book thoughts: The Wedding Party and The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory

-
Last spring I read Jasmine Guillory's debut novel, The Wedding Date, mostly because the bookternet was so excited about it. I don't typically read romance, but body-positive interracial romance with smart people intrigued me. And I liked the book. When I reviewed it on Litsy, I said, "A fun, sexy, mostly smart romp. Both main characters are annoyingly insecure at times, but part of that may have been the audio performance, which was okay but distractingly breathy at times. I finished it in print and actually preferred that." Clearly my opinion about the audio performance is unpopular, as it was nominated for an Audie. Last summer, at ALA, I saw Guillory speak as part of a romance panel (that added more than one title to my TBR) and was excited to learn The Proposal features one of the supporting character from The Wedding Date, Carlos, as a main character. (The third book, The Wedding Party, will feature Maddie and Theo, Alexa's best friends.)

Despite getting a copy of The Proposal at ALA last June, I didn't move it to the top of my pile until Reese Witherspoon picked it for the February Hello Sunshine pick. Once I started it, I devoured it in less than 24 hours. I was instantly drawn to Nik, the main character, and I want her to be my friend. While The Proposal is definitely a romance novel, it's also a wonderful portrait of female friendship. Nik is close with her two best friends from college, and both their in person and group text scenes remind me of my own best friends from high school.

As a novel, The Proposal is more accomplished. I appreciated its fast-paced storytelling, but I also was deeply emotionally invested in the characters. I laughed out loud. I sobbed. I loved this book so much, and now that I have an egalley of The Wedding Party (out July 16, 2019), I'm debating how long I can wait to dive in and spend more time with these characters.

 Rating: 4 out of 5 (The Wedding Date) and 4.5 out of 5 (The Proposal)
Length: 335 pages
Publication date: January 30, 2018 & October 30, 2018
Source:  library

 Want to read for yourself? Buy The Wedding Date (Kindle edition) and The Proposal (Kindle edition).

Challenges: Reading Women (romance or love story), Pop Sugar (should be turned into a movie), Litsy A to Z, and Hello Sunshine.

As an affiliate, I receive a small commission when you make a purchase through any of the above links. Thank you for helping to support my book habits that bring more content to this blog!

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for taking the time to comment. Happy reading!

Popular posts from this blog

book review: A Dangerous Place by Jacqueline Winspear

-
Image
The backstory: A Dangerous Place  is the eleventh historical mystery featuring Maisie Dobbs. My reviews of the other eleven (plus Winspear's stand alone historical novel) are in my Book Review Database . The basics: Set four years after the last Maisie Dobbs novel, Leaving Everything Most Loved , in A Dangerous Place , we meet up with Maisie in Gibraltar in 1927 during the Spanish Civil War. She gets off her England-bound ship in Gibraltar because she's not quite ready to return. Note: this review contains spoilers about what happened in those four years of Maisie's life between books, all of which are revealed in this novel's first thirty pages.  My thoughts: Sunday I wrote about the Maisie Mail I received. These postcards appear in the book itself, along with many others. After setting the stage in Gibraltar in the opening pages (Maisie stumbles upon a dead body), Winspear recounts the last four years of Maisie's life in the form of postcards, letters, an...
Read more

book review: Run by Ann Patchett

-
Image
The backstory: After loving State of Wonder  ( my review ), I set out to read all of Ann Patchett's books. The basics: Run  is the story of the Doyle family: Bernard, an Irish Catholic ex-mayor of Boston, his deceased wife Bernadette, their adult son Sullivan, and their two adopted college ages sons, Tip and Teddy, who are biological brothers. My thoughts: I'm beginning to think Ann Patchett is my soul sister. Her writing reaches me deeply, and I've adored everything she's written. It was a special treat to read Run , the novel of hers I knew the least about going in. Although I had the framework of two of her novels and one memoir, I didn't know what to expect. Run  isn't as universally loved as some of her other works, so I was particularly curious to see how it measured up. Admittedly, Run  started off slowly for me. It took two chapters to really get into the heart of the story, but once it happened, I was hooked. One of the things I love most about ...
Read more

book review: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

-
Image
The backstory: Gilead  won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005, the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2004, and was longlisted for the Orange Prize in 2006. The basics: As Rev. Ames nears the end of his life in the 1950's, he begins a letter to his young son because Ames realizes his son is too young to really know him. Gilead  is that letter. My thoughts: Gilead  is a novel I'm been meaning to read for years. It's a character-driven, Midwestern narrative by one of our best contemporary writers. It should be a novel I love, yet I struggled to finish it and admit I was wowed by neither the story nor the writing. Gilead  seemed almost stream-of-consciousness at first. I appreciated that Robinson jumped right in: this novel is a letter from father to son; the reader's ignorance of these two characters is not the focus. As the novel progressed, more details began to be filled in, and the reader begins to understand the characters, setting and purpose. I enjoyed the ...
Read more