Tag: The Bride Quartet

Sunday Spotlight: Bed of Roses by Nora Roberts

Posted March 24, 2019 by Rowena in Features, Giveaways | 5 Comments

Sunday Spotlight is a feature we began in 2016. This year we’re spotlighting our favorite books, old and new. We’ll be raving about the books we love and being total fangirls. You’ve been warned. 🙂

Lately, I’ve been looking through my personal library and reminiscing through all of my old favorite romances and this week’s feature came across my radar and I knew that I was going to feature it this month on a Sunday Spotlight. As much as I love featuring newer and upcoming romances, I like to take a little while and remind everyone (along with myself) about the older romances that used to light us up with joy. Bed of Roses by Nora Roberts is definitely worth the look back.

Sunday Spotlight: Bed of Roses by Nora RobertsBed of Roses by Nora Roberts
Series: The Bride Quartet #2
Publisher: Penguin, Berkley
Publication Date: November 1, 2009
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
Point-of-View: Alternating Third
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 335
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
four-half-stars
Series Rating: five-stars

#1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts cordially invites you to meet childhood friends Parker, Emma, Laurel, and Mac—the founders of Vows, one of Connecticut’s premier wedding planning companies.

Wedding florist Emma Grant gets to play with flowers every day and work with her three best friends in the process. She couldn’t ask for a better job. And her love life seems to be thriving. Though men swarm around her, she still hasn’t found Mr. Right. And the last place she’s looking is right under her nose.

But that’s just where Jack Cooke is. He’s so close to the women of Vows that he’s practically family. Now though, the architect has begun to admit to himself that his feelings for Emma have developed into much more than friendship. And when Emma returns his passion—kiss for blistering kiss, they must trust in their history—and in their hearts…

Bed of Roses is the second book in Nora Roberts The Bride Quartet and it features Emma Grant and Jack Cooke. This one was such a good one and if you don’t know, you should fix that because Nora Roberts doesn’t just slay when she’s taking on plagiarists, she slays when writing romances too and this one is proof that she’s the real deal. Jack and Emma’s story is the bomb and I absolutely adore these two and know that you will too. Check out the little snippet of why I love them so much.

Excerpt

“One morning early, I couldn’t sleep, so I walked down to the beach. And I saw you. For a minute- I didn’t realize it was you. You were wearing this long scarf thing tied around your waist, lots of wild colors, and it blew around your legs. You had on a red bathing suit under it.”

“You…” She literally had to catch her breath. “You remember what I was wearing?”

“Yes I do. And I remember your hair was longer than it is now, halfway down your back. All those mad curls flying. Bare feet. All that golden skin, wild colors, mad curls. My heart just stopped. I thought: That’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. And I wanted that woman, in a way I’d never wanted one before.”

He stopped, turned a little as she simply stared at him. “Then I saw it was you. You walked off, down the beach, the surf foaming up over your bare feet, your ankles, your calves. And I wanted you. I thought I’d lost my mind.”

The Bride Quartet

Giveaway Alert

We’re giving one lucky winner their choice of one of our Sunday Spotlight books. Use the widget below to enter for one of this month’s features.

Sunday Spotlight: March 2019

Are you a fan of Nora Roberts like we are? Let us know what other books you’re looking forward to this year!

four-half-stars


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Retro-Review: Savor the Moment by Nora Roberts.

Posted November 28, 2017 by Rowena in Reviews | 7 Comments

Retro-Review: Savor the Moment by Nora Roberts.Reviewer: Rowena
Savor the Moment (Bride Quartet, #3) by Nora Roberts
Series: Bride Quartet #3
Also in this series: Vision in White (Bride Quartet, #1), Happy Ever After (Bride Quartet, #4)
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: April 27th 2010
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 325
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
four-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

#1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts cordially invites you to meet childhood friends Parker, Emma, Laurel, and Mac — the founders of Vows, one of Connecticut’s premier wedding planning companies.

