Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Catch of the Day is a contemporary romance anthology with a wedding theme. This could have been my TBR Challenge read, but since I was already going to read it anyway, it's not.
***½ "Brides Gone Wild" by Cathie Linz.
This is a cute story, set in the same town as Good Girls Do (24th book on the December 2005 list). The heroine is a wedding floral designer in a small town, and her ex returns to town for one of the five weddings on one weekend, and everything's going wrong. I had trouble believing a small town could support a florist that only does weddings, and it didn't have the depth of her full-length book, but it was still fun to read.
***½ "Heaven Can't Wait" by Pamela Clare.
Whew. This one starts in the middle of a sex scene. It actually fits, since the fact that sex is good and easy (too good? too easy?) between them is what prompts the heroine to proclaim a moratorium on sex for the two weeks before the wedding. Which is what made this a less-than-4-star read for me. I've never understood the concept of not having sex when you both want to and there's no legal or moral reason not to. (I realize this makes me sound like a slut. But hey, it worked for me--nearly 22 years of wedded bliss here.) By the end, they do work through some real issues, though, and it was entertaining watching them try to seduce the other into giving in first, even if I didn't like the reason why.
****½ "So Caught up in You" by Beverly Brandt.
I had to double-check the name of the author on this. (Beverly Brandt = Jacey Ford) The story is w/a Beverly Brandt, but it has the adventure and excitement of a Jacey Ford story, not to mention the Rules of Engagement company from Dead Heat (1st book on the March 2006 list). Which is perfectly fine with me. I enjoy this author's writing whichever name she's using. Tasha's sister is getting married in the jungle and she finds out some disturbing information about the wedding coordinator, so she decides to investigate... and finds herself in the middle of human traficking and trying to conceal a dead body. It's fast-paced, fun, and sexy. A lot of story packed into a short novella.
**** "The Wedding Party" by Whitney Lyles.
Call this chick lit instead of romance, and change the last line, and I'll give it an extra half a star. This is a very ambitious story for a novella: Meg's looking forward to her friend's wedding because her ex will be there, and she's decided she made a big mistake in breaking up with him, and he's The One. So she has to deal with her feelings for him, and the difference between her fantasies and reality, as well as dealing with not fitting in with the other bridesmaids and falling in love with someone else. Alternatively, it would be nice to see it expanded into a full-length novel. There's enough material here for it.
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Categories: Books, 4.5stars, 4stars, 3.5stars, ContemporaryRomance
Labels: 3.5 stars, 4 stars, 4.5 stars, books, ContemporaryRomance
