Customer Reviews

Summer Brides: The Borrowed Bride\A Bridge to Dreams\Sister of the Bride

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

For Isabel Warton her dreams were finally coming true. The past was the past and she was marrying into an incredible family, a very large one and would be a part of something she had always dreamed of. Towards the end of a family shower who should show up on a Harley, leather jacket and long hair, her ex, Dan Black Horse, a Native American rock star who she walked out on five years earlier. Now he wanted to tell her things he should have years ago and so he insisted she climb on his motorcycle and he took her to his lodge located in a remote spot in Washington State.

She argued she wanted to forget the past but how could she forget everything between them, the good and the bad? She had wanted him to commit, to love her, she wanted it all and when he couldn't she walked away from the pain and the memories of what they had lost. Being half Native American and the way she was raised left its mark on her. However, now she was not the shy, insecure woman she once was. She was faced with her emotions for Dan and then he did the thing she most dreaded, he entered a race and was injured.

Would they get their second chance? It took Dan being injured to see what was important to him and that was Isabel and her love for him. With that and marriage, they would be OK and get their second chance at love!

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A Bridge to Dreams by Sherryl Woods was a very sweet and romantic love story with the hero being an ex-race car driver, quite a ladies man and worked for his father's auto dealership who had been around to for less than it was worth, sold a red convertible to the very sweet Karyn Chambers because she moved something in him. Karyn had planned a trip to Hawaii, one she had save for over the past years and now she had to give up that dream because her current vehicle broke down and it would cost more than it was worth to fix it.

Karyn adored her family but they drove her crazy as her brothers were all very protective. When she realized she couldn't go to Hawaii, Brad not only gave her a beautiful car he also wanted to put that beautiful smile back on her face so he offered to be her private guide of San Francisco and was going to take to places in the City that would have been somewhat similar to Hawaii. What neither one of them counted on was their immediate attraction to each other.

Their week together was magical until one of her brothers spotted her with Brad. Then a photographer photographed them together as he had recognized Brad as an ex-race car driver. What a mess on top of that they both suffered desire for each other and then after returning to his hotel it was obvious they both desired each other. Everything blew up in their faces especially for Karyn because she felt Brad was just as protective of her as her brother's. However, this couple did get their happy ending when she was able to communicate her need for independence and her need for him to be permanent in her life. In the end, Karyn got her Prince Charming!
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My favorite of the three bride stories was Susan Mallery's Sister of the Bride as it is also part of the author's Fools Gold Series and Mallery's true sense of humor shown through with this "wacky" McCormick family.

Katie McCormick was faced with two situations she didn't want to deal with, her sister was marrying her ex-boyfriend and the fact that her mother and her mother's best friend son Howie the Geek.....both women wanted Katie to have Howie as her escort for the wedding. Talk about a disaster waiting to happen. A spoilt sister who only thought of herself, a crazy aunt who made moves on the groom's father and then seeing Howie again after all of those years ago when she was forced to see him due to the mom's.

What a shock when "the geek" arrived but now he was one "hot" male specimen, one very hot and rich man who now went by the name Jackson and who was a very successful business man who came by his wealth by developing an inventory control computer program.

Katie grew up in Fools Gold, majored in communications and was a sports reporter for the local paper. She loved her work and her family but was so not looking forward to her sister's wedding because her sister wasn't happy unless there was drama and trust me there was a ton of it during the weekends festivities. Most importantly, the sensual tension between Katie and Jackson was amazing, coupled with the bride and groom fighting, the crazy aunt and the hot weekend affair Katie and Jackson experienced.

Katie was a wonderful daughter, sister and Jackson thought her to be special. His protective side came out because for some reason her family loved to criticize her flaws. To Jackson, Katie was beautiful, lovely and he really wanted her!

What wedding drama, the crazy aunt, a missing and very drunk groom, the drama queen the bride to be, Jackson's ex-girlfriend who was enlisted to help with the wedding cake and Katie thought after spending the night with Jackson that she was head over heels for him. As for Jackson, he was overwhelmed with his feelings as well and wanted to protect Katie. Could this be the real thing? Would this darling couple get their happy ending?

Again, author Susan Mallery delivered a fun, emotional and powerful love story giving her heroine her knight in shining armour. You won't want to miss Sister of the Bride nor the other three books is Susan Mallery's Fools Gold Series.

Katie McCormick knows all about the concept of adding insult to injury. Not only is her spoiled younger sister marrying Katie's ex-boyfriend in a four day event that is destined to make her stomach turn, but her mother is pushing her into accepting a date for the interminably long weekend with the son of her mother's best friend. Howie. They'd met once when Katie was thirteen and Howie about sixteen and the scrawny, nerdy brainiac didn't exactly endear himself to her. Her mother, though, is intent to torture her...though she's couched it in concern for hard family questions about her still-single status.

Howard Jackson Kent, who goes by Jackson now, is equally disdainful of the idea when his mother pushes onto him the idea of accompanying Katie as her date. He remembers their one meeting years ago. Katie intimidated the heck out of him and threatened to beat him up. It was a less than auspicious beginning that he had no intention of seeing go any further. Nobody, however, can manipulate like a mother, and he reluctantly agreed as he girded himself for a weekend of torture.

When they meet again, however, it's blatantly clear to both that the years have been kind. Katie's turned into a really cutie and Jackson's the definition of eye candy. As they get reacquainted and find out they have quite a lot in common, a new friendship and sparks of attraction fly fast and hard. Maybe their mothers weren't such horrible tyrants after all. And maybe it's true...love is really always in the last place you look.

