A review by bananatricky
The Wedding Hoax, by Heather Thurmeier
3.0
Someone recommended the second book in this series, The Hook-up Hoax, but because I'm a bit OCD when it comes to reading series out of order I decided to read this first.
This was nice. Unfortunately I find it much easier to explain the things that I don't like about a book than to praise the good aspects.
The premise is that Daisy Willows, a wedding dress designer, and Cole Benton, the editor of a wedding magazine, are asked to help generate publicity for a bridal show expo by pretending to be engaged and then asking the public to help choose the different aspects of their wedding (eg the dress, the ring, the honeymoon). Daisy's mother has expensive hospital bills to cover and Cole's magazine is struggling so both businesses could use both the publicity and the cash incentive that they are offered.
The only trouble is, Daisy and Cole were a couple - until Daisy told Cole that she wanted (in time) the whole nine yards: engagement; wedding; children; dog; and picket fence. Commitment was never on Cole's agenda and they broke up.
Whilst I appreciate that romance, with the emphasis on the HEA is often a predictable genre I just felt that this was too formulaic. Both Daisy and Cole's attitudes towards marriage seemed too entrenched: she wanted the family and stability she was missing as a child, his father has constantly told him that 'relationships aren't for men like us'. In fact, Cole's father and brother were also stock characters without any flesh to them.
If you are looking for an uncomplicated second-chance-at-love/ hoax engagement story then this is the book for you - I would have liked something that would have made this stand out from all the other similar books and I didn't find it.
This was nice. Unfortunately I find it much easier to explain the things that I don't like about a book than to praise the good aspects.
The premise is that Daisy Willows, a wedding dress designer, and Cole Benton, the editor of a wedding magazine, are asked to help generate publicity for a bridal show expo by pretending to be engaged and then asking the public to help choose the different aspects of their wedding (eg the dress, the ring, the honeymoon). Daisy's mother has expensive hospital bills to cover and Cole's magazine is struggling so both businesses could use both the publicity and the cash incentive that they are offered.
The only trouble is, Daisy and Cole were a couple - until Daisy told Cole that she wanted (in time) the whole nine yards: engagement; wedding; children; dog; and picket fence. Commitment was never on Cole's agenda and they broke up.
Whilst I appreciate that romance, with the emphasis on the HEA is often a predictable genre I just felt that this was too formulaic. Both Daisy and Cole's attitudes towards marriage seemed too entrenched: she wanted the family and stability she was missing as a child, his father has constantly told him that 'relationships aren't for men like us'. In fact, Cole's father and brother were also stock characters without any flesh to them.
If you are looking for an uncomplicated second-chance-at-love/ hoax engagement story then this is the book for you - I would have liked something that would have made this stand out from all the other similar books and I didn't find it.