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max_pink 's review for:
You May Kiss the Bride
by Lisa Berne
challenging
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
2.75 Stars
A competently written historical romance that feels…weirdly unromantic? Livia starts out in a bad situation, struggling with self-worth issues, and then spends the rest of this book in better circumstances with…people who magnify her self-worth issues. At every turn, she’s just insulted and emotionally dragged through the mud.
Gabriel is…eh. He’s so emotionally constipated that I’m not really convinced he ever really opened up.
I think I’m also pretty tired of wealthy landed gentlemen in these books having a chip on their shoulders about gold diggers. Like, y’all. This is a dependence YOU created. Deal with it.
I’m not totally sure I buy them being in love, either. It seemed to come out of nowhere.
It sounds like I really didn’t like this book. And that’s not true. I finished it, so the writing was compelling enough. Really, the star of the show here is Mrs. Penhallow, Gabriel’s grandmother. I love a bitter, meddling matriarch, and her development over the course of the book is really engaging.
That being said, it’s kind of a problem when my favorite character in a romance is…neither of the main couple. This just wasn’t a super fun read, tbh.
Carolyn Morris did excellent audio narration, though.