I find an author who has a ton of books that I haven't read yet.

Unfortunately, this book was so scattered and haphazard that it became a joke! There were just too many situations in the book that didn't make sense and made the book terrible. (Perhaps the biggest blunder was Paul meeting his long-lost niece and sweeping her away from her home. Who in their right mind would just say "ok" and take their son to go live with a stranger? And the twins double wedding - CORNY!)

After reading this book, I want my $0.99 back as well as the time I wasted I reading it. Also, I have vowed never to pick up any of Fern Michaels' books again.

[Bronwyn Rykiert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not one of Fern Michael's best effor but it is an okay read.

Josie and Kitty Depre are twins who live in New Orleans and they have been left a catering business by their parents. Kitty is the cook and Josie does the rest as she cannot cook. Kitty is about to get married and Josie realises that she be on her own then.

Bargining Into her life comes entrepreneur Paul Brouillette when his boxer goes through their screen door after her maltese terrier. The dogs fall in love instantly and are hard to part, their owners take a little longer and the story to getting there could have been better.

[Kailey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Listen To Your Heart is a book about food, interior design, clothes, and dogs with a dash of the characters doing something. It’s mostly about food and dogs though.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although written in the early 1990s, the main character, Josie, and her twin sister, Kitty, both read like "modern 1970s women." Seriously submissive and rather naïve. Josie meets Paul when their dogs, Rosie and Zip, run into each other and immediately fall in love (the dogs, not the people). In working out ways to make their dogs happy, the two eventually fall in love.

Okay - what I didn't really care for: submissive females. Paul and Josie decided they were in love and getting married after spending less than a week of time together (although more time passed).

What was keep-able: the dog romance. It was pretty cute.

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn’t my usual type of book that I read, but I got it from my sister Rosemary. It is about 2 sisters who run a catering company in New Orleans having taken over from their parents who are now both deceased. The one sister is engaged and the other still single, feisty and a no-nonsense woman.

Turned out to be a very charming book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Good to reach beyon your comfort read.

[Linda Newbern · Rating 5 out of 5]

New Orleans heat

I’ve never read a Fern Michael’s book that I didn’t love and this one is no exception. A truly sweet story about love, loss and listening to what your hear tells you. Paul and Josie were drawn together by their dogs, but their hearts spoke to them as well. I happily recommend this book to those who believe in fate, love and listening to their heart.

[Sophia Samuda · Rating 5 out of 5]

As usual couldn't put it down. Would you believe I read two Fern Michael's book in a day😊

Can't get enough of Fern Michaels. Always a good read. Looking for another to read now. So many to choose from

[Paulette Laurent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Listen to your heart

Lived it written about New Orleans my home. town so really enjoyed it. Live the characters
Love the story line. hope there is more about
These characters in the future

[Tracy L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent book by Mrs. Michaels. Great story line! I was a little disappointed at the beginning on Paul’s reaction to Josie and Rosie. He never asked her the question, he actually went to her place to talk to her about. The ending was amazing! A storybook ending!

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not one of the better books by FM that I have read, but entertaining still...

[Ginger Mcclintick · Rating 5 out of 5]

She is such a good author loved the story it was another good book by her.

[baby doll · Rating 5 out of 5]

beautiful. my favorite book. cried 3 times.

[Gwen Hight · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listen To Your Heart

A very good story about love and family and friends and dogs that are s so different but so in love

[Janiece Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful read!

I am sure you will enjoy this book. As you know Fern
Michaels is a great author. Enjoy reading this one!

[Barbara Casteel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Barb

Thought it different reading !I enjoy reading all different authors ,but also my favorite ones. Like Fern Michael. Keep them coming!

[Allen Wing · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked thebook

I liked this book will read mothers of please send the same want right now but I'll get 50and e

[Furkan Bozdag · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't like it. It was boring and their expressions were very complicated

[Deanna Detloff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Learn to listen

I really liked I was sure what it was going to be about but it kept me interested and it had it’s funny spots & I liked the dogs in it also. Great fast read.

[Phylisha Stone · Rating 2 out of 5]

OK read. Seemed a little choppy and slow.

[Sue Perkinson Hawkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another exciting and romantic book

[Heidi Larson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A true hallmark movie book.

[Mary Lou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fern Michael is always and enjoyable read.

[Gloria Richman]

Gloria’s

[Michelle Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Classic romantic story that Fern is known for ♥️.