Customer Reviews

Weddings Can Be Murder (Love Spell Contemporary Romanc)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Weddings Can Be Murder by Christie Craig

Mass Market Paperback release date May 27, 2008
4 ½ Stars

Weddings Can Be Murders is a genuine contemporary romance story. This is a story of Katie Ray, a woman due to be married to a man she thinks she loves. Her position in this matter changes daily and when she accidentally flushes her wedding ring, she is forced to step back and pay serious consideration to her choices.

While she's busy with wedding arrangements, Katie stumbles onto the path of a killer. Carl Hades, a private investigator is on the trail of the killer who is responsible for the deaths of four brides-to-be.

During the course of the investigation, Katie and Carl discover an attraction towards each other. However, between Katie's imminent wedding and Carl's aversion to marriage, both are reluctant to act on their growing feelings.

In addition to the story of Katie and Carl, there's a secondary story featuring Katie's best friend. Both stories are easy to follow. The writing moves fast, and does not complicate the story. There are some very funny moments and also sad moments dealing with family loss.

Christine Craig is a talented writer. In this story, she develops interesting and likable characters into a story that has enough twist and turns to keep you at the edge of your seat. I look forward to reading more of her books.


Reviewed by Cez at Bookaholics Romance Book Club

With two weeks to go before they exchange I do, Katie and Joe have doubts. Katie is not sure she wants to walk down the aisle while Joe wonders why he felt attracted and connected to a woman he met in a bar.

While the pair separately wonders about marriage to each other, private investigator Carl Hades after battling a man wearing a pink thong is meeting with wedding planner Tabitha Jones of Tabitha Weddings on a case he is working as her brides are suddenly dying which is murdering her business. However, Tabitha is murdered. Meanwhile, Katie wants Carl and her best friend Leslie desires Joe. Besides which a serial bride killer aims to make Katie the next victim as WEDDINGS CAN BE MURDER.

Romantic suspense fans will appreciate this fine fast-paced tale in which two couples struggle with their pairings while Carl works a homicide case in which his client is no longer around to pay him. The story line focuses more on the romantic quadrangular relationships with lighthearted sexual bantering. The murder mystery subplot is entertaining although the wedding killer is a bit over the aisle; but clearly this tale is predominately about the zaniness of marrying the wrong person when Mr. Right is locked with you in a closet.

Harriet Klausner

STORY BRIEF:
Katie is engaged to be married in two weeks, but she doesn't love him and sort-of-accidentally flushes her engagement ring down the toilet. She visits her wedding planner Tabitha. While there someone shoots Tabitha and chases Katie into a storage room. Earlier that day Tabitha called private detective Carl asking him to come over. Tabitha told him she suspected someone she knew was killing her client brides. Carl shows up while the killer is chasing Katie. Carl follows them into the storage room. The killer gets out and locks Carl and Katie inside. Katie discovers a zinging attraction for Carl that she never had with Joe, her fiancé. Meanwhile Joe discovers he's attracted to someone other than Katie. Although Carl and Katie eventually get out of the room, Katie is at risk because she is next on the killer's bride-to-kill list.

REVIEWER'S OPINION:
This was the author's second book. It was ok - a nice story, but it wasn't as feel good as the first book "Divorced, Desperate and Delicious." Instead of anticipation, I was frustrated waiting for Carl and Katie to get together. Carl didn't want a commitment because he didn't want to be hurt, so he kept staying away from Katie. This hurt her. She felt rejected during most of the story. Finally in the end, Carl changes his mind. Conflict based on fear of being hurt is not a favorite device for me. Sometimes it works, but in this case it didn't, maybe because I had no sympathy or other positive feelings for Carl. He was being a jerk throughout the story.

