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lmrivas54's review
2.0
A nice easy read, predictable, not all that interesting. I don't like to give negative reviews, but this book didn't have a strong plot and Ben didn't strike me as having such strong issues. It was romantic, loving and sweet, but not a passionate read.
piggy327's review
3.0
I received this book as a 'firsts reads' giveaway. Normally, I read a book a day. This one took me a little while to get into. I had to set it down and read a couple other books before I could finish it. Planning for Love was a good book, just not great. As one with words, I don't have much to say about this book. Ivy and Ben push and pull at each other, she loves with her heart on her sleeve and he 'breaks out in hives' at the thought of love. Run of your mill love story, for me with Bens reason for not believing in love a little juvenile. Knowing there are more books in the series I am little gun shy at reading them but you never know, I grab hem up one day...
nitzanschwarz's review against another edition
4.0
I actually really liked the book, and truly enjoyed reading it. I expected a bit more of the ending. It was pretty average and I would've liked more than just him spontaneously realizing he was wrong and she was the one. Not sure what kind of more I wanted, but I just did.
jbarr5's review
4.0
Planning for Love by Christi Barth
ISBN: 9781426894213
Ivy Rhodes is the wedding planner and no mishaps ever occur at them, as per her order and calm.
The bride won the contest where the Wild Wedding Smackdown was to film her wedding. When Ivy falls down a few steps Bennett Westcott from True Life Productions rescues her and hopes she won't sue them as it was his camera bag she had stumbled over.
As the day goes on he dwells into how she can remain so calm throughout all the mishaps that occur and she tells and explains how she is able to do the whole thing without any visible signals to her other staff.
He loves the behind the scenes information from her.
After hot steamy sex that they connect on all levels she takes him out for the day and they thoroughly enjoy themselves and learn more about one another. He leaves in a hurry as he knows it's only a one night deal.
Love the scenery and landmarks that are highlighted of Chicago.
The TV company does track her down with an offer to follow her around the tape the weddings she plans for others. It will give her enough to fund her store which she already has ideas for. It's a gamble and even her associates think it's a good one.
She is more than surprised when she finds that Ben and his assistant will be the ones to tape the show. Her assistant has to step in and inform her that she needs to stop wanting to go to bed with Ben and concentrate on the weddings.
He is there to see how problems are handled and he asks later how she does it and she tells him. She does not want to have a replay of his earlier one night stand, she says he's a player and she doesn't want to be played.
Ben tries to out run his problem, and then the manager finds him trying to outrun his problems and he's not a runner. Talking to the manager helps a bit but he can't get her out of his mind.
Love how there are essentially just the two of them and a handful of other workers in this book, very easy to keep track of who's who.
Love all the marriage quotes from famous people at the start of every chapter.
Potential disaster from the TV show and now the wedding, she can't take much more but Ben has something up his sleeve...
He tells her about the family curse and she kinda thinks it not believable at all...
ISBN: 9781426894213
Ivy Rhodes is the wedding planner and no mishaps ever occur at them, as per her order and calm.
The bride won the contest where the Wild Wedding Smackdown was to film her wedding. When Ivy falls down a few steps Bennett Westcott from True Life Productions rescues her and hopes she won't sue them as it was his camera bag she had stumbled over.
As the day goes on he dwells into how she can remain so calm throughout all the mishaps that occur and she tells and explains how she is able to do the whole thing without any visible signals to her other staff.
He loves the behind the scenes information from her.
After hot steamy sex that they connect on all levels she takes him out for the day and they thoroughly enjoy themselves and learn more about one another. He leaves in a hurry as he knows it's only a one night deal.
Love the scenery and landmarks that are highlighted of Chicago.
The TV company does track her down with an offer to follow her around the tape the weddings she plans for others. It will give her enough to fund her store which she already has ideas for. It's a gamble and even her associates think it's a good one.
She is more than surprised when she finds that Ben and his assistant will be the ones to tape the show. Her assistant has to step in and inform her that she needs to stop wanting to go to bed with Ben and concentrate on the weddings.
He is there to see how problems are handled and he asks later how she does it and she tells him. She does not want to have a replay of his earlier one night stand, she says he's a player and she doesn't want to be played.
Ben tries to out run his problem, and then the manager finds him trying to outrun his problems and he's not a runner. Talking to the manager helps a bit but he can't get her out of his mind.
Love how there are essentially just the two of them and a handful of other workers in this book, very easy to keep track of who's who.
Love all the marriage quotes from famous people at the start of every chapter.
Potential disaster from the TV show and now the wedding, she can't take much more but Ben has something up his sleeve...
He tells her about the family curse and she kinda thinks it not believable at all...
myaddiction's review
3.0
Overall nice read. Besides the length, there was something about this book that I didn't care for. Not sure what it was. Maybe it was the storyline. Anyway, the quotes were good
shannon_cocktailsandbooks's review against another edition
3.0
“Hopeless romantic Ivy Rhodes and anti-Cupid Bennett Westcott request the pleasure of your company for their disaster of a courtship” (direct quote from Amazon.com)
With a hook like that, I had high hopes for Planning for Love. Filled with an entertaining cast of wacky supporting characters, I had hoped for a stronger female lead. Planning for Love begins phenomenally with Ivy’s accident being caught on camera. This leads the reader to believe this will be a book filled with one mishap after another, all leading up to a grand happy ending for our two main characters. Instead we get a female lead who is very reminiscent of a 15 year old. Ivy’s enthusiasm for all things romantic is sweet, and as a former Event Planner myself, it’s exactly what brides want to see when they hire a coordinator. However, at times Ivy was so sweet I could feel the cavities forming.