Laurel McBane has always relied on her friends for support, especially when her dream of attending culinary school was almost ruined by her parents’ financial problems. Now Laurel is repaying the kindness of her friends by creating extravagantly luscious tiers of cakes and other confectionary delights that add the perfect touch to their clients’ weddings. As for romance, Laurel believes in it — in theory. But she’s too low-key to appreciate all the luxuries that other women seem to long for. What she does appreciate is a strong, intelligent man, a man just like Parker’s older brother, Delaney Brown, on whom Laurel has had a mega crush since childhood.

But some infatuations last longer than others, and Laurel is convinced that the Ivy League lawyer is still out of her reach. Plus, Del is too protective of Laurel to ever cross the line with her, or so she thinks. When Laurel’s quick- silver moods get the better of her — leading to an angry, hot, altogether mind-blowing kiss with Del — she’ll have to quiet the doubts in her mind to turn a moment of passion into forever…

*****As part of our 10 year anniversary celebration, we’ll be re-posting old reviews and posts that make us cringe, laugh or sigh all over again.*****

This review was originally posted on April 27, 2010.

This is another series that I am absolutely in love with. I love that it’s a straight up contemporary series with just two human beings falling in love without be bitten by vampires or taken hostage by terrorists or anything else like that. They’re just two everyday, average, normal people falling in love over the course of time.

This book was good. It was but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I enjoyed Jack and Emma’s story. There were things about this book that I loved, like learning about Laurel’s side of the business, I’ve always been fascinated with baking and Laurel does it well so it was good to see that. I also enjoyed getting to know Del. I’ve always been interested in learning more about Del in the first two books and it was good to finally see Del getting some serious page time.

Laurel and Del’s attraction to each other started in the last book when they’re all at Emma’s family’s house for a bbq and you could tell that this was where that day was going to lead Del and Laurel. Their attraction seemed to simmer on low heat for a few weeks before it boiled right out of the pot. Del is trying to keep seeing Laurel as the little sister he’s always known her to be and Laurel is trying to get over her silly crush on the boy that will always look at her like a little sister. So in a last ditch effort to get Del out of her system, she shows him that she’s NOT his sister and that sets the tone for the rest of the book.

They’re playing this keep away game of Laurel’s shoes and Del is using the shoes to get to know Laurel better. He’s going for this and he’s going to see where it leads them. Watching these two grow closer and closer was cute. Seeing them bicker their way to love made me smile.

Del was a great hero, one who caring, thoughtful and adorable. I really liked him but I didn’t love Del the way that I loved Jack. Del was a good, solid hero but he didn’t make my heart sing the way that his best friend did.

Laurel was one of those feisty heroines who at times made me roll my eyes around the room. Her reasons for being mad at Del about the whole money didn’t make sense to me. She’s known Del most of her life, she’s friends with him. She should have known him enough to understand where he was coming from with the whole paying thing. I mean, she blew something so small into something so big and I just didn’t get it. So Del’s rich, so what? I just didn’t understand where all of her anger from him trying to give her money was coming from. It’s not like he thought she was this two bit loser who he felt sorry for and was trying to give her a break. I could see him doing the exact same thing to Emma and to Mac but Laurel blew that shit up like he was trying to strangle her or something.

Overall, this book was good but it’s not my favorite of the bunch. My favorite part of this book was getting to know Laurel while she was at work. I loved reading about all of her baking bits. Seeing her in action in the kitchen had me wanting to throw my apron on and see what kind of concoctions I could throw together in the kitchen. I love baking in any romance novel and it never fails to amaze me how Nora Roberts can take any occupation out there and make me curious about it. She’s a phenomenal writer and I’m such a fan!

It was good to see the gang all together again and I can’t wait for Parker and Mal’s story. I can’t wait to see how Mal wins her over. It’s going to be interesting because Mal is a fox and Parker is one tough cookie. I can already imagine the sparks that are going to fly. Woot!