I was annoyed with the author using too many cliffhanger scene interruptions. There are two relationships developing between four people. The author has three pages of Carl and Katie interacting. Then at a crucial moment in the conversation the author switches to a scene with Joe for a couple pages. At a crucial moment in Joe's scene, the author switches back to Carl's scene to continue Carl's conversation, yet leaves Carl's scene later at another cliffhanger moment. This switching back and forth went on for more than 100 pages (while the relationships were developing). I prefer a scene continue to a normal conclusion rather than stopping at a point I feel is an interruption. I was jumping around in the book so I could read several of the Joe scenes before going back and picking up the interrupted Carl scenes. Cliffhangers may be ok sometimes in small doses, but there were too many in this book.

Katie is constantly fighting nausea and vomits a lot. At one point, page 138, I was thinking "I'm tired of reading about her throwing up." This is a minor issue. The only reason I mention it is because the thought crossed my mind. It didn't bother me earlier. Other readers may find it humorous.

DATA:
Story length: 356 pages. Swearing language: strong. Sexual language: moderate/strong. Number of sex scenes: 3. Total number of sex scene pages: 16. Setting: current day Houston, Texas. Copyright: 2008. Genre: romantic mystery.

OTHER BOOKS:
For a list of my reviews of other Christie Craig books, see my 5 star review of "Divorced, Desperate and Delicious" posted 9/12/08.

Don't ask me to share my copy of Weddings Can Be Murder. I intend to reread it. It's that funny. I didn't think anything could be as funny as Divorced Desperate and Delicious, but Christie Craig may have topped herself with this one.
If you don't have your copy, you'd better hurry. I went to three bookstores in town the week after the release and they were out already.

Absoulutely love Christie Craig! If you like Jennifer Crusie, you will love Christie Craig. Dialog is very believable, you can easily imagine sitting among these characters. This definitely goes on the keeper shelf.

WEDDINGS CAN BE MURDER
CHRISTIE CRAIG

Rating: 4.5 Enchantments

Katie Ray is in the midst of planning her wedding when an impromptu meeting with her wedding planner ends in murder. Now Katie's trying to go ahead with the wedding plans, even though she's got a crush on Sexy PI Carl Hades and isn't quite sure she's as in love with Joe as she ought to be to marry him--after all, what else could losing her eight thousand dollar engagement ring be, but a sign? But when the killer seems to have Katie in his sights, she is forced to accept Carl's protection and the fact that what she's feeling might be more than just a crush.

Private Investigator Carl Hades is on his way to meet with the elite Houston wedding planner who wanted him to investigate several missing brides, only to find himself arriving just in time to save a beautiful redhead from a killer. The last thing he wants to do is find himself attracted to a woman, much less an engaged one, but there's something about Katie that makes him feel things he hasn't felt in a quite a long time. And when he finds out the missing brides aren't just missing, their dead, and the killer has his sights set on Katie as his next victim, Carl's willing to do whatever it takes to keep her safe, even if it means risking his own heart.

WEDDINGS CAN BE MURDER is a very enjoyable contemporary romance. Katie and Carl are great together, I love the way they try to stay apart, but circumstances keep bringing them back together. The chemistry between them is instant, there from the first moment they meet being locked together in a storage closet unsure whether the killer was still somewhere in the house waiting for them which was one of my favorite scenes in the book. The banter between them and how well they got to know each other in a very short amount of time made it a great scene. But I have to say my absolute favorite scene in the book is the dishwashing scene between Katie and Carl. I don't think I'll ever think of dishwashing the same way again!

I also really liked the subplot with Katie's best friend. Some of those scenes had me truly laughing out loud, like when she went to meet with Joe and in order to stem off the simmering attraction between the two, she borrows a pumpkin dress from her grandmother. Filled with great characters, unexpected twists and turns and a creepy killer on the loose, WEDDINGS CAN BE MURDER is one contemporary romance you don't want to miss.

