ChickLit – The Book Diva's Reads

2018 Book 38: THE WEDDING DATE by Jasmine Guillory

The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory
ISBN: 9780399587665 (paperback)
ISBN: 9780399587672 (ebook)
ISBN: 9780525530893 (audiobook)
ASIN: B072LT1XT5 (Kindle edition)
Publication date: January 30, 2018
Publisher: Berkley Jove Books

I vow to take thee as my date, to pretend to have and to hold, from rehearsal dinner to reception end, till Sunday do us part.

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 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…

Alexa Monroe is an accomplished young woman and isn’t really looking for a man or a man bringing complications into her life. She’s a lawyer and the chief of staff for the mayor of Berkeley. Dr. Andrew “Drew” Nichols is a pediatric surgeon from the Los Angeles area (miles away from Berkeley). He’s agreed to be a groomsman in his ex-girlfriend’s wedding and at the last minute, his +1 had to cancel out. After a power outage that strands Alexa and Drew in an elevator and the Fairmont, Alexa unwittingly agrees to become Drew’s date for the weekend. Alexa is not the type of person to make spur of the moment decisions especially about a man she doesn’t know, so her behavior is somewhat shocking to all who know her. But she and Drew connect over the weekend in their “pretend” relationship, so much so that Drew reschedules his flight back to LA after the wedding so he can spend more time with Alexa. What follows is a long-distance relationship that neither one of them saw coming with them hopping planes every weekend to visit one another. In between those weekend visits, they text and text and then text some more. Drew enjoys his time with Alexa and is afraid to put a label on what they have. Alexa isn’t sure where this relationship is going especially since Drew can’t even seem to introduce her to his friend as his girlfriend but simply as “Alexa” and then she learns that he has the annoying habit of politely dropping his “girlfriends” after a two-month run. Is this the end of their relationship since he can’t even admit who she is to his friends? Could they have made their long-distance relationship work without his commitment-phobic issues?

The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory was a delightfully fun, sexy, and fast-paced read. It was interesting to read about the relationship dynamic between Alexa and Drew without race being the primary focus (yes, this is an interracial relationship and yes, race is discussed within the story). The story gets sexy and steamy without the author going into graphic detail and there’s plenty of romance without it being over-the-top (such as when Drew gets Alexa sweets for breakfast and makes her coffee just the way she likes it). The Wedding Date also provides political drama (Alexa does work for a politician), medical drama (Drew is a physician), relationship drama, romance, and more. For me, this felt like a contemporary romance story containing hints of Pride and Prejudice meets Sense & Sensibilities with all of the crossed wires and misunderstandings. I enjoyed the multiple storylines, the characters, and the action and look forward to reading more from Ms. Guillory in the future. If you’re a romance fan, trust me and run out to grab yourself a copy of The Wedding Date to read.

Disclaimer: I received a free print review copy of this book from the publisher. I was not paid, required, or otherwise obligated to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. 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.”

Read an excerpt here.

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Book 169: LIFE FROM SCRATCH Review

When life hands you lemons, you make lemonade, unless you’re Rachel Goldman then you might make lemon custard or use the lemon to roast a chicken. Rachel Goldman is the main character in Life From Scratch by Melissa Ford. Rachel has just gone through a divorce and must decide what she wants to do with her life.

Rachel is a 34-four-year old woman that was married for 12 years and has been divorced for less than a year. She has taken sabbatical from her job as a graphic artist working for the New York Public Library. She didn’t hate her job but she just isn’t quite sure what she wants to do, so she decides to learn how to cook and document it on a blog. Rachel thinks of her blog as a food or cooking blog but after she’s nominated for and wins a Bloscar (an award for various blogs in assorted genres), she realizes that her blog is basically an online diary and the best therapy available. Her other “therapist” and confidante is her best friend Arianna.

Post-divorce Rachel discovers that she enjoys being an aunt since she never had children. She also learns that she has been a lousy friend by ignoring what has been happening (or not happening) in Arianna’s life. It was somewhat amusing to see Rachel fall in lust with Gael, the Spaniard with the gorgeous smile. At first glance they seem to be made for one another with their similar interests, but Gael isn’t the man Rachel thinks he is or exactly what she wants. What she discovers she wants is her ex-husband…pre-law practice. Ultimately Rachel discovers that life goes on after a divorce, it may take awhile to grieve over the relationship but that’s fine. Rachel seems to epitomize the average woman that has gone through a non-acrimonious divorce. You may not be able to go back and change the past but you can start from scratch using the lessons learned from past experiences and mistakes. Life From Scratch is a sometimes humorous but realistic look at life after divorce. A quick and good read for anyone…married or single!

