Reading Under the Willow Tree

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Kissing the Maid of Honor was a decent contemporary romance but it was nothing I haven’t read before and it failed to really blow me away. I have read so many books about a girl falling in love with her brother’s slightly naughty best friend and sadly Kissing the Maid of Honor is just like the rest of them.

What didn’t help this book as a whole was the writing. It was alright but fairly basic. There was no real detail or depth and I struggled to get swept away by it. I wanted more excitement, more genuinely in the friendships, I just wanted more.

The two main characters were ok but they were the only real likable ones. Everyone else in this book is annoying, selfish and bossy. Sela’s best friend is the worse, she is about to get married and she is like the bride from hell. She expects Sela to be there for her every little whim and doesn’t want her to start a relationship with Luke it case it affects her wedding. Who does that? Who tells their best friend not to start a relationship and be happy because she doesn’t want anything over shadowing her big day? The town they live in is even more ridiculous. There is a town blog where there are votes on the state of Sela and Luke’s relationship and how long they will last. Again, what kind of place does that? I just found it really irritating that everyone stuck their nose into Sela and Luke’s relationship and told them repetitively that it wasn’t the right time to get together. I would have given them all the middle finger and told them to get their noses out of my business, Sela and Luke of course do not and takes all the ‘advice’ seriously.

Sela is ok but she seriously needs to calm down. She takes her Maid of Honour responsibilities way to seriously and every time she thinks about doing something for herself she backs down because that would make her a bad friend. She also dislikes Luke because he hurt her in high school. He was in a kissing booth and she paid to kiss him and he said something negative about it. Yes it was cruel but unfortunately that is what teenage boys are like. Her hatred for him extends well into her twenties. I think most people would have let it go. I quite liked Luke even though he could be a little pushy. He was not an overly complex character but he played his part well.

Despite all the issues I had with this there was one thing that Robin Bielman got spot on and that was the chemistry between Sela and Luke. They set the pages on fire with the sparks that were flying between them. Every scene between then was a real treat and I loved all the UST. It was a shame that the love scene was a fade to black given all the chemistry but overall it was great.

Kissing the Maid of Honor is a decent contemporary romance with some great chemistry but overall it didn’t work for me as well as I had hoped.



The publisher provided me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review