USA TODAY bestselling author Lauren Layne is the “queen of witty dialogue and sexy scenes” (Rachel Van Dyken) Now, Sex and the City meets The Wedding Planner in The Wedding Belles, her sizzling brand new contemporary romance series about three ambitious wedding planners who can make any bride’s dream come true…but their own. Discovering her fiance is an international con man just moments before … international con man just moments before they exchange vows devastates celebrity wedding planner Brooke Baldwin’s business–and breaks her heart. Now a pariah in Los Angeles, she seeks a fresh start in New York City and thinks she’s found it with her first bridal client, a sweet–if slightly spoiled–hotel heiress. Then she meets the uptight businessman who’s holding the purse strings.
Seth Tyler wishes he could write a blank check and be done with his sister Maya’s fancy-pants wedding. Unfortunately, micromanaging the event is his only chance at proving Maya’s fiance is a liar. Standing directly in his way is the stunning blonde wedding planner whose practiced smiles and sassy comebacks both irritate and arouse him. He needs Brooke’s help. But can he persuade a wedding planner on a comeback mission to unplan a wedding? And more importantly, how will he convince her that the wedding she should be planning…is theirs?more
I was a huge fan of the Stilletto/Oxford series and was delighted to find this three book series. Great reads from start to finish – light, fun and sexy
Favorite Quotes:
…the wedding planner had finally gotten the chance to plan her own wedding to the love of her life, it had ended with the groom in handcuffs, and not the sexy kinky kind.
Good thing he was a ten physically, because his personality was trending the negative.
We women just want – we hope… That someone good will love us…
I had to try to be more, because you made me want to be more.
My Review:
I am enjoying this new series from Lauren Layne and look forward to reading more installments. I adore her humorous sweet and sexy style of writing. The premise for To Have and To Hold was nothing short of brilliant; a wedding planner who achieves the ultimate humiliation during her own beautifully planned wedding, when her groom shrugs at her as he is led away from the altar in handcuffs. Ouch! The story was entertaining, descriptive, and steamy. I enjoyed the characters and eagerly await peeling back the layers of each Belle.
Here’s the deal: Lauren Layne is one of those authors that I know if I pick up her book, I’m going to love it. She wrote one of my favorite series: New York’s Finest. You really need to read that series, by the way. Unless you’re someone who doesn’t like good books with hunky dudes that make you want to break the law. Just cuff me already, I don’t know what I did but it was something.
Back to this one … it’s just perfection. That’s really the only thing that I have to say. I blew through this one late one night when I should have been sleeping but I just couldn’t put it down. I usually jot notes down as I go so that my review is really specific to what I was thinking as I read but I didn’t write one damn thing down. I didn’t need to and honestly, I just didn’t want to stop reading to take the time to write something about how amazing Layne is or how I’m going to book-stalk her forever or how her characters are perfect and if Seth was a real person that my husband would be in serious danger of becoming the ex-husband.
You follow Brooke’s life just after she experienced a soul-crushing blow … her fiance left her at the alter. Basically because he was skeezy. It’s not an easy road to get over this skeezy dude but it was heart-warming to watch Brooke struggle through all of those emotions. Layne really makes you connect with her characters and I found myself instantly wanting Brooke to be my friend and I can only wish that I would be so brave if I went through the same type of experience. Although if it were me, there would probably be something about kicking skeezy dude in kiwis … that was unfortunately missing from these pages but it’s something I’ll overlook because Seth. Ugh. I just love him. I love how he was this bumbling idiot about how to handle things and how he was just … Seth. He’s so authoritative and for some reason, that is sexy as hell.
I’m telling you, you have to pick this one up. You won’t be disappointed. The storyline zips along at a wonderful pace and nothing slows down or gets boring. The characters are interesting and I loved them almost as much as Brooke and Seth. I wouldn’t change one sentence, word or comma in this book. Just go to the bookstore today, pick this up and send me a message when you’re done and we’ll see who read it the fastest. But since I read it first, I get Seth. Go find your own book boyfriend.
* I received this novel in exchange for an honest review *