Publisher: Carina Press
Publish Date: Out Now
How I got this book: NetGalley
Welcome to Whitetail, Wisconsin, future home of Weddings that WOW!
As acting mayor, Annika will do anything to revive the economy of the town that’s been her refuge ever since her art career imploded and her fiancé walked out. Even if it means crashing an engagement party to talk business with the bride’s billionaire father. But the evening starts with a kiss from a gorgeous stranger—and ends with a night in jail.
Finn Callahan can’t believe his sister is getting married, not after their parents’ disastrous track record. And he’d rather be anywhere than working from his family’s vacation home. Until he catches a leggy blonde sneaking in the window, and suddenly telecommuting for the season is very appealing.
Unable to resist their mutual attraction, Annika and Finn are soon mixing business and pleasure—just for the summer. Too bad Annika’s heart missed the memo about not falling in love…
*Blurb from Goodreads*
I love wedding stories, and after reading Lowe’s debut Carina Press novel last year, I knew I was in for a special treat with the new Wedding Fever series.
Annika can’t say no to the town she loves so much. So when she is asked to step in and act as mayor, she does. When she is asked to help the find town a new industry to help them through the economic downturn, she is willing to go to great lengths to do anything and everything she can to make it happen. Climbing through a window to crash a party wasn’t her ideal way to start a potential business arrangement, but she will just have to make do.
Finn has never gotten along with his family, but he loves the family business more than he cares to admit. When he gets roped into working from the summer house in order to prove he can take on more with the company, Finn finds that Annika and the town of Whitetail wasn’t what he expected, or wanted to spend his time on. But despite their attraction, they might just be too opposites, unable to make a relationship work through the hard parts.
There were a lot of things I really liked about this book, and a few things I didn’t. To start, I liked Annika’s character, to an extent. She was so sweet, refused to say no to anyone, and put everyone else’s needs before her own. When that caused her to lose her rented cottage with no place else to go, I thought her reaction was a little ridiculous. She was going to sleep in an empty warehouse instead of turning to the people in town that she was bending over backward for. Also, she was so focused on getting a new industry in town, that she didn’t really listen to what the town wanted to do. So when everyone told her how much they wanted the wedding business to work, she was shocked. And in my opinion, unfairly so. Her anger and pain at their “betrayal” didn’t make sense to me since she just didn’t listen to what they wanted.
Now, I really liked Finn. Sure he came across as emotionally unavailable and stunted, but he also was a sweet guy. I loved that although he wanted nothing to do with his father, they were still able to do little things together, they were still able to find some common ground (even if it was just the company). I liked the way Finn had to really chase after Annika, especially given the way he treated her toward the end. I thought he did an appropriate level of groveling, and I was glad to see how desperate he was to win her back.
Their romance was at times wonderful, and other times a little difficult for me to understand. Yes, their initial attraction was purely physical. They were total and complete opposites in so many ways, and although that attraction obviously grew, at times it was difficult for me to see why. Finn was a total pain in the ass when he wasn’t getting his way and Annika shut him out from the part of her life that he didn’t easily fit into. They had some incredibly sweet moments together though, and that really made the book better.
All in all I enjoyed the first installment of the Wedding Fever series. Given some of the secondary characters, I’m really excited to read the upcoming books. While I didn’t love Finn and Annika has much as I had hoped to, I liked them enough to be intrigued by the series and group of people we’ve already met.
I give Saved by the Bride a B-
Nice review Minn, not sure I would like the heroine though. She sounds determined to do everything by herself, and her way.
@aurian: Yeah, she was hard to like at times. 🙁