Grade: 3.5 out of 5

The Bride Quartet

This book is available from Berkley Trade. You can buy it here.

four-stars


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Guest Review: Happily Ever After by Nora Roberts

Posted November 17, 2010 by Book Binge Guest Blogger in Reviews | 3 Comments

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.


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Review: Happy Ever After by Nora Roberts.

Posted November 8, 2010 by Rowena in Reviews | 5 Comments

Review: Happy Ever After by Nora Roberts.Reviewer: Rowena
Happy Ever After (Bride Quartet, #4) by Nora Roberts
Series: Bride Quartet #4
Also in this series: Vision in White (Bride Quartet, #1), Savor the Moment (Bride Quartet, #3)
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: November 2nd 2010
Pages: 333
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
four-half-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

Dreams are realized in the eagerly-awaited fourth novel in Nora Roberts's Bride Quartet.

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...

This is where the party ends for the folks over at Vows. We’ve been through the ups and the downs with each of the four women in this quartet and the ride was great fun while it lasted. I’ve been very itchy about reading this book and when Holly finally sent that email out that she got this book for review, I was ready to duke it out with anyone who got in my way to this book (including Ames, =P).

We’ve seen Mac, Emma and Laurel all get their man and now it was Parker’s turn. The last man standing, the brain behind the whole operation and the glue that kept their tight knit group of friends together. It would have been so easy for Nora to write Parker as a total stiff but Parker didn’t come off that way at all to me. She’s from the Brown family and in their neck of the woods, that meant something but while Parker may have been very detail oriented and a total control freak, she wasn’t a beast.

This book played out exactly the way that I thought it would and while in some cases, that wouldn’t have worked for me but in this case, it totally did. I liked that it was predictable and that Mal was going to totally steamroll his way into Parker’s life whether she wanted him to or not and I enjoyed the ride.

I loved that these books were straight up contemporaries. I really enjoyed digging into a story about two characters that I have come to love as my own friends over the course of the series. Mal was a solid hero, one that I would totally bang again and again because he’s just hot stuff and I loved that he listens to The Killers. I have a very soft spot for Brandon Flowers. Ha!

Parker was Parker. Great at everything and did everything in 4 inch heels. She’s freaking Super Woman and I wanted to be her friend. I really liked the way we got to know both Parker and Mal. In Savor the Moment, I didn’t feel like Del got much page time and I would have liked to see more from him but in this book, Parker and Mal both got the kind of page time where I felt like I got to know the both of them equally and I really liked them both.

The thing about these books is they’re such fast reads. You read and read and read and then when the end comes, you’re surprised that you’re already there. It’s like being at a party that you don’t want to end and that’s how I felt with this one. I enjoyed this book and it’s probably my second favorite in the series, behind Jack and Emma’s book. Their book had it all for me and Jack still holds the trophy for my favorite hero in this entire series but Mal and Parker’s story was easy to fall into and when it all came to a close, I wasn’t ready to leave them behind so I’d say Roberts did a pretty decent job of writing this one.

Grade: 4.5 out of 5

The Bride Quartet

This book is available from Berkley Trade. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

four-half-stars


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Book Watch: Happy Ever After by Nora Roberts.

Posted June 15, 2010 by Rowena in Promotions | 10 Comments

It’s no surprise that I’m a huge Nora Roberts fan and that I absolutely love her Bridal Quartet series. I’ve read each book faithfully and am kind of saddened that the last book is upon us. I am anxious to read Parker’s book because I want to see how she unwinds. She’s so uptight and so detail oriented that this book is going to be mighty interesting to read.

I sincerely hope that I like this book a whole lot more than I liked Del and Laurel’s book. I already heart the hell out of Malcolm so really, bring this book on already.

How gorgeous is this cover? I think it’s my favorite cover of the bunch.

Check out the blurb from Amazon:

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…

I’m SO excited, ooh I can’t wait! This book comes out in November so mark your calendars dear readers, November 2, 2010.

This book is available from Berkley Trade. You can pre-order it here.


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