[...]
Lisa
Enchanting Reviews
August 2008

It's two weeks until she marries the perfect man and Katie Ray couldn't be happier. Or could she? Throwing up every time you think about walking down the aisle just means she's nervous, right? And flushing her $8,000 engagement ring down the toilet was just an accident, wasn't it? Neither of those could possibly be a sign the wedding should be called off. But perhaps Katie's wedding planner being murdered and finding herself locked in a storage room with a sexy private investigator might be...

After receiving a nervous call from a wedding planner worried someone is murdering her brides, Carl Hades is stunned when he's trapped by the murderer. Even more surprising to Carl is the woman he's trapped with. Katie is everything he's ever avoided. The beautiful redhead is sweet, alluring, and good. When Katie's engagement goes by way of her ring, Carl can't resist the temptation she presents. And when it appears the murderer is after Katie, it's up to Carl to stop him before something terrible happens to the one woman who can make the commitment-phobic P.I. want to say "I do."

There aren't enough words in the world to describe how happy Weddings Can Be Murder made me. From the very first sentence, Christie Craig captured my attention, and never let go after that. I was charmed by how Ms. Craig deftly blended love, humor, danger, friendship, and romance to create a story filled with memorable characters and scenes that I have read and re-read over and over, to my everlasting delight.

What I love about Weddings Can Be Murder are the individual quirks Ms. Craig gives each character to make them feel real. From Katie and Carl to their friends and family, every person in the story seemed to come to life right off the page, making the book feel truly original. I loved Katie and her innate goodness, her desire to make those she loved happy. I equally adored Carl, not just because he was incredibly sexy, but that for all his machismo, he had an incredibly soft heart.

It should also be mentioned that Weddings Can Be Murder treats readers to not just one romance, but two. Katie's best friend, Les, plays a huge role in the story. It'd hate to give away any plot spoilers, so I will just say that I grew every bit as fond of Les and her hero as I did Katie and Carl. One of the many reasons I couldn't put the book down was because I was rooting for each couple to find happiness, though circumstances, confusion, and their own fear of falling in love threw up major roadblocks in each couple's way.

Weddings Can Be Murder was the first book of Ms. Craig's I have ever read, and I can already say it wasn't the last. Her writing style is absolutely fantastic, and, in addition to making me sigh over the book's romantic elements, Ms. Craig's humor genuinely made me laugh out loud, something I assure you almost never happens when I read. Weddings Can Be Murder sparkles with wit and charm and is now on the list of my absolutely favorite books. Joyfully Recommended!

Shayna
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

I got Weddings Can Be Murder as a freebie from a competitor and read it on my iPhone using their reader. I drained my battery because I could not stop reading! The characters were well-developed, and Christine Craig wrote some laugh out loud moments. The plot had its predictable moments, but the interaction between the characters made up for that. I found the jockeying between the subplots (two couples' relationship issues and the mystery) to be disjointed and rather abrupt--Craig starts by going back and forth at pretty regular intervals and then she switches the timing towards the end of the book. This was my first Christine Craig book, and I'm definitely going to read more.

Katie Ray is a nervous puker, and the thought that she's getting married in two weeks is enough to have her bent over a commode getting rid of her lunch, breakfast, and half of last night's dinner. Doesn't matter that her fiance Joe is the perfect man. He's been distant lately. And he hasn't ever quite kept Katie's loneliness at bay. But flushing her engagement ring down the toilet during her last purge was strictly an accident, wasn't it? Wasn't it??

Private investigator Carl Hades is hell on women, all right. Or he was. Until a love affair went wrong just over a year ago. Now he spends more time with Victoria's Secret catalogs and his prissy dog Precious. But he keeps himself busy running his business and that business is meeting up with Tabitha Jones, a wedding planner who tells him that her brides are being killed and she thinks she knows who may be doing it. When he arrives at Tabitha's house to get more information, he hears screams and stumbles into a murder and attempted murder in progress, but all he gets for his trouble is getting locked into a freezing room with no heat, no food, and the nervous puker who just watched his newest client get gunned down. And Carl is a sympathy puker.

