The Christmas Wedding Guest by Susan Mallery

The Christmas Wedding Guest by Susan Mallery

Published by Harlequin  ISBN 9781335522450

Trade paperback, $16.99, 432 pages

Last Christmas, I was enchanted by Susan Mallery's Happily This Christmas, a holiday story in her Happily Inc. series, so I was excited to see that she has a new Christmas book in a new series. The Christmas Wedding Guest is the second book set in Wishing Tree, Washington, a town that celebrates Christmas year-round.

Sisters Reggie and Dena are helping their mother plan a Christmas vow renewal. Their parents didn't get the big wedding 35 years ago, and now Mom wants all the bells and whistles.

Dena is a schoolteacher who also owns the town's B&B, left to her by her aunt. She is also pregnant, ready to be a single mother after she feels that love has passed her by. Last year on Thanksgiving weekend, Reggie's boyfriend proposed on Friday, hosted a big engagement party on Saturday, and broke up with her on Sunday.

Reggie moved to Seattle for her job, and is not excited to see everyone again after last year. Her high school boyfriend Toby moved back to town with his eight year-old son to live with his grandmother. He is a hugely successful businessman, and his son is in Dena's class.

Micah is a rock star who lost his wife and unborn baby in a car accident last year. He came to Wishing Tree to work with a friend and get away from it all, and ends up staying in Dena's B&B. Dena, like every other woman, is attracted to the handsome man, and Micah seems to like Dena as well.

The characters in The Christmas Wedding Guest don't necessarily have secrets, it's more that they have complications in their life. Dena is a pregnant soon-to-be single mom with horrible all-day sickness, Micah is trying to move on from his tragic accident, and while Reggie is thrown together with Toby who left town abruptly at age eighteen without a word to Reggie, Toby is determined not to get romantically involved with anyone.

No one creates these charming towns populated with characters that you feel like you know as friends as well as Susan Mallery. On her website susanmallery.com, you can see maps of the towns like Happily, Inc. and Wishing Tree, with all of the charming small businesses highlighted. Looking at them makes you feel like you are walking through the town you just read about. Her books are Hallmark Christmas movies waiting to happen.

I adored The Christmas Wedding Guest as much as Happily This Christmas, and like last year, I will be giving this book to someone I know who loves Christmas. I can't wait to read more books in the series so I can get to know the people of Wishing Tree better.

My review of Happily This Christmas is here.

Thanks to Harlequin Books for putting me on their Holiday Romance Book Tour.

Friday 5ive- November 20, 2020

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly blog post about five things that caught my attention this week, which has mostly been spent prepping for Thanksgiving next week.

1)  Walking by the Stumble Inn, a bar/restaurant that used to always be packed on weekends pre-COVID, I saw this sign that really sums up the feeling. 

2) Restaurants in NYC have really upped their game when it comes to creating outdoor dining areas now that the weather is much colder.  It's been interesting watching them build them.

Le Moulin Cafe

I really liked Luna Rossa's fall decor

3)  Reading with Robin had a Pre-Publication Marathon with 36 Authors last weekend. On Saturday and Sunday, she hosted authors who got to talk about their upcoming books. Robin interviewed each author for 30 minutes on Crowdcast, and there were so many great conversations. I was amazed at her stamina! I popped in and out all weekend, and did it ever add to my To-Be-Read pile. My favorite was Lauren Willig talking about her novel, Band of Sisters, which is coming out in March and it is fantastic. You can check them out on Robin's Crowdcast page here. 

4)  I'm watching the NBC sitcom Superstore on my Echo Show while I'm cooking dinner at night. It is laugh-out-loud funny, with some of the sharpest writing around. Lauren Ash as the take-no-prisoners head of security Dina and Mark McKinney as the caring and clueless store manager Glenn are the standout performers. 

5) I read two books this week. Danielle Martin's Glimmer As You Can takes us to 1962 Brooklyn as three women are each at a crossroads of their lives. You get a real sense of how dependent on men women were back then, and the courage it took to strike out on your own with your friends by your side. My full review publishes next Friday.

I'm continuing my Christmas-themed entertainment earlier this year with Susan Mallery's Happily This Christmas, the seventh book in her Happily, Inc. series. I read the sixth one last year, Meant to Be Yours, and I really enjoyed getting to know everyone in the wedding destination town setting. In the newest chapter, Wynn, graphic designer and single mom of a teen boy, helps her handsome police officer neighbor deal with his pregnant 21 year-old daughter who has moved in with him. I will definitely be going back to read the others in this delightful series. My full review publishes December 8th.

I hope you all have a happy, healthy and safe Thanksgiving this year. Stay safe, socially distant, wash your hands and wear a mask.

Meant To Be Yours by Susan Mallery

Meant To Be Yours  by Susan Mallery
Published by Harlequin ISBN 978-1335041494
Mass market paperback, $8.99, 464 pages

Author Susan Mallery takes readers to the town of Happily Inc, a destination wedding town in Southern California created in the 1950s by a banker who had seven daughters. By the time the 2000s rolled along, thousands of happy couples, from royalty to Hollywood celebrities and average Americans, have flocked there for the wedding of their dreams.

The town's commerce revolves around weddings, and in her fifth book in the series, Meant To Be Yours, wedding planner Renee Grothen is so busy planning the nearly 75 weddings a year for the company she works for, Weddings Out Of The Box, that she has no time for a personal life.

Renee has not been lucky in love- her first love broke up with her, and then she had a relationship with (unbeknownst to her) a married man. So when famous thriller author and former military police officer Jasper Dembreski takes her home from game night at the local bar, they agree that their hookup is strictly about sex. (You don't have to wait long for a hot explicit sex scene in this story.)

 Jasper decides that he wants to introduce a female love interest for his series detective, so he goes to Renee and asks her if he can shadow her for research. He has decided that the female character will be a wedding planner, and a serial killer will be stalking weddings in his next book.

Renee thinks this is a bad idea, but the owner of the company likes the suggestion, as do a happy couple planning their wedding who are fans of Jasper's books. So Jasper will be learning about wedding planning from Renee, but she has strict rules that he will not interfere or insinuate himself into the process. She takes her responsibility to make couples weddings special, and will not tolerate anything that disrupts that.

I so enjoyed my first trip to Happily Inc and Meant To Be Yours! Even though it is the fifth book in the series, I didn't feel lost not knowing any of the secondary characters. I was able to jump right in and follow the story. (That being said, I liked this book so much that I will read the rest of the series in order.)

Having gone through my son's wedding last year, I was drawn to the wedding planner aspect of the story; I liked learning about all the details that go into the process. And the theme weddings- Scottish, Star Trek, and even an apple-themed wedding- were so intriguing.

Reading about Jasper's writing process was interesting too, and the scene where he took Renee to the library because that is where he spent a great deal of time in school was so sweet.

I highly recommend Meant To Be Yours for anyone who likes a good contemporary romance, it's a great way to wile away a rainy Sunday. You'll feel like you met a new group of friends, and you'll want to visit them again in other Happily Inc books.

Visit Susan Mallery's website here for more info on Happily Inc- there's lots of fun stuff there, including a map of the town and character introductions.

Thanks to Harlequin for inviting me to be a part of their Romance & Women's Fiction blog tour, and providing me with an egalley for an honest review.