This is the condensed description for “A Simple Wedding,” courtesy of Amazon.com:
Jenny always dreamed of getting married at Heart’s Landing. But when she finally visits the charming small town, she’s there to make wedding arrangements for someone else: her cousin, who also happens to be her boss and a famous movie star. To keep the event secret and avoid a media circus, Jenny pretends she’s the one getting married.
As Jenny deals with her cousin’s ever-changing demands, she tries to hide her attraction to Nick, the town baker. Planning this wedding couldn’t be more complicated…and what will happen once the truth comes to light?
For the most part this book is a win. Author Leigh Duncan created interesting, authentic characters that I cared about, and gave them a unique and interesting story to tell. There was a hint of romance without taking it too far (considering Nick thought Jenny was engaged).
The story never lagged and I was full engaged throughout the whole story. Where it went wonky for me was that the end of the book was a bit too neat and occurred very suddenly. With about 20-30 pages to go the main issue (Jenny lying about who was getting married) came to light and then suddenly…the book is done seemingly without any real attempt to have Nick and Jenny confront the fact that she was lying the whole time. It seemed a whole lot of internal conflict on Jenny’s part…and no repercussions whatsoever. There needed to be at least 3-4 pages of confrontation over what went on – not only confrontation between Nick and Jenny, but Jenny and her cousin, Kay. Despite this, in the end I still enjoyed reading Jenny and Nick’s story and look forward to future Heart’s Landing books about other characters that were introduced in this first outing.
“A Simple Wedding” is worth checking out and is a great spring read, even if the book seemed to wrap everything with an awkward bow at the end. Despite the too-quick end of the book, I give it a solid 3.5 cupcakes slathered in frosting out of 5.
I received an advanced copy from Hallmark Publishing via BookFunnel in order to provide an honest review of the book. All opinions in this review are my own.
