Review: A July Bride by Beth Wiseman

SUMMARY FROM NETGALLEY.COM:

Can she forgive the man who left her at the altar?
Alyssa Pennington dated Brendan Myers for three years before she accepted his proposal. For almost a year, Alyssa's friends and family helped her plan a lovely wedding to take place in the church she'd grown up in. It was the happiest day of her life when she walked down the aisle to be united with the man of her dreams. But when Brendan left her at the altar, Alyssa was consumed by humiliation, embarrassment, and a broken heart that wouldn't allow her to trust anyone. Especially Brendan.
Brendan Myers knows he will spend the rest of his life regretting what he did to Alyssa, the only woman he's ever loved. Without her, his life is empty. In one fateful moment, he'd panicked, destroyed their future, and ruined everything. Now he plans to win her back.
But winning back his bride might prove much more difficult than he can imagine. And even if he does get her to the altar again, will she think turnabout is fair play?

MY TAKE:
I don't usually go for novellas, but the blurb for this one got my attention.

In A July Bride, Alyssa and Brendan are set to be married when he gets cold feet at the altar and bolts. He realizes he made a mistake, though, and he tries to win her back. Alyssa isn't sure if she can trust Brendan again, so she rebuffs him. Brendan doesn't give up, but when a new man comes into Alyssa's life, will Brendan be able to let Alyssa go?

There's only so much you can do with a novella, but this book does its best with what its given. Alyssa's emotions are quite understandable, and her and Brendan's love story is sweet and almost picture-perfect.

The love triangle angle surprised me a little as I didn't expect that based on the blurb. At first, I welcomed it since the guy seemed like an okay enough guy. There were moments, though, that he angered me. I can't elaborate more without spoiling, but I can tell you that in my notes, I wrote: "In the words of Jackie Chan in Rush Hour 3 '...He is an A.W."

My favorite character, and the one that felt most real to me, was Sherry. The whole binging-on-food-while-pregnant thing, the friendship advice, even the gossip were things that made it easy to imagine her. I was also amazed at her maturity. Not a lot of women can forgive what she forgave.

My favorite scene was the ending. That was quite nice and it made me laugh a couple of times.

There were a few things that I didn't really like, though. I thought that Brendan's reason for leaving her at the altar was pretty flimsy, and Alyssa's new guy was kind of desparate. Other than that, however, it was actually a nice book, considering the timeline seemed compressed due to the length of the novella.

Thanks to NetGalley and Zondervan Fiction for the e-ARC.

THE GOOD:

1. It's about giving people you love second chances.
2. There were some funny scenes.
3. There were some interesting characters. 

THE BAD:

1. Brendan's reason didn't feel like a good enough reason to me. 

READ IT IF:

1. You think love can be sweeter the second time around.
2. You enjoy novellas.
3. You like love triangles. 

RATING:


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