Review: Best Laid Wedding Plans

Best Laid Wedding Plans by Karen Booth
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

2.5 stars 

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. 

She could be relatively anonymous here. That was all she really wanted---to be free. 

Second in the Moonlight Ridge series that follows the three adopted Holloway brothers, it's Grey's time to come back and help out with their father's resort. Still dealing with the emotional fallout from the car accident the three brothers were in fifteen years ago, Grey only comes back home a few times a year and likes his quiet predictable life in New York running his green architect company. He's clamped down on his emotions ever since the car accident and maintains his calm, if pessimistic outlook on life. When his brother asks him to help out with the wedding side of the resort, he's not looking forward to it, especially since the wedding planner seems to always be optimistic and full of sunshine. 

Something about being alone with Grey made her nervous, but excited. 

Dealing with the fallout of her ex-fiancee backing out of their wedding with only three days to spare three months ago and her Hollywood producer father being in the news for allegedly sexually harassing actresses, Autumn is determined to still keep a smile on her face and live in the moment. When the her bestfriend Molly, the manager at the Moonlight Ridge resort she's contracted to help host weddings at, says that Grey Holloway is going to help her, take some of the face time as the wedding part of the resort to try and stop the cancellations happening because of Autumn's notoriety, she's sad but understands. Grey's the grumpy brother but when she see's him doing shirtless push-ups on his front porch, she can't help but find herself attracted. 

Autumn challenged him, but when she did, it was just about getting to the heart of the matter. And with her, everything was simply more enjoyable. 

I would suggest reading book one (Homecoming Heartbreaker) in the series, the author does a great job summarizing the Holloway's and their issues but you'd miss a lot of the emotional components if you just started here. This works as a bridge book for the series, the mystery of who is embezzling money from the resort is continued, a lot to the side, but brings in a forensic accountant to help keep it in readers minds and move it a little farther along. The car accident that distanced the brothers wasn't as heavy an emotional component here, Grey talks about how he works to keep an even keel in his emotions and life so as not to cause damage, he blames himself for Mack losing control of the truck and Travis getting hurt enough to lose football scholarships. For the most part though, this was lighter and more breezy with Grey and Autumn being wary of one another at first, getting a bit flirty, and then fairly quickly hitting the sheets. 

She was allowing herself to fall and that wasn't a good idea. 

The ending with Autumn dealing with her father's issues affecting her own life felt like fairly emotionally heavy issues and I was a little disappointed in how fast and quick it ultimately got brushed away; felt like a opportunity to give some heft to the story. Grey's emotional journey, learning not to blame himself for the accident, felt like a lighter version of his brother Mack's from book one. These two were set-up to be grumpy and sunshine but they mostly gelled right away and only had a little angst at the end with Grey thinking over if he wanted to go back to New York or stay at the resort with his family. 

“What do you want for your birthday?” He huffed the question into her ear. 

“I want you to set my world on fire.” 

This is Harlequin Desire so a good amount of the second half involves sexual escapades (skinny dipping!) but this couple still felt like they could hold a conversation outside of the bedroom, too. The Holloway dad, Jameson, has his pov and I'm really enjoying the budding relationship between him and his former housekeeper, turned nurse, Giada. The forensic accountant is in the picture now and I'm curious to see if my guess as to who is embezzling the money is correct. The third brother Travis is about to come home and I'm looking forward to him finding his love and the three brothers healing their relationship.

View all my reviews