What's Next, Wednesday (47)

•  To play along share a book you've been looking forward to reading, whether it's new or has been on your reading list for a while.

I'm looking forward to...

M.A.R.R.I.E.D. by Lindsay Marie Miller. This book is a sequel to a book I reviewed last year, S.I.N.G.L.E. I'm interested to see the 'happily ever after' Jessie and Graham are finally together and their wedding is on the horizon, but it doesn't seem like they'll make it down the aisle before a few stumbles. The first book was a little repetitious in its events, so we'll see how this one goes. 

Always the Designer

"It’s taken Audrey Regan years to establish herself as a wedding dress designer, and to date she’s been roped into creating dresses for nine of her girlfriends. Request #10 follows her vow to “Just say no!” and comes from her very best friend. She can hardly turn Carly down!          

Audrey arrives in Atlanta early to perform all of her maid-of-honor duties along with final fittings for a one-of-a-kind dress. But Carly’s wedding is nothing short of an event, complete with Prince Charming, and the festivities make Audrey question whether there’s a prince of her own anywhere in her future.   

Enter the groom’s brother and best man. Shaggy-haired, tattooed bad boy J.R. Hunt couldn’t be any more different from Prince Charming if he rode in on a Harley Davidson.  Oh, wait. He actually did ride in on a Harley!" - Amazon Blurb

*May Contain Spoilers*

After absolutely loving the first two novels in the "Never the Bride" series by Sandra D. Bricker, I knew that I could not resist Always the Designer, Never the Bride. And happily, I was right. (This doesn't happen as often as I would like...)

Everyone from The Tanglewood Inn is back in this side-splitting-hilarious, romantically involved novel. For the first time in the series, the main character is not previously connected with anyone at the dream-wedding destination hotel. It was incredibly refreshing to see Bricker bring in outsiders and throw them in with the crazy crew of The Tanglewood. 

Audrey is the new main character, though Bricker does a great job at sharing the stage with the other characters. Audrey has always wanted to be a designer and nothing has stopped her from pursuing her goal, but it seems as if the last thread of her career is about to be severed. 

Readers will connect with Audrey through her success and failure at doing what she loves. This passion to obtain her dream job is something everyone can relate with and Bricker does a fantastic job at making sure that happens. As Bricker throws roadblock after roadblock at Audrey, her friends and new acquaintances make sure she knows that she can't give up. 

Did I mention there's a love story involved? Could you tell from the cover or the blurb above? :) I absolutely adore the way that Bricker tells a love story. It never seems cheesy or forced. She doesn't go over the top. It's all in all a simple lovely love story. Though, I have to admit that when I was nearing the end of the novel, I had no idea how Bricker was going to tie up all the loose ends. 

The only thing that bothered me was that I waited too long between this novel and the first two. It was hard remembering the characters and the references Bricker makes to past stories. But that's my own fault... 

However, this novel completely met my expectations and if you haven't read the first two in the series, I highly recommend them. These three books combined will have you laughing out loud and making new friends for life while also enjoying the free recipes included in every novel. 

Always the Designer, Never the Bride

on Amazon

rating: 4/5 cups

See also:

            Always the Baker,                         Always the Wedding Planner,

Never the Bride                                    Never the Bride

Espresso Shot

zole4

"Coffeehouse manager Clare Cosi rarely gets steamed. But ever since her ex-husband announced his plans to remarry, she's been making some vows of her own...

Roped into creating a gourmet coffee and dessert bar for her ex-husbands's wedding, Clare faces off with the bride-to-be. Wealthy and sophisticated, the snarky Breanne has never been a low maintenance kind of gal, and now she's in full blown bridezilla mode. The only way Clare can possibly deal with her is to focus on business. But murder is Claire's business, too, and when fatal accidents begin befalling people close to Breanna, Clare become suspiscious.

Is someone trying to sabotage this wedding? Kill Breanna? Clare decides to investigate. But what she uncovers, between steaming cappuccinos and roasting the world's rarest coffee beans, may just get her burned..."

* * 

Espresso Shot, by Cleo Coyle (pseudonym), is one novel in the coffeehouse mystery series. The book takes place in New York City, specifically around the Village Blend (Clare's coffee shop) stationed in Greenwich Village. 

Clare and her ex-husband, Matteo (aka Matt), run the coffee shop together. Clare acts as manager while Matt does the coffee exchange leg work. When the book opens it is a week until Matt ties the knot with Breanna, a character most readers would call an uptight selfish b----. 

Most of the characters in this novel are very easy to like, even Matt, though him and Clare have a complicated and distressing past. But Breanne simply is not one of those characters. She sticks to the true form of "bridezilla." 

Paul

Clare was an easy character to connect with. The entire novel was told in her point of view. The flow of the language morphed the novel into a conversation between friends. I felt like Clare was telling me the story, over the phone or in-person. I wasn't reading it, per se, but listening to a friend divulge details of her week. It was a nice change from the "show, not tell" method writers are told to follow. 

The plot of the novel was well thought out. I made a few predictions throughout reading it, but all of them were wrong. Which is great when reading a murder mystery. All of the events happen in a pretty steady pace, so there was no real waiting for the plot to continue, but at points it did seem slower than a murder mystery should have been. However, throughout the novel I never felt the "Omigod what's going to happen? MUST FINISH" sensation like I normally do with novels of this genre. 

                                                                       

    Espresso Shot

                             on Amazon

               
                          rating: 3/5 cups

To the Depths of the Disaster

Emma is two weeks away from the biggest day of her life. Her wedding. Happy with no pre-wedding jitters. Until an unexpected call from her brother forces her home to search for her missing fiance.

The apartment is empty.

Except for her fiance's unconscious brother laying on the bathroom floor covered in blood.

At the hospital, with no word from her fiance, Emma's mind starts to wonder. What could have happened to Dan? Is he missing or did he leave her? Who did this to his brother? Why isn't Dan picking up his cell phone? Emma struggles to find the answers while the questions keep piling up and the police department doesn't want to wait for an explanation - they want to find Dan and arrest him for attempted murder.

Readers find themselves along side Emma, wondering, doubting, creating theories, and hoping against hope that everything really will be all right in the end. Whether warning her or cheering her on, Pilkington pulls the reader in from the get go, never letting off the gas, dragging them down to the depths of Emma's disaster. The One You Love is a mystery novel so well threaded together that when the back cover is closed, the reader feels (more than) accomplished at helping Emma solve it.

The One You Love on Amazon

rating: 4/5 cups