Reviewer: Rowena Vision in White (Bride Quartet, #1) by Nora Roberts
Series: Bride Quartet #1
Also in this series: Happy Ever After (Bride Quartet, #4), Savor the Moment (Bride Quartet, #3)
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: April 28th 2009
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 325
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Series Rating:
Wedding photographer Mackensie "Mac" Elliot is most at home behind the camera, but her focus is shattered moments before an important wedding rehearsal when she bumps into the bride-to-be's brother...an encounter that has them both seeing stars.
A stable, safe English teacher, Carter Maguire is definitely not Mac's type. But a casual fling might be just what she needs to take her mind off bridezillas. Of course, casual flings can turn into something more when you least expect it. And Mac will have to turn to her three best friends-and business partners-to see her way to her own happy ending.
I have been looking forward to reading this book for quite some time now. I thought the cover was too cute for words and I’m girly enough to get a little excited about weddings. So anyway, I finally picked this one up and was super excited to read it and while I enjoyed it, I can’t say that it was one of NR’s best. I don’t think it’s because of the way this book was written or because Nora did something wrong, I just think it was more of a preference kind of thing.
Nora Roberts excels at writing character driven stories that pull the reader deep into the lives of the characters in her books. She does a phenomenal job of creating worlds that the reader can be comfortable in and that’s why I enjoy reading Nora Roberts so much. This book showcased that.
My fascination with this series wasn’t mainly focused on the leading couple of the story, but with the foursome of friends who started a wedding business together. There’s Parker, the detail oriented one, she was the one that took care of all the details of each wedding, she took care of everything that everyone forgot about then there was Laurel, the baker. Emma was the florist and then finally, Mackenzie was the photographer. They each brought something different to the wedding table and they each helped each other get things done to keep their clients happy.
I really enjoyed the friendship between all four of these women. They each were different in looks, in personality and yet they meshed so well with each other and the wealth of love they each had for each other was fun to read about. The easy way they were with each other, even when one of them was seriously PMSing made me smile and laugh all along with them. I felt like I was apart of their group and I really enjoyed the parts where we got to see them all together.
This story is the wedding photographer’s story, MacKenzie Elliott. She’s got some serious Mommy and Daddy issues and there were times in this story that I wanted to slap her for the way she handled the good things in her life. I couldn’t blame her for the way that she handled things with Carter but the things where she kept rolling over for her Mom made me want to karate chop her in the knee caps! The excuses she made and the way she got after her Mom left made me want to punch Mac in her face. Alls well that ends well but there were too many instances in the story where I wished that Mac would grow a spine and tell her Mom where to stuff it.
Then there was Carter. Carter isn’t your usual alpha hero, he’s more of the beta hero who is bookish and an English teacher who loves to mold the minds of the next generation. He’s a great teacher and he was cute and everything that’s good but I wanted more from him. What? I have no idea but there was something that kept me from swooning in delight over the yumminess that is Carter. There wasn’t really anything bad about him but there wasn’t anything that wowed me about him either. He was just a good guy. I guess, just not my cuppa even though I really love me a nerdy hero from time to time.
Overall, the story was good but it was the secondary characters and the other things in the story that held me in the story. It was Del and Jack that I wondered over, that I wanted more from and the wedding shenanigans that had me turning the pages those are the parts of the story that I really enjoyed and for me, the main romance took a backseat to it…for me, the main love story was the secondary story. I really enjoyed the other characters and it’s their stories that I cannot wait to read. So though this story was a great story, it was the other things going on in this story that made me really enjoy it. Mac got on my nerves and Carter was just okay and even though they weren’t all that to me, I loved the rest of the book.
So, if you like cute little stories with funny little scenes in them then I think you’ll enjoy this story. I want to know who Emma’s hero is and I really want to know if any of the girls end up with Del or Jack, I hope so because I LOVE THOSE GUYS! Does anyone know?
4 out of 5
The Bride Quartet
This book is available from Penguin. You can buy it here in print, here in e-format or here for your Kindle.