Disclaimer: I received this book free for review purposes from the publisher through NetGalley. I was not paid, required or otherwise obligated to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. 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.”

Book 143: SILVER GIRL Review

It’s difficult to imagine that anyone in the US hasn’t heard of Bernie Madoff or his Ponzi scheme that bilked thousands of people out of billions of dollars. For some people it is still difficult to presume that his wife, Ruth Madoff knew nothing about his business dealings. Ms. Elin Hilderbrand has tackled this very touchy subject in the saga of Meredith and Fred Delinn in Silver Girl.

Meredith is a society wife and mother that lived a glamorous life style with multiple homes, cars, etc. Even she is shocked to find out that her husband of nearly 30 years has built his investment firm on false pretenses. Meredith is left with nothing but a few articles of jewelry received from her family, a few personal items (pictures and a record album) and some clothes. She is considered a suspect in her husband’s scheme simply because he asked her to move some funds days prior to his arrest. Meredith is truly lost in New York City, no money, no friends and she can’t even have contact with her children because they are suspects as well. After Fred’s arrest, when she thinks she’s at her lowest, Meredith calls upon her childhood best friend for a rescue, Connie Flute.

Connie is there for Meredith but they have issues to deal with from their past. One of the biggest is that Meredith wasn’t there for Connie when her husband was dying and she never even came to the funeral. But even with that Connie knows that Meredith wouldn’t have called if she didn’t need her, and she takes her to Nantucket to get away from it all. If only life were that easy, there are simply too many people on Nantucket that Meredith’s husband cheated and her refuge becomes anything but when Connie’s house is vandalized and she is confronted by a former “friend” in a local hair salon. Dealing with her husband’s business fraud is one thing, but then it comes out that he was having an affair for over six years with their interior decorator.

Silver Girl seems to be a story not only about resilience and surviving but about friendship and family. Connie learns that she has problems to confront and she has to move on with her life. She learns to do this with the help of Meredith. Meredith learns that she is more than Mrs. Delinn and she works hard at assisting the investigation into the recovery of funds. Both Connie and Meredith get thrown curves but together they deal and move on. I think that Connie and Meredith’s relationship epitomizes true friendship, a willingness to be there for one another no matter what. This is not a light-hearted read but it was one that I enjoyed even with all of the drama.

Disclaimer: I received copy of this book free for review purposes from the publishers through NetGalley. I was not paid, required or otherwise obligated to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. 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.”

Book 137: THE PEACH KEEPER Review

I’ve been doing a lot of reading and reviewing for various review sites and decided to take a few hours to read a book from my personal TBR stash. Tonight’s choice was The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen…

Everyone has secrets but this secret is in the form of a body buried beneath a tree. The residents of Walls of Water, North Carolina are being forced to deal with their secrets. Willa Jackson is learning to accept who she is while acknowledging she never really knew or understood her grandmother or even her father. Her grandmother is in a nursing home suffering from Alzheimer’s and her father died a tragic death several years earlier. She always felt that she let them both down but is now learning that these feelings were caused by her own feelings of inadequacy. Just as Willa is learning to cope with who she is and what she wants out of life, Paxton Osgood is learning that she doesn’t have to live up to other peoples or even her parents’ expectations. Her twin brother Colin is learning that is okay to go home again.

The Peach Keeper appears to be a story of self discovery and acceptance as well as a discovery into the importance of friendship. Willa and Paxton discover just how far two friends are willing to go for one another when learning about their grandmothers’ pasts. It is through this process that they learn to cherish one another and the value of true friendship. Sarah Addison Allen has imbued The Peach Keeper with a sense of whimsy and intrigue while providing a captivating reading experience. For those readers that loved Garden Spells, you’ll be happy to note that Claire Waverley and her niece Bay make a cameo appearance. For me this was simply a book that I couldn’t put down once I started reading. I ignored phone calls (isn’t that why we have voice mail?) just so I could finish reading The Peach Keeper uninterrupted. This is the perfect book for a lazy weekend or evening reading session, but you may want to turn the ringer off your phones so you can enjoy it without interruptions.