The blog has been very quiet recently while I finished up the yearbook. (Ah, the life of a yearbook advisor!) Fortunately, I submitted it last Friday--a whole four days early!--so I'm back, and I'll have several reviews posting this week! First up is the third book in Janice Thompson's delightful Brides with Style series, Every Bride Has Her Day.Katie's determined to make it down the aisle this time--but it may be easier said than done
Katie Fisher is ecstatic. Pro basketball star Brady James has proposed, and she can't wait to start planning their life together. But it's hard to focus on her own happily ever after when her calendar is filling up with celebrations for friends and family. Beyond that, it seems everyone around her has an opinion--and a strong one at that--on what Katie's special day should look like. Will she ever manage to settle all of the details for her storybook wedding? Or will her overzealous friends and relations make a mess of everything?
In Every Bride Has Her Day, Katie and Brady are headed toward their wedding day ... but everyone in Katie's life seems to know what that day should look like, and Katie's having a hard time standing up for herself. At first, I feared the theme of the book would be Katie letting everyone walk all over her while she tried to plan her big day (I recently read a book like this, and it drove me crazy); fortunately, that was not the case. Katie rather quickly--and with the help of Brady and her grandmother Queenie--stood up for herself and told everyone what she expected for her wedding. That's not to say it was smooth sailing to the altar, but the focus quickly moved from everyone trying to plan Katie's wedding to something else: romance.
In the first two books in this series (which you really should read before reading Every Bride Has Her Day), Thompson set up several secondary romances, and in this book, every single one (plus some others) took several steps forward. I especially loved seeing where love took Katie's aunt Alva, and it was nice to watch Brady's mother Nadia get another chance at love.
While I enjoyed most of the romances, this does lead to the one thing I didn't like about the book: everyone (and I do mean everyone) either got their happily ever after or was headed well on their way to one. I know, I know: romance novels aren't meant to be realistic, and we always want them to end happily. But much is made of Jane, a bridal shop employee who is really struggling with the fact that everyone else is either married, engaged, or in a relationship headed toward marriage. Through her characters, Thompson gives some really good advice to women like me who are still waiting for that happily ever after. Jane takes this advice to heart and comes to terms with her singleness. And then ... almost immediately after she lets go of her bitterness about being single, she meets a man. Maybe it's the cynical singleton in me, but I would have appreciated her story much more if a man hadn't dropped into her lap nearly immediately after she realized it was OK to be single.
Aside from that one thing, though, I loved Every Bride Has Her Day. It's full of both humor (usually having to do with Katie's dad) and heartwarming moments that made me tear up. This whole series has been great, and Every Bride Has Her Day is a wonderful way to wrap it up. 4 stars.
Buy the book.
Read my reviews of Thompson's Brides with Style novels Every Bride Needs a Groom (4 stars) and Every Girl Gets Confused (4 stars), her wedding stories A Bouquet of Love (4 stars) and Never a Bridesmaid (4-1/2 stars) and her Titanic romance Queen of the Waves (4-1/2 stars).
Janice Thompson is a seasoned romance author and screenwriter. An expert at pulling the humor from the situations we get ourselves into, Thompson offers an inside look at the wedding business, drawing on her own experiences as a wedding planner. She is the author of the hugely popular Weddings by Bella series and the Backstage Pass series, as well as Picture Perfect, The Icing on the Cake, and The Dream Dress. She lives in Texas. Learn more at www.janiceathompson.com.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Revell through the Revell Reads program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Also, some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."
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