Reviews with content warning for Racism - The Wedding Date

Jasmine Guillory really just knows what’s up when it comes to romance. The premise is cute and unique, the banter is excellent, the characters are multidimensional and relatable, and the plot makes sense for the most part. And the spicy stuff isn’t too detailed lol. Now I’m going down a rabbit hole of rereading this whole series

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bzliz's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The Wedding Date jumps right in to the action as Drew Nichols gets stuck in an elevator with Alexa Monroe and walks away with her secured as his date to his best friend’s wedding to his ex-girlfriend. He has a habit of keeping his relationships short so they never get to the bad part while she’s doing something spontaneous and not serious for once. Of course they can’t stay away from each other and are dating without admitting that they’re dating until it all comes crashing down at a 4th of July party.

This was my first Jasmine Guillory book and though it was cute, it was forgettable. I’ll give her other books a shot though. I liked that there wasn’t a lot of bumbling around until Drew and Alexa meet. Some romances drag this out way too long. My biggest complaint is that everything is repetitive. These two meet up every weekend to hook up and eat and we rarely see anything outside of that. Every conversation with their friends is basically the same- Carlos tells Drew that he can tell Alexa is special and she’s his girl even if Drew won’t admit it, Theo says looks like you had a good/bad weekend. We also don’t really see any growth from either of them. Sure, they apologize for hurting each other and not talking about their feelings but they never discuss Alexa’s tendency to jump to conclusions and decide Drew’s feelings for him, nor do they address Drew’s unfounded jealousy and he doesn’t seem to grow from his realizations that he’s led a privileged life.

If you’re looking for fluff without much substance with lots of fade to black sex scenes you’ll probably enjoy this.

Content warnings:
Racism (on page):

Alexa mentions dealing with microaggressions. She has a discussion with Drew about how his teenage escapades were treated differently because he is a white guy; this is eye opening for him and he seems to have never considered that things he got away with would have been handled differently if he’d been black. The white neighborhood is generally against Alexa’s plans for an art program for at risk teens and some community members argue that those kids should be punished and they’ll corrupt other kids rather than be rehabilitated. A man at the wedding is sleazy toward Alexa and later tries to rope Drew into telling him what it’s like to sleep with a Black woman. A guy at the 4th of July party keeps asking Alexa where she’s from and not accepting California as an answer because apparently black people cant be from California??

Sexual content (on page): Less than 1 pepper for spice.

Many sex scenes but all are pretty mild. The most explicit language is about pinching nipples and all penetrative sex is fade-to-black.

Cancer (child, on page):

Drew is a pediatric surgeon who seems to do a lot of other tasks at the hospital. One of his patients turns out to have cancer and he tells the boy’s mother. The child gets chemotherapy but there’s no resolution on his diagnosis.

Fatphobia (on page):

Internalized, Alexa often compares her body to the other women around her. She insists she’s too heavy in a scene where Drew picks her up and in another scene she rolls off him saying she’s too heavy.

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destinynichole11's review

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funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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lucyisabella's review

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adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I thought that the dynamics of the different personalities were fun to read and also how they navigated their differences and acknowledged their similarities. I liked the pace of the book and thought that it was perfect not too slow and not too fast

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