Rowena’s review of Trouble at the Wedding (Abandoned at the Altar, Book 3) by Laura Lee Guhrke.
Hero: Christian Du Quesne, Duke of Scarborough
Heroine: Miss Annabel Wheaton
New York Times bestseller Laura Lee Guhrke’s delicious Abandoned at the Altar series has historical romance readers eagerly saying, “I do!” Trouble at the Wedding is the third unforgettable walk down the aisle by the always delightful RITA Award winning author. The marriage ceremony of a Victorian heiress to the “perfect man” is most rudely interrupted by a meddlesome duke who’s convinced the bewitching lady is making a the biggest mistake of her life.
This is the third book in the Abandoned at the Altar series and to be honest, I couldn’t for the life of me remember the other books in this series which is a bummer since I enjoyed both of the other books a great deal. I’m either getting too old or I’m reading too many books and I’m getting them all switched around inside my head.
Anyway, this book follows Christian Du Quesne and Miss Annabel Wheaton as they bicker and fight their way to their happy ending. There’s a whole lot of drama going on in this book but it was still an overal enjoyable read.
My favorite part of this book was the hero, Christian Du Quesne. He was all out sexy and I wanted to bang him twelve ways to Sunday. Even when he did what he did at the wedding, I laughed out loud even as I breathed a sigh of relief. Christian was a hero that I couldn’t help but fall in love, he’s one of those flirty spice heroes that women can’t help but swoon over and well, I’m all about the swoon when I’m around those kinds of heroes and it was no different with this book. The scenes between Christian and Annabel were too cute.
On the other hand, the whole situation that Christian and Annabel found themselves in with all of the lies and the stories that they had to tell in order to keep everyone from finding out the truth caused me to roll my eyes from time to time throughout this book. Annabel’s reasons for wanting to marry Rumsford, Christian’s reasons for not wanting to get married again, Christian’s suggestion of the fake engagement, all of that crap made me want to pop them both in the head a time or two.
I enjoyed getting to know both Christian and Annabel but their thought processes about everything kind of tainted my enjoyment of the story somewhat. I mean, there was just too many lies and too many abandoning at the altar in this one book that a great deal of the time, I wanted to smack some sense into someone.
Annabel was a strong heroine, a strong heroine who knew what she wanted and went about getting it in anyway she could. She thought she didn’t want a marriage with love at the center but when she finally realizes that she doesn’t want to marry without love, it was one of those, “NOW YOU THINK THIS?” She couldn’t have come to this realization the day before the wedding or a couple of days/weeks before the wedding? Ugh, the whole dramatization of the wedding and the feelings and everything made me want to kick something but I did end up enjoying the book.
Laura Lee Guhrke did a great job of writing this story in a way that I wanted to continue reading it even when I was vexed with the characters and the situations they put themselves in. I was able to connect with both the hero and the heroine and in the end, I was glad that I read the book. It’s not my favorite of the bunch from this series but it was still a great addition to the series.
Grade: 3 out of 5.
This book is available from Avon. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
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