A review by mastersal
You May Kiss the Bride by Lisa Berne

3.0

Hoovering between 3 and 3.5 stars. A debut novel dealing with a forced marriageable of convenience trope, this novel is sweet overall. No big mystery or gothic elements which I appreciated. However the tone in uneven - the characters move in an out of personalities as if they were trying them on. The heroine also starts off with more intelligence and loses it all near the latter half. She became so passive that she was a blank slate. I think the author was trying to go for the claustrophobic sense that a lack of choice brings, but it came across as lazy or just uninterested. I gave it a pass since I got what the author was trying for.

The novel is also light on events which I am double minded about. I like that there was no evil cousin trying to push the hapless heroine off the ramparts - no spoilers - but I can’t say much happened. I think this could have benefited from more focus on the leads and less on the relationship between the grandmother and the heroine.

Also - “granny”. Really?! I hated that - I know it’s meant to show the love Livia had for the grandmother (whose name I can’t remember) but it made me cringe every time I read. And for that I docked the half star!