Reviews

Four Weddings and a Break Up (Cape Hope, #1) by Elyssa Patrick

melinda's review

4.0

Ginny Michaels does not do bar hookups. It’s just not her thing. She’s had one hell of a bad year and finds herself in a bar at a bachelorette party. When Ginny is pretty much dared to get a guy’s number she’s embarrassed, horrified…and intrigued. Mainly by Wes Dalton. While she is completely self conscious and thinking there is no way he could want her Wes is thinking “She has the type of curves that separated the women from the girls.” Things get pretty intense extremely quickly and after their one night stand is done Ginny flees the scene, relieved she doesn’t have to see him again.

But because this is a romance novel of course it doesn’t end there. She returns to her medium seaside town Cape Hope only to find the newest resident is none other than Wes. After an awkward second first encounter they decide to team up to have a fake relationship during the upcoming wedding season to fend off friend and family’s attempts to set them both up on dates.

The fake relationship quickly turns into a friendship, filled with laughter and attraction. There is a lot that I love about this book and the first is what I’ve loved about Elyssa Patrick’s books in the past as well – this isn’t a heavy feeling romance. While there are issues being dealt with; Wes is dealing with coming back to a step-family he hasn’t seen in years and an aging father and Ginny is recovering from a school shooting earlier in the year, these issues don’t overwhelm the romance or the entire storyline. There is still a light-hearted feeling to the relationship and a lot of laughter and fun. Personally, I love that in a contemporary romance and Patrick does it really well.

Neither Wes or Ginny seemed to fit into a romance character “box” and that’s a good thing too. No bad boy biker or good girl virgin here. Don’t get me wrong – I do love reading those kinds of books too! But it was nice to read about your average person with relatively normal issues. Wes, in particular, is just a guy who both wants to keep things uncomplicated with Ginny but also really appreciates her. I kind of fell in love with Wes all together after this happens below.

“What does it look like I’m doing” He bent down, grabbing thin white books from the lower shelf. “I’m buying you romance novels.” “I don’t need that many. I was just going to buy this one.” She held up a purple-covered book. “You’re getting more than one book.” If he needed to, he would fill a library of romances for her, just to bring that smile back to her face."

There is obviously much more to why I thought he was a great hero in the book but that boils it down to the essence of why Wes was amazing and I’m not the only one to think that way.

"Some people fell in love over a gradual period of time. Maybe months, maybe years. Some people fell in love because of some grand gesture, a moment that sealed the deal. And some people fell in love after struggling against it for their whole lives. For Ginny Michaels, it didn’t happen that way. For her, it was the moment Wes started stacking romance books in the cart."

This book has great secondary characters too. Ginny’s Mom is awesome and Wes’s family dynamic is really fun to watch. There are some really hilarious moments, with one in particular in the bathroom that I about choked because I was laughing so hard. Elyssa Patrick just does contemporary romance really well while combining the comedic and dramatic elements that are needed to make everything come together so well. If you haven’t read her before I’d recommend it now, this is a great book to start with!