This bridesmaid’s been blacklisted…

So why is he risking everything for her?

It was the perfect wedding—until the groom spontaneously announces he’s in love with bridesmaid Bonnie Windsor!

Now Bonnie’s being ostracized by the entire town. The only person willing to stand up for her is the bride’s super-handsome brother, Aaron Cole.

And he’ll risk everything—including his family—to prove that this pretty woman deserves a happily-ever-after of her own.

Titles in the Stop The Wedding! series include — A Bridesmaid to Remember – His Brother’s Bride – A Marriage of Inconvenience – The Sheriff’s Valentine –

 

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Title:  A Bridesmaid to Remember
Series:  Stop The Wedding! #1
Author:  Amy Vastine
Genre:  Contemporary Romance
Published:  January 1, 2020
Publisher:  Harlequin Heartwarming
My Rating:  4.5 stars

A Bridesmaid to Remember begins the Stop The Wedding! series with a story that certainly grabbed my attention from the first chapter and then put me through a wringer of emotions throughout Bonnie and Aaron’s romance.  Intense, oh yeah, but also so emotional as in disbelief, anger, loathing of one, no two secondary characters who actually play a very big part in this story.  Talk about entitled, spoiled rotten so she doesn’t make a scene and encouraged to act this way by her parents who only want to “keep Lauren happy no matter the cost to anyone else” — I have nothing good to say about “bad Lauren”.  Did she redeem herself by the story’s closing… kind of, but not really because she got away with horrible actions with no need to make any kind of amends.  One lame apology just didn’t cut it for me.

But, let me backtrack because I just had to get that out of my system.

On Lauren’s wedding day, during the vows, her groom decides to drop a bombshell on not only his intended but on her best friend as well by declaring that he couldn’t marry Lauren as he was in love with their friend, Bonnie.  Oh. My. Goodness.  For that moment, that fraction of time I felt bad for Lauren – but that feeling only lasted a moment because she immediately turns on her friend, the woman who has been her best friend since childhood and believes Bonnie has been having an affair with Mitch behind the bride’s back.  Nothing could be further from the truth, and Bonnie will try to explain that she has no idea what Mitch is doing, why he’s saying such nonsense because he is only a friend.  But bridezilla isn’t listening and Lauren is about to set out to totally destroy not only her now former best friend but her family as well.

The only person who believes Bonnie is Lauren’s brother, Aaron.  And he will try to smooth the waters between them, but Aaron has no clue what he is up against this time.  Not to mention that he has his own parental issues going on as he breaks free of working for his father to set up his own house-flipping business.  And, maybe he’s also beginning to see Bonnie in a different light than simply his sister’s best friend – but how in the world is he going to navigate the storm that his sister has enveloped Bonnie in.  This isn’t just anger, this is vicious, shunning, brutal bullying — and Aaron is falling in love with the woman at the center of this storm.

This review for A Bridesmaid to Remember has gone on too long, yet I’m guessing you can tell that I was emotionally invested in Bonnie and Aaron’s story and situation.  I absolutely adored burly, biker Sasha – please, let there be a story someday with Sasha’s romance, I just loved this guy.  I don’t believe I’ve recently read a story that whipped up my ire for a character’s actions like this one did.  And the townsfolk… don’t get me started on those people.  I enjoyed it, the story is certainly worth 4.5 stars, and I really don’t know if I could read a story one day of Lauren’s happy ending.  Am I holding a grudge?  Maybe…

I own a Kindle edition of this title.

Available in print or for your favorite e-reader