A November Bride - Beth Vogt

In A November Bride, personal chef Sadie McAllister has just been dumped by text. Again.  She grapples with lingering childhood insecurity over the teasing she endured, and wonders if she'll ever find someone who makes her feel beautiful.  Just as she's offered a great job several states away, her long-time friend and serial dater, Erik, asks her out.  On a real date.  Can she trust him?  Will they ruin their friendship?  Or can they build something beautiful out of a lifelong friendship?

I enjoyed Sadie and Erik's story; their friendship and the leap it took to let them move beyond it felt real, and even with the compressed storyline of a novella didn't feel extremely rushed.  As with many of the Year of Weddings novella, I did feel that the wedding itself was forced into a timeslot due to the construct of the series.  While I can appreciate the desire for a short engagement, especially between friends who have known each other so long, going from *just* friends to married in just a month feels incredibly short.  However, I did enjoy the unusual twist to the wedding scene.

I give this novella 3.5 stars; I enjoyed the characters, and their relationship - both as friends and as more.

You can find A November Bride HERE.
You can find the author's website HERE.  This is a new author to me, but one whom I intend to look for again!

I received a copy of this e-book from the publisher, in exchange for my honest review.

October Bride - Katie Ganshert

Emma's dad has terminal cancer, and when she discovers his Bucket List only has 1 item remaining on it, she will do whatever she can to help him complete it.  Only, the last item is to walk her down the aisle, and she's missing a groom to meet at the other end.  When she confesses her wish to her long-time friend, Jake, he offers to be that man for her - a fake wedding to give her dad what he dreams of.  But can Emma follow through?  Can she fool her dad, and her heart, into a fake wedding?

The Year of Weddings series has been a little hit or miss for me, but this one was definitely a hit.  My only problem with it was that I wanted it to be a full novel!  I wanted more of Jake and Emma's story!  While the author managed to not make the story feel overly rushed in so few pages, I really wanted to be able to savor their connection and history, and let it build up to the inevitable ending.  I wanted to get to know the side characters, too - the best friend Lily, the smirky brother Liam - oh and I want their story, too!

As far as novellas go, I give this one 5 stars - It's hard to make a novella compact but satisfying.  I can only hope that the author decides to expand this story though and give us some longer books!

You can find October Bride HERE.
You can find the author's website HERE. (I highly recommend all of her books!)

I received a copy of this e-book from the publisher, in exchange for my honest review.

A March Bride - by Rachel Hauck

Susanna Truitt is a simple girl from Georgia, whose family runs a BBQ shack.  A simple girl, who just happens to be engaged to the king of Brighton.  She knows she loves Nathaniel, but is the life she's meant to live?  Can she be happy so far from her roots and family and friends?  Can Nathaniel make her give up all of the things that make her the woman he fell in love with?

My overall impression of this book was that I liked the characters, but I wanted more story.  Turns out that there is much more to the story, in fact, there's another whole book that comes before this one.  I wish I had read the backstory to Susanna and Nathaniel in Once Upon a Prince before reading A March Bride.  I think I would have appreciated where they'd come from to get where they were at the beginning of this novella.  As it were, it was an awkward way to begin a book and left me feeling like I was trying to catch up.  Even so, I really liked how Susanna took the time to evaluate what made her who she was - was it her country? Was it her career? Was it her family?  How much could she give up and still be who she was?  It felt authentic, and gave depth to her character in this short excerpt of her story.  I really wanted more to the supporting charcters, too; where did the prophetess-like lady in the woods come from? What's her story?  What about Suz's sister and Nathaniel's cousin - will they end up together?  I don't know how much of the Royal Wedding Series features the same cast of characters, but I might have to look into it!

I give this book 3 stars.  I wish I had known that it was just a piece of a bigger story, instead of a short story in its own right, but even so, I was able to enjoy the complexities the characters were forced to consider in such a short time.

You can find A March Bride, the 4th in the Year of Weddings series, HERE.
You can find the author's website HERE.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.

A February Bride - by Betsy St. Armant

Allie comes from a long line of women who believe in breaking a man's heart before they can get hurt.  As much as Allie loves Marcus, she believes that her family history proves that she is incapable of a stable, loving marriage.  So rather than go through a messy, painful divorce later, she chooses to leave him at the altar, for his own good.  A short time later, however, her best friend and ex-fiance's sister, Hanna, brings Allie back into her life, and consequently back into Marcus's.  Can they find a new normal during this time of celebration for Hannah? Can they be friends?

I should have known that a book about a bride, set in February, would lend itself to be sappier than others.  A Valentine's wedding?  Couple's showers?  The book opening with a bride running away?  I found this novella to be the least believable of the Year of Weddings series so far.  With the premise already set in the title, the book only has so many directions it could go, and so it's rather predictable from the outset.  There were just too many convenient twists in this short story for me to get past to enjoy it.  I wish that the aspect of getting past your family's mistakes and generational legacy could have been built up a bit more; I think that could have made for a deeper story, with more room for growth than occurred in this one.

I give this novella 2 stars.  It had potential, but fell a little short for me.

You can find A February Bride HERE.
You can find the author's website HERE.

I received a copy of this e-book from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.

A December Bride - Denise Hunter

Layla O'Reilly has worked hard to make herself acceptable to the people in her town; having lived her life being judged by her neighborhood and her family, she fights to keep up the appearances that will help her new career as a house stager.  When her date falls through to her ex-fiance's wedding, she is forced to accept an offer from his best friend, Seth, so as to not show up alone.  Her desperate plan backfires, however, when Seth announces their engagement to help her save face.  Suddenly, the whole town thinks they're getting married on Christmas Eve, and her business opportunities are expanding.  Can she keep up the farce for the sake of her business?  How can she pretend to be in a relationship with the man who she feels sabotaged her previous engagement?

This novella is short and sweet, yet manage to pack a good bit of character development into a few amount of pages.  We can really feel Layla's need to be accepted by her family and the town, and her desperation to overcome her past and create her own future.  She manages to grow, even in the short amount of time the book covers, to be able to look past her hurt feelings and see that she may have misjudged Seth over his part in her fiance's betrayal.  Layla's cousin, Jessica, only appears briefly in a few scenes, yet the author makes me hate her snootiness.  I was excited to see some familiar characters in this story, Beckett and Madison, from Barefoot Summer, make an appearance - as Beckett is Layla's brother.  Knowing Beckett from the previous novel, I wished for some more depth to their sibling relationship, but that relationship would have been extraneous to the point of this plotline.  Maybe the author will decide to continue these relationships in a later novel - I'd be in for that!

So - another short, sweet romance.  I like romances where the man works to win the woman, and it's not overly sappy or unbelievable.  Seth makes a few grand gestures, but they're not out of line with the the story or his character, and they enhance the plot rather than making me roll my eyes at the over-the-top romantic gestures.  I give this novella 3.5 stars.

A December Bride is the 2nd novella in the Year of Weddings series.  You can find it HERE.
You can find the author's website HERE.

I received this galley from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.