Yes - I just paid 10 donuts to speed mine up. I received hearts and spun the wheel. I won the fountain of love. Don't visit your neighbors until your first rose bush is ready - this is where you earn more hearts.
When you visit your neighbors town's you tap on their characters to earn hearts. At first, you earn 5 hearts per tap (after 30 taps I think it was). Then it lowers to 4 per tap. I haven't gone any further yet so I don't know how soon you reach only 1 per tap. The tapping of character doesn't appear to stop their task. But - you will want to make sure your characters are doing tasks outside so your neighbors can see them and tap on them.