Title: The Wedding Dilemma

Author: Mariah Ankenman

eBook 

Pages: 296

Publisher: Entangled

ISBN: 9781649371690

Release Date: 5-17-21

Book Details: eBooks, totally able to customize the reading experience.

Where To Find It: I found it on the Entangled website and bought it through Barnes & Noble.

Time that the story takes place? Current day.

POV? Third person

What caught your eye? I got a newsletter/email from Entangled that was promoting this title for .99, which is always a reason to give any book a second look. The sample chapter was charming, decided to go for it.

Did you enjoy it? Uh . . . no. In fact, cards on the table, I didn’t even finish it.

Was it predictable? No. And I say that because I was never certain where the hell this was going. The only thing predictable was that the two leads were attracted to each other, and they were going to kiss.

Was it sexy? Tame? It wasn’t my jam.

Did you find it funny? Entertaining? Not in a good way.

Would you read it again? As stated above, I couldn’t even finish it. Chapter 14 is where I stopped. Which was The Sex chapter. 

Is this part of a series? It is, Mile High Firefighters.

Now let me start off with stating that writing a book is hard, anyone that tells you that writing is easy is lying to you. Writing is hard. Coming up with and developing characters is hard. Trying to create scenes and situations that will touch your reader is hard. Getting the book published is hard. Therefore, I refuse to tear apart someone’s work.

As stated above, I found the first chapter charming. Interesting even. I’m an artist (as is my husband) and I’m pretty well versed on the whole, “What can go wrong” with art supplies. In fact, there were a lot of relatable points in this book.

Our leading lady, Tamsen, is a waitress in a restaurant, I worked in one as well.

She’s an artist. Me too.

She lives in Denver. Well, I’ve been to Denver.

She’s a touch klutzy and a bit absented minded at times. Aren’t we all?

Our leading man, Parker, is a fire fighter. The son of a wealthy mother and apparently terrible father. And he plays bar trivia once a week. As does Tamsen.

The two meet during an emergency call to Tamsen’s apartment. She was making a body cast for an art installation and forgot to put oil on her body before applying the plaster. On her torso. She can’t get it off and calls for help.

Parker is one of the firefighters that comes to the rescue. 

However, this is not what brings our two leads back together again. Parker’s mother is marrying Tamsen’s father. (I’m as opened minded as the next person, but this is when I got my first shiver of icky.) Parker and Tamsen reconnect at the engagement party, and this is also where I had my first red flag go up. 

It’s an engagement party, of course champagne is flowing freely. Parker silently bemoans the beverage as “bitter bubble” and wishes that he could have a beer. Tamsen thinks the champagne is “delicious” and “heavenly”.

This is a red flag? For me it is. I’m someone that focuses on the little details in storytelling, those little moments that even if it isn’t spoken about you know that both characters are on the same page. If you’ve watched Ted Lasso, you may know of his distaste and dislike of hot tea. As kind as Ted is, he has no love of the beverage and has no issue questioning those that drink it. Even though Ted is in fact in England where tea is the drink of choice. Flash forward to a particular episode where Ted has a crippling panic attack, and his very British therapist comes to his home to help. Ted offers her a cup of tea and Dr. Fieldstone tells him that she hates tea. She doesn’t know of Ted’s dislike of the drink and in that instant Ted tells her, “I’ll tell you anything.” 

Now that was just a long winded way of me telling you about why the champagne is a red flag for me. If both had loved the drink or better yet, if both had despised the champagne, you’d see the potential for future compatibility. Nothing makes me happier when my husband confides that he’s hating something that I’ve been silently despising for the last hour. Love is important, but having someone that hates the same things you do? Priceless.

In romances, you have to have a reason why the characters are spending so much time together. This is why Boss/Secretary storylines are popular or even Trapped In A Snowstorm Together. . . you get the idea. In this, Tamsen and Parker are supposed to be planning a wedding shower together. The parents think it would be nice for their children to plan a party and they’ll get to know each other in the process.

Sure . . . okay.

Anyway, Parker (whose mother is wealthy) is suspect to any man his mother is with and hires private investigators to check out the men his mother dates. So far exposing several bastards in the mix. Naturally he believes that Tamsen’s father is suspect as he works for the library and isn’t a rich man. So, he must maintain distance from Tamsen, even though he has serious feels for her. And she’s going to be his sister, or stepsister as he keeps reminding his co-workers at the fire station.

I finished Chapter 14, which was The Sex, and honestly . . . I was left cold by all of it. Someone else may find this book lovely and flirty and sexy and hot and if you do, AWESOME. I mean that seriously, we don’t all love the same things, that’s what makes life wonderful. If we all loved and hated the exact same things, there’d be no room for growth and the exchange of ideas.

Sadly, gentle reader, this was not a winner for me. The book was written well, excellent cast of characters, and it did have some charm to it. This just wasn’t my favorite.