A review by donnaslair
I Thee Wed by Amanda Quick

3.0

3.5 stars

As others have noted, the first two books in the ‘Vanza’ series, this being the second, have titles that would imply they are closely related (‘With This Ring’ / ‘I Thee Wed’). In fact, they are not. Further, the title of this book, while admittedly vague, doesn’t really have much to do with the book. Yes, two people do get married during the course of the narrative, or at least plan to, but that’s hardly distinctive in the genre.
By contrast, I enjoyed the personalities of the hero/heroine in ‘With This Ring’ a bit more. They were fun characters and had some depth. With ‘I Thee Wed’, I never really developed an attachment to either of the main characters…they seemed somewhat stiff and not fully fleshed out.

At a high level, the plot didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. I’ll try to summarize without spoilers: A mystical society on a faraway island has created a potion that allows one to cheat at cards. The society which developed the formula is exclusively male, but the potion only works when ingested by a woman. The formula (encrypted so no one can read it) is the subject of much searching and murdering.

Despite this improbable central theme, Ms. Quick’s excellent dialog and descriptions make it an enjoyable read, and I’m definitely going to look for the next in the series.