The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory – Review & Giveaway
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Description:
A groomsman and his last-minute guest are about to discover if a fake date can go the distance in a fun and flirty debut novel.
Agreeing to go to a wedding with a guy she gets stuck with in an elevator is something Alexa Monroe wouldn’t normally do. But there’s something about Drew Nichols that’s too hard to resist.
On the eve of his ex’s wedding festivities, Drew is minus a plus one. Until a power outage strands him with the perfect candidate for a fake girlfriend…
After Alexa and Drew have more fun than they ever thought possible, Drew has to fly back to Los Angeles and his job as a pediatric surgeon, and Alexa heads home to Berkeley, where she’s the mayor’s chief of staff. Too bad they can’t stop thinking about the other…
They’re just two high-powered professionals on a collision course toward the long distance dating disaster of the century–or closing the gap between what they think they need and what they truly want…
Review:
The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory is a sweet standalone romance novel. This is a new author for me, and I really did enjoy this story. Alexa Monroe, our heroine, is on her way to help her sister celebrate her promotion. She is delayed when the elevator she is in gets stuck, and to her surprise there is someone else stuck with her. Drew Nichols, is a doctor, who is in town to attend a wedding for his ex- fiancée and his best friend. While waiting in the elevator, both Alexa and Drew talk to pass the time, and end up enjoying their fun playful banter. Soon Drew is asking Alexa if she would be willing to pretend to be his girlfriend at the wedding that weekend; she surprises herself and agrees to help him out.
This was also an interracial romance, that Guillory wrote so well. Alexa was a very sweet, charming and afun heroine, who found herself immediately attracted to the handsome, sexy and equally charming Drew. We could not help but like both of them. After the wedding, where both of them enjoyed each other’s company, the attraction and lust between them heats up. Even with both not interested in anything long term, they can’t seem to get enough of each other, meeting every weekend to have fun and sex. There were some very good secondary characters, especially Drew’s friend Carlos, who was awesome.
There is no question that this is a sexy steamy romance, with a couple that is terrific together. Both are also very successful, with Alexis being the chief of staff for the mayor of Berkley, and Drew, working with children in a San Francisco hospital. Alexis begins to worry, as she finds herself falling hard for Drew, and knows from friends of his that she has met, that he never stays long with anyone. Will Drew continue his single life, and let Alexis leave?
This was a sweet, charming, lighthearted pure romance that had us loving both Alexis and Drew and rooting for a happy ever after. Jasmine Guillory has written this wonderful romance so very well. I enjoyed it very much, and I look forward to reading more from her.
Reviewed by Barb
Copy provided by Publisher
Alexa danced with Lauren, letting the movement and the laughter shake away her annoying thoughts. When she felt a hand on her waist, she turned to see Drew behind her and laughed again, at how ridiculous the evening had been and how much fun she was suddenly having. He took ahold of one of her hands and swung her around to face him and laughed back down at her. Other members of the wedding party joined their group and danced with and around them, but song after song came on, and he never moved from her side.
“Water?” he said in her ear after they’d been on the dance floor for a long time.
“Yes, please.” She walked with him over to the bar.
She glanced up at the ornate clock over the bar, surprised at how late it had gotten. And how much she didn’t want this night to end. Damn it, it had been fun to be Drew’s fake girlfriend, but she knew that once the clock struck midnight, so to speak, the fairy tale would be all over.
He leaned against the bar, his jacket off, his bow tie untied, a little sweaty and disheveled from dancing. Good Lord, this guy was hot.
He rolled up his sleeves, exposing his tan forearms. She wanted to run her fingers up and down them and feel how warm and strong they were.
She needed to stop letting her imagination run away with her.
“Um,” she said. “It’s getting late, and if I want to make the last BART train back to the East Bay, I should probably leave pretty soon.”
Why had she said that? Why, when she was standing next to a hot guy, basically panting over him? If she was Maddie, hell, if she was Amy, she would have grabbed one of those hot forearms and wrapped it around her body, letting him know what she wanted without having to say anything. Sadly, she was Alexa, so she would flee instead.
He put his water bottle down and looked at her.
“Okay.”
“Okay,” she said. Olivia and Maddie would get mad at her for not throwing herself at him, but they didn’t understand that she just didn’t know how. Plus, rejection from this guy was the last thing her self-esteem needed. Talk about the opposite of getting back on the horse; that would make her avoid horses, and stables, and all farm animals for another few years. So to speak.
He stepped closer to her and put his hand on her waist. Her hand landed on his arm, and, without even meaning to, she ran her fingers up and down. Oh God, touching him like this was as good as she’d thought it would be.
“Or”—he looked straight down into her eyes—“you could stay.”
A question was in his eyes, and a smile hovered over his lips. His thumb drew slow circles on her hip and then moved up her side to her ribs. His other hand moved up to her face and traced the outline of her lips with his fingers.
She shivered.
He waited.
“Or,” she said, “I could stay.”
Jasmine Guillory is a graduate of Wellesley College and Stanford Law School. She is a Bay Area native who has towering stacks of books in her living room, a cake recipe for every occasion, and upwards of 50 lipsticks.
As well as writing books, Jasmine sometimes writes about books, pop-culture, and food, some of her favorite things.
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Jasmine Guillory’s publisher is graciously offering a paper copy of THE WEDDING DATE to ONE (1) lucky commenter at The Reading Cafe
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