To Have And To Hold // A Cute Contemporary That Almost Gets Me Excited About Weddings

To Have And To Hold – Lauren Layne

Published: 26th July 2016
Source: Publisher (Headline Eternal)
Genre: Romance, Contemporary
My Rating:

Sex and the City meets The Wedding Planner in To Have And To Hold, the first sizzling contemporary romance in Lauren Layne's The Wedding Belles series about three ambitious wedding planners who can make any bride's dream come true...but their own. For fans of Jill Shalvis, Julie James and Rachel Gibson.

Discovering her fiance is a con man moments before they exchange vows devastates LA celebrity wedding planner Brooke Baldwin. With a fresh start in New York and her first Wedding Belles bridal client, things are looking up. Until she meets the uptight businessman who's holding the purse strings...

Seth Tyler wishes he could write a blank cheque and be done with his sister Maya's wedding, but micromanaging the event is his only chance at proving that Maya's fiance is a liar. He needs the help of her stunning, sassy wedding planner who he finds both irritating - and undeniably tempting.

Can Seth persuade Brooke to unplan a wedding? And, more importantly, how will he convince her that the wedding she should be planning...is theirs?

Where to begin with my latest contemporary romance read? I mean, it’s another addition to my shelf from the publisher, Headline Eternal, and this is a publisher who is proving to be my go to for all things romance.

First Off We Establish I Am Not A Wedding Person

I am not completely sure why I wanted to read this book. I think I was drawn in by the premise of a wedding planner and a cynical sibling to the bride falling in love and that is definitely what I fell in love with.

The thing is, I did not grow up planning a dream wedding or anything like that. A wedding theme does not make me swoon and get me wanting to read because I can imagine nothing worse than being a wedding planner dealing with brides all the time. I do not understand why anyone would want to spend the thousands of pounds so many do on a wedding when that money could be spent on something far more practical, like a house. I mean, I see the stress people get under from trying to plan the perfect wedding and it seems completely illogical to me so it seems a bit strange I would want to read a series which centres around people’s weddings.

Anyway, despite not being a wedding person I fell in love with the entire concept. The idea of a girl who has been jilted still believing in love and planning weddings and a boy who is convinced his sister is doing the wrong thing trying to convince the wedding planner to stop the wedding all whilst falling in love.

And Then We Discover I Liked The Characters

I actually really enjoyed this book and I think it’s because I fell for the characters. I mean, Brooke was instantly likeable as the women who has burned by marriage (or an almost one, anyway) who is determined to put on a brave face and start afresh in a new city. She is the perfect first character to meet and follow in the Belles series. She is so perfectly relatable and sweet, even if she is floating down the Nile on some things. Her likability comes from her positive attitude which is often bordering and falling over into denial because we all delude ourselves about things.

As for Seth, he is a controlling dumbass who I loved. I mean, he was way too controlling to be acceptable in the real world but book wise he was the perfect guy. I adored him and he’s loneliness and he’s love for his sister and his utter need to control things after that control had been taken away from him previously. Normally I roll my eyes at really rich romantic leads (seriously, how many millionaires can there be in the world?) but it somehow worked in favour of Seth. I don’t quite know why it worked but it did.

And Then We Get Summarising

In the end, this was a really enjoyable contemporary read, especially as I haven’t read one of those in a while. I obviously needed more romance in my life and this book came at the right time. If you’re looking for a cute contemporary read then I would recommend this book to you. It will certainly satisfy that craving. It’s got fun characters who may be a bit ridiculous but are really fun to read about. This may not be breaking new ground in the romance world but it’s still pretty enjoyable.

Have you read any of The Wedding Belles series yet? What did you think? And am I alone in not dreaming of a dream wedding growing up, I feel like it’s a cliché that that is what girls do growing up?