Ivy has had her wedding planned since she was a child. And whereas, yes, most little girls do have their happily ever after planned, however vaguely, in Ivy’s case the groom is interchangeable and comes in second to the idea of being in love. It’s so laughable that even her own employees have an office pool going about her walking in the morning after a FIRST date and going on and on about how “this one” is perfect and he’s the one. A pool, which by the way, she has yet to ever actually win since every guy is the “the one”. Bennet put it best when he said, “Ivy, you don’t love me. You’re in love with love itself.” That pretty much sums up Ivy in a nutshell.
Bennet is indeed portrayed as a man running from love. He doesn’t believe in happily ever after, even avoids it at all costs. However, I’ve read thousands of romance novels and I have yet to ever read one where the main male character is running towards the alter instead of away. So Bennet’s character comes as no surprise.
If I am to be completely honest, I’d have to admit to cheating. I tried to enjoy this book. I really did. But my enjoyment was hampered by my love/hate relationship of Ivy. I went as far as doing something I never do when reading a book for review… I looked up other reviews. I hoped that by reading what others found so enjoyable I would pick up on things I did like. Here’s what I’ve found… Planning for Love does have some redeeming qualities. As aforementioned, the secondary characters were to die for. I would love to see a couple of them get their own stories in the near future. They added a humor and dimension to the story that may have otherwise fallen flat. The book was very well written and concise. The characters, no matter how annoying, stayed true to form throughout up until the very end. On character development and entertainment value alone, I’d have to give it a higher rating that I had first thought to. However, there are many who have enjoyed this book and I hope will continue to do so, regardless of my opinion on it.
Reviewed for Cocktails and Books by Iris. Review copy received from Publisher via NetGalley.
With a hook like that, I had high hopes for Planning for Love. Filled with an entertaining cast of wacky supporting characters, I had hoped for a stronger female lead. Planning for Love begins phenomenally with Ivy’s accident being caught on camera. This leads the reader to believe this will be a book filled with one mishap after another, all leading up to a grand happy ending for our two main characters. Instead we get a female lead who is very reminiscent of a 15 year old. Ivy’s enthusiasm for all things romantic is sweet, and as a former Event Planner myself, it’s exactly what brides want to see when they hire a coordinator. However, at times Ivy was so sweet I could feel the cavities forming.
Ivy has had her wedding planned since she was a child. And whereas, yes, most little girls do have their happily ever after planned, however vaguely, in Ivy’s case the groom is interchangeable and comes in second to the idea of being in love. It’s so laughable that even her own employees have an office pool going about her walking in the morning after a FIRST date and going on and on about how “this one” is perfect and he’s the one. A pool, which by the way, she has yet to ever actually win since every guy is the “the one”. Bennet put it best when he said, “Ivy, you don’t love me. You’re in love with love itself.” That pretty much sums up Ivy in a nutshell.
Bennet is indeed portrayed as a man running from love. He doesn’t believe in happily ever after, even avoids it at all costs. However, I’ve read thousands of romance novels and I have yet to ever read one where the main male character is running towards the alter instead of away. So Bennet’s character comes as no surprise.
If I am to be completely honest, I’d have to admit to cheating. I tried to enjoy this book. I really did. But my enjoyment was hampered by my love/hate relationship of Ivy. I went as far as doing something I never do when reading a book for review… I looked up other reviews. I hoped that by reading what others found so enjoyable I would pick up on things I did like. Here’s what I’ve found… Planning for Love does have some redeeming qualities. As aforementioned, the secondary characters were to die for. I would love to see a couple of them get their own stories in the near future. They added a humor and dimension to the story that may have otherwise fallen flat. The book was very well written and concise. The characters, no matter how annoying, stayed true to form throughout up until the very end. On character development and entertainment value alone, I’d have to give it a higher rating that I had first thought to. However, there are many who have enjoyed this book and I hope will continue to do so, regardless of my opinion on it.
Reviewed for Cocktails and Books by Iris. Review copy received from Publisher via NetGalley.
prgaldiaries's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
This book was cute and funny, took me through quite a few emotions, and also the ending was really cute :) can’t wait for the next one.
samanthameyer's review
emotional
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
leahcook518's review
3.0
I picked up this book when it was offered as a freebie on Amazon. While the book is fairly predictable I found it quite enjoyable. I was quickly hooked in the beginning and I was glad that author Christi Barth did not make us wait long to feel the passion between Ivy and Ben. While I was unable to make a connection with Ivy (she was far to predictable and boring for my liking) I very much enjoyed Ben's character as well as all of Ivy's supportive friends. In fact, I think her friends are the reason I kept turning the pages in this book. The book did not WOW me but I found it to be a quick and enjoyable read. I gave it 3 stars because I liked it but I'm not sure If I'll be running out to grab the next books in the series. I have no burning desire to learn what happens next.
ccgwalt's review
The story was boring and I found I didn't care about the characters.