The Wedding Date
Author: Jasmine Guillory
Reviewer: Jen
Rating: C+
What I’m Talking About:
Alexa is on her way to visit her out-of-town sister. Drew is in town for a wedding. The pair get trapped for a short time in an elevator, and they hit if off immediately. While there is definitely mutual desire, both enjoy the easy banter more than anything. So when Drew asks Alexa to be his date for the wedding, she agrees. What happens next is an intense attraction that neither is prepared for.
The Wedding Date is a cute story about two successful individuals trying to find their way through life and love. While the premise is adorable and totally up my alley, I really struggled with the characters and overall execution. For the most part, I loved Alexa. She’s real. She works hard, loves her job, has fun, and lives life. She’s smart and successful – both main characters are – so that’s why I was frustrated with the fact that both Drew and Alexa have the emotional maturity of teenagers. They have no self-confidence when it comes to relationships, and they are constantly second guessing and looking for hidden meanings in actions and words (or the absence of either). It’s exhausting. They don’t communicate at all, which I get happens in real life, but I don’t read romances to see an accurate reflection of real life. The conflict in the story was driven by the insecurities of the characters.
I was also frustrated with the amount of off-page action. And I’m not just referring to sex. Although, I have to admit, sometimes it was so behind-closed-doors that I missed the fact they even had sex. But In general, there are too many scenes like this one:
On the way back to his apartment, they drove by the Santa Monica Pier.
“I haven’t been there since I was a kid,” she said. “It was always so fun.”
An SUV pulled out of a parking spot ahead of him, and he made a snap decision.
“No time like the present.” He reversed into the spot and grabbed her hand. “Let’s go.”
When they got back to his apartment, they were both giddy, sunburned, and exhausted.
If it was such a great getting-to-know you experience that helped the couple grow closer, why not share it with the reader? Scenes like this did nothing but aggravate me after a while.
Then comes the last 10% of the book. IT WAS PHENOMENAL! Alexa and Drew own up to their feelings and COMMUNICATE. They take risks and do something. This part of the story is full of emotion, with a strong storyline. It’s just too bad the whole book wasn’t written this way.
In the end, I enjoyed The Wedding Date, the debut title from Ms. Guillory; however, it took me a while to get through the book. Unfortunately, both main characters suffer from bad choices and a significant lack of confidence, which is what drives the conflict, something I didn’t care for. There are moments of good sprinkled throughout the story, and the last 10% or so is wonderful.
My Rating: C+ Liked It, but I had issues
About the Book:
A groomsman and his last-minute guest are about to discover if a fake date can go the distance in a fun and flirty debut novel.
Agreeing to go to a wedding with a guy she gets stuck with in an elevator is something Alexa Monroe wouldn’t normally do. But there’s something about Drew Nichols that’s too hard to resist.
On the eve of his ex’s wedding festivities, Drew is minus a plus one. Until a power outage strands him with the perfect candidate for a fake girlfriend…
After Alexa and Drew have more fun than they ever thought possible, Drew has to fly back to Los Angeles and his job as a pediatric surgeon, and Alexa heads home to Berkeley, where she’s the mayor’s chief of staff. Too bad they can’t stop thinking about the other…
They’re just two high-powered professionals on a collision course toward the long distance dating disaster of the century–or closing the gap between what they think they need and what they truly want…
Release Date: January 30, 2018
Publisher: Berkley
Series: Standalone
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Format(s): paperback (320 pages), e-book
Book Source: Publisher/NetGalley
Purchase Info:
Amazon