I can't tell you how much I enjoy Christie Craig's work. Her books just make me giggle. I enjoyed the serial killer plot thread and the development between Katie and Carl. It was hot and fast but with caution befitting the entirety of the situation. What really sets Craig's work apart from other romance books, though, is the attention to detail in little things. Like the frou frou dogs and the pink...er...light red shirt and the fact that Carl's brother Ben looks just like him from behind. And the elephant painting. Those sorts of details bring a sense of humor and reality to the story.

The relationship between Katie and Joe was handled extremely well, with a minimum of angst, and I appreciated that. Nothing sucks the fun out of a romance faster than a jilted party, and I was pleased with the direction this book took instead. There were several solid secondary characters that fleshed this novel out nicely, as well. I wasn't horribly enamored with Katie's best friend Les, but I very much enjoyed Carl's father and brother and sister-in-law. Joe seemed like the quintessential nice guy, too. This book belonged, though, to Katie and Carl. And rightly so. Katie was a plucky contemporary woman who had survived unimaginable tragedy yet hadn't let that stifle her capacity to love...just, maybe, her willingness to risk. She's about one of the kindest female leads I've read recently and on a lot of levels I admired her. I...could've done without the puking, but that's just because I'm just like Carl when it comes to that.

Carl couldn't be any more manly man if he tried. I thought his embarrassment over his less than butch dog was cute as heck and his own past both heartbreaking and endearing. Craig really excels in offering us up characters defined by past trauma that's surprisingly easy to relate to. I admire that. There is a lot to admire in Weddings Can Be Murder.

I did have a few issues with the story, though. This was the first Craig book I've read where I didn't think the resolution to the main relationship had as much of an emotional impact on me as I was hoping it would. I loved the HEA scene in Divorced, Desperate and Dating, so perhaps I was expecting too much, but it fell just a little short for me given how totally shi...er...not good Carl treated Katie just prior to the big revelation, and again, Katie had her own issues that never really got even mentioned until the very end. I would have preferred a bit more time given for Katie to recognize and deal with her own issues left over from controlling, seemingly perfect parents and the loss of her family and seen more how those wounds affected her side of the relationship with Carl. I can't really say that's a complaint, but it did keep my reading enjoyment a bit more modest. One thing, though, that really bugged me. There were a couple of comments and a scene or two that got a little too close to sounding discriminatory and disrespectful of gay men for my tastes. I'm trying to be very cautious saying that, because I in no way want to insinuate that the author discriminates against anyone. There were, however, a few things that didn't sit well with me, mostly in relation to Carl's character, in that regard.

As to a non story-related issue: like I found in Divorced, Desperate and Dating, there were more than a couple formatting issues on the Kindle version. In fact, there were nineteen that I found when reading. Most of those are exactly the same as in Divorced, Desperate and Dating. The words 'tonight' and 'pleasure' in particular are almost always written 'to night' and 'plea sure,' and believe me when I say, reading a romance, 'pleasure' in particular comes up more than once. It's very distracting to have those words split all the time. That did not, however, affect my review of Weddings Can Be Murder because I don't believe the author has any control over the formatting of her work for Kindle.

I've got a few more lovely stories by this author that I've purchased and I'll stick in between other works, and she's definitely on my must-read list. I enjoyed just about every minute spent reading this book.

When I started this book I thought it would be light reading that is entertaining. I read a lot of books on heavy topics and like to mix it up with some fun reading. But okay, I don't know how to say this without sounding like a prude but I thought some of her sex scene descriptions were a bit vulgar. I really did not need to read about leaving wet spots in a bed. I have been accused of being too liberal at times so I am even surprising myself with this reaction. Maybe I am getting old (is 45 old??). Anyway, if you are turned off by too much information about people's sex lives you may want to pass on this book. I enjoy books that give you just enough information to make a point but leave the rest up to your imagination.