Tracy‘s review of Happily Ever After (Bride Quartet #4) by Nora Roberts
As the public face of Vows wedding planning company, Parker Brown has an uncanny knack for fulfilling every bride’s vision. She just can’t see where her own life is headed. Mechanic Malcolm Kavanaugh loves figuring out how things work, and Parker is no exception. Both know that moving from minor flirtation to major hook-up is a serious step. Parker’s business risks have always paid off, but now she’ll have to take the chance of a lifetime with her heart.
While the blurb for this book really had me thinking that this book was mainly about Malcolm and Parker’s romance I don’t think that was really the gist of the book. There was definitely a romance between those two in the book but to my thinking it really wasn’t the focal point of the book.
Parker had met Malcolm prior and had shared a kiss with him at one point. I think for Malcolm he had really wanted to date Parker right from the start but hadn’t really pursued anything with her until this book began. He finally got tired of waiting and decided to make his move. Despite the ice vibes that Parker was giving off he planted one on her and made her lose her mind. He then asks her out and strangely enough she has a really great time. The two start a sexual relationship and from what I can gather Malcolm stayed at her home most every night – until they had a disagreement. You see, Malcolm had a hard childhood and not great adulthood until he decided to take charge of it and make it better. But he’s not that willing to let Parker into the history part of his life and she’s pretty much tired of skirting issues with him and not pushing. To my thinking the majority of the relationship that was told was them having issues with each other rather than showing us the great and probably romantic times that they had.
What we got instead is a huge view into the relationships that Parker had with her 3 close friends and their fiance’s. Was this a bad thing? I didn’t think so. I really enjoyed seeing Parker open up to the people in her life and frankly it brought me to tears more than once. Do I wish we could have seen more of Malcolm and Parker in their quiet, romantic moments? Sure, but I was more than happy with what we got. In the end I thought that the outpouring of Malcolm’s heart to Parker was quite touching and made me forgive a lot of the rest that I didn’t see between the two.
I thought this was a good conclusion to the Bride Quartet series but it was more of a friendship based book with a romance in it rather than a romance that had friendship within. Not that that’s a bad thing – I just want you to be prepared if you haven’t read it already.
Rating: 4 out of 5
This book is available from Berkley. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’ Place.
I was a little disappointed in the conclusion to this series. While well-written and worth reading, there wasn’t a lot of Malcolm and Parker in the book. It was pages and pages of more weddings which we got in the first three books. Since we already knew what went into the quartet’s business, I thought more attention could have been given to the romance and the differences between Parker and Malcolm. It was a little too easy how Malcolm fit into Parker’s world and vice-versa.
My favorite part of this series are the women of Vows. Really enjoyed their relationships. I would agree that the romance isn’t front and center but shares the stage with the 4 women.
Kim – I did expect more of a conflict between Malcolm and Parker: the easy-going guy and the uptight girl; the mechanic and the heiress – so I have to agree that Parker and Malcolm came together too easily. I would have liked to have seen some of the times they were together rather than just having them alluded to.
Leslie – The relationship with the 4 women was really great in all of the books. I liked that they showed some conclusions to all of their stories in this one.