Sourcebooks Casablanca, $4.99, ISBN 978-1-4022-8387-1
Contemporary Romance, 2013
Kate Preston needs to get to Seattle to attend her increasingly overwrought cousin’s wedding. Joe Firretti needs to be in Seattle by Monday as he is starting a new job there. But between storms grounding their plane in Dallas and the air traffic controllers going on strike, these two – who initially don’t think much of the other person – have to go on a trip involving trains and automobiles to get to their destination in time. Oh, and maybe fall in love along the way…
The Bridesmaid is a novella, and the author wisely focuses on the dash against the time while keeping messy space-hogging things like psychoanalyzing and 1,001 reasons to not be in a relationship angst to clutter up things. As a result, the humor and chemistry shine through clearly and brightly, and I can’t help but to smile, even chuckle, as I turn the pages. The tight focus and pacing are easily the strongest virtues of this story. It’s all about two people in a madcap dash and, along the way, the arguments and exasperation give way to a more friendlier kind of antagonistic banter and lust.
I don’t know much about both characters, but I know enough to think, by the time I turn to the last page, that these two may just be alright in the long run. And if not, hey, at least they had fun reaching the finish line.
This one has fun, fun, fun, and much to my surprise, I choke up a bit at the admittedly too-sweet last chapter. And I think I am humming the love theme of While You Were Sleeping under my breath, something I usually do when I find myself reading something that strikes me as adorable and romantic. There is just something about The Bridesmaid that captures the whole falling in love under manic circumstances perfectly, and making the accelerated romance believable in the process. Four oogies, easy.
