As a wedding planner, Sherilyn Caine should have the perfect wedding experience…
After all, she just landed her dream job at the wedding destination hotel, The Tanglewood. The rest should be a piece of cake for Sherilyn’s Type A personality.
But while everything else goes smoothly, her own wedding plans start to sink right before her eyes. One way or the other, Sherilyn is determined to make this wedding work—until the latest development threatens to call the whole thing off. Is it possible that Sherilyn is allergic to her fiancé?
This is the second book in the Emma Rae Travis Series by Sandra D. Bricker. I enjoyed meeting Sherilyn and getting to spend a bit more time with Emma and Jackson from the first book. When I read Always the Baker, Never the Bride (Emma and Jackson’s story) I adored it and I could not stop laughing pretty much the whole way through the book. So when Helen came across the free download for Kindle, I grabbed it and 24 hours later I was done.
Sherilyn and Andy are a charming couple, who arrive in Andy’s home town of Atlanta, Georgia to new jobs and a future together. Sherilyn is The Tanglewood’s new wedding planner, and is now working alongside her college roommate and best friend Emma Rae Travis. Not only is she planning weddings for the Tanglewood, but she’s got to plan her own. Disaster and comical mayhem follow Sherilyn as she and Andy heads towards matrimony. It’s funny, touching and even had me shedding a few tears along the way (I’m a sucker for a good, romance with humour and sincerity).
Having said all this, there was two things that made the book a little less loveable that the first in the series. One was simply, I didn’t find it as funny as Always the Baker, Never the Bride. Perhaps this is simply because Sandra D. Bricker set the bar so high that Always the Wedding Planner, Never the Bride was never going to be what the first book was. That alone would not be something to really hinder a book for me, as with most series’ the first book is always the bench mark.
The second thing that I had trouble with was the character of Australian actor Russell Walter, who makes a very big first impression on Sherilyn, Andy and their friends. Now, Russell is a secondary character but he does have some decent “page time” throughout the book. Russell is a likeable character, made me smile quite a bit at his antics and his conversation. Russell came across as a “she’ll be right, it’s all good mate” kind of guy, who just flashes his charming “Aussie” grin and gets his way with whatever he wants. As I said, you can’t help but like the guy. I struggled with the dialogue that Bricker has given him. Some of it was good and is what Australian’s actually say, for example:
- “No need. Couldn’t expect her to stick around the woopwoop.” Woopwoop is akin to saying “in the middle of nowhere” but we Aussie might say it like this: “in the middle of woopwoop” or “gone out to woopwoop” (I remember my Dad using the latter phrase quite often)
- “Buckley’s chance I’ll be back again then.”
- “Your fella’s a good enough bloke.”
Now a quick example of the dialogue that I struggled with:
- “…since I hopped out of my mother’s pouch.”
- “Hurts like an angry boomer, mate.”
These sections of dialogue made me cringe. These are such clichéd Aussie statements, but I seriously don’t know anyone that uses them!
Once I got used to Russell’s dialogue, I didn’t mind the corny phrases as much by the end of the book.
Overall a funny and heart warming read.
Jess is a mum of two children and married to the calmest man alive. She loves to bake and go for walks. A writer of contemporary romance, Jess write stories about the heart and where love is worth the journey.
Hi Jess! Great review! I also downloaded the free kindle version, and your review has made me anxious to read it. I love an author who can weave humor into the story 🙂
I appreciated your Aussie lingo critique! Makes me wonder about my own manuscript… LOL! Thanks again!
Hi Gwen,
If you like Rom-com books then this will fit the bill!
The only way to truly get any culture's lingo down is to talk to someone from that culture! We'll help in any way we can! 😀
wedding planner
I like this.
Thanks for the reviews Jess, I haven't heard the 2 sayings you cringed at either and dont really think we refer to kangaroos as boomers, unless its Rolf Harris's song 6 white boomers.
with the “Buckley’s chance I’ll be back again then.” was she saying he had no chance?
I have the book but haven't read it as I am not into rom-coms.