I had a pretty good idea very early into this novella that I wasn't going to be as happy with it as I'd hoped. Her sister not only stole her boyfriend, but is marrying him a year later. That's just skanky. And while Katie is now over it, I couldn't help but genuinely loathe her sister for that...and for every single scene she was in. The spoiled, petulant witch needed to have her bouquet stuck somewhere far less pleasant, let me tell you.

But the story isn't about her sister. It's about Katie and Jackson. They were fine characters, though a little two dimensional. There's not a lot of time to develop characters in short novellas such as this, though, so I'm pretty forgiving about that. I'm less forgiving about the cliched aspects of the plot (five minutes in and I knew exactly when I'd see Katie and her ex come face to face), and as a reader, I hate romances that shove strangers together and have them falling in love and getting engaged days after meeting (or, as in this case, re-meeting). I'm all for Happily Ever After, don't get me wrong, but it's so hard to maintain a suspension of disbelief in those cases. It didn't work for me at all.

The wedding festivities were, admittedly, over the top with the hijinks, but there was also plenty of humor there and I did appreciate how Jackson handled some of Katie's less than pleasant relatives and a few dicey situations. In fact, I don't have any complaints about either of them as characters and am forgiving of most of the constraints that the novella-length story put on the plot. It was the overall concept of the plot, the wretched sister from hell, and the completely implausible culmination of their weekend that I didn't like.

Reviewed for One Good Book Deserves Another.

I thought this was an adorable story, another visit to Mallery's Fool's Gold, a small town I love! Katie is a fun heroine, an upbeat person caught in a stinky situation. (Her ex-boyfriend is marrying her sister, and Katie has to pretend everything is fine.) Jackson is a former nerd and all-around hottie. Love him! He agrees to the blind date as a favor to his mother, who is a friend of Katie's mom. This story had me laughing right from the first page. Without saying too much, I'll tell you, "Watch out for Aunt Tully!"

Sister of the Bride was Mallery's story in the Summer Brides anthology.

Summer Brides: The Borrowed Bride\A Bridge to Dreams\Sister of the Bride

Very enjoyable short story. Have been a fan of Susan Mallery and was not disappointed. Characters and storyline were funny and enjoyable and the storyline did not lag. It is definitely worth reading.

I would definitely recommend this story. Susan Mallery's sense of fun and drama show through clearly in this short story of the family-filled drama a woman goes through at the week-end celebration of her sister's wedding. One of my favorite Susan Mallery's!

The Fool's Gold Series has one short story for Kate (previously in Chasing Perfect girl's night out scene). This is another hilarious story by Susan Mallery. Kate's entirely crazy family is attending a 4-day wedding event in Fool's Gold Mountain Resort for her beautiful self-centered sister who is marrying Kate's ex-boyfriend and she needs a date to avoid her family's questions. Enter Jackson, previously Howie, a computer genius who she threatened to beat-up when they were teenagers. If you want to read more of the review please visit [...]

I really like Mallery, and I love this book.

Even for a Category, it's short. But it is SO funny. I laughed out loud in the first chapter, when the hero's mother, trying to get him to do something, starts the conversation with, "Remember when I had cancer?"

Do yourself a favor: read this!

I am a very big Susan Mallery fan and enjoy her books. This book was fun and entertaining. It wasn't the best book, but it worked for me. Being the hopeless romantic that I am, I believe in love at first sight, therefore enjoying the book. This book is about Katie and Howie AKA Jackson. Their moms are best friends and for the longest time have been trying to set them up. When Katie and Jackson first met, they were both teenagers. He was thin, nerdy and shy and she was chubby, insecure and intimidating. Needless to say, their first encounter did not go well. Fourteen years later, Katie finds herself still single and getting ready to attend her sister's wedding to her ex-boyfriend. Jackson is currently a very handsome and successful businessman. He just couldn't say no to his mother when she asked him to be Katie's date for the wedding.

When they first meet, they are both impressed with what they saw and the attraction that sizzled between them. Katie's family is very crazy, to say the least and they are always giving her a hard time. Jackson is such a hero, coming to her rescue, time and time again. Story is very predictible, but the characters and situations, made this story worth reading. I read this book in a day and it left me with a smile on my face. You will find this story entertaining, amusing and enjoyable if you believe in love at first sight.

I can't really complain, after all it was free. I just don't agree with the sister thing and marrying an ex of your sibling with little or no regard for the sibling
but I do suppose that does happen in real life so why not write about it.

Susan Mallery first came to my attention several years ago while I was shopping in my local Walmart, looking for a new book to read. In this case, I definitely bought the book because of the cover (I was living at the beach at the time). And I was not disappointed. While I don't remember the title of the book I read, I do remember the author's name; Susan Mallery. Because I enjoyed her books, I quickly read all I could find by her.

Recently, I came across Sister of the Bride by Susan Mallery as one of the free offerings on my Kindle so I quickly downloaded it remembering the books I had read of hers a few years ago. And I am glad I did.

Sister of the Bride is written in the traditional, feel good style of the Mallery I recalled. Her easy creation of the characters has you falling in love quickly with them and the story line. And while her story line is easily predictable, it is also a very enjoyable read.

Katie McCormick, the Sister of the Bride, is the maid of honor. The bride happens to be marrying her ex-boyfriend. A difficult situation for anyone. Katie's mother begs her to bring a date to the wedding. Katie, you guessed it, is single at this time. Her mother offers to have her best friend's son escort Katie during the four day wedding event. Katie's memory of Jackson is that of a geeky, nerdy, awkward teenager.

You guessed it. Little Jackson is no more. The new and improved hunky Jackson not only saves the day as all the typical prewedding disasters ensue, but saves Katie from singlehood as well.

This is a really sweet read. A total beach story; quick, fun, and easy. I would recommend you pick it up just for that reason alone. Sister of the Bride

Read more reviews on Books in the Pile. This book will be near the top of my pile.