Review: Trouble at the Wedding

Annabel is a Mississippi girl, who comes from poverty. But when her dad hit pay-dirt in an Alaskan goldmine, her family became wealthy beyond their wildest dreams. They moved out of their small Southern town to an uppercrust area of New York. But they were never accepted. New money didn't mean much in society.

Now Annabel has a chance to change things for her family. She is getting married to a British peer --and that means respectability. It's no matter that they aren't in love. Annabel thinks that a marriage based on cordiality and respect will be just fine. Until she meets Christian. He is passionate and sexy --and determined to talk her out of marrying her intended. At first, that's because her uncle hired him to do it, but eventually, because he becomes enamoured of the feisty beauty.

Annabel ends up ignoring the misgivings Christian inspires, but he manages to spoil the wedding anyway, nearly ruining her reputation. So he must redeem himself --and her social standing, by helping her find a suitable new husband.

It took a while for me to warm up to the story. Maybe because the first 1/3 of it was told in flashback from the events of the prologue. We know from the first few pages that Christian's plans would fail and that mad it hard for me gain much interest in his machinations. Another point of contention: Annabel is rich and gorgeous. I just can't believe she had so much trouble finding a husband before aligning herself with Christian and his sister. Then, once our hero and heroine begin to have feelings for each other, I just couldn't see any real obstacle between them. What took them so long to finally embrace their feelings (and by that I mean the very last page or two) --is beyond me.

The sex was ok. The relationship was ok. The conflict was minimal. A little more than 3 stars.

*ARC Provided by NetGalley

Click to purchase: Amazon

Trouble at the Wedding

by Laura Lee Guhrke

Release Date: December 27, 2011

Publisher: Avon