A Wedding Worth Waiting For

White Weddings #2

by Jessica Steele

A Wedding Worth Waiting For by Jessica Steele released on Jul 23, 1999 is available now for purchase.

Genres: Romance

185 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 8, 1999

About the author

Jessica Steele was born on May 9, 1933 in the elegant Warwickshire town of Royal Leamington Spa. She has two super brothers, Colin and George, and a lovely sister, Elizabeth. She was a delicate child and missed a lot of school. In fact, she left school at aged 14, when she was diagnosed as having tuberculosis. At 16, she started work as a junior clerk. In 1967, Jessica married with her husband, Peter and within a very short space of time they had moved from her hometown to the lovely area where they now live. Their house is built into the side of a hill, and has beautiful views over more hills and valleys. Her brothers and her sister are very close and she has plenty of nephews and nieces to make up for the fact that she and her husband have no children of their own. Both she and her husband are more than a little dog-oriented, and their current dog is a Staffordshire bull terrier named Florence. Florence is gorgeous. She loves everybody but, since she is 40 pounds of dynamite and would hurl her boisterous self at everyone she meets - given half a chance - she has to be restrained (as much as possible). She is fun.

Her husband spurred Jessica on to her writing career, giving her every support while she did what she considers her five-year apprenticeship (the rejection years) while learning how to write. She published her first books in 1979. Jessica has tried using a typewriter, but it just doesn't work for her. She is much happier writing in longhand, and in actual fact has a dozen or so fountain pens filled and ready to go at the start of any one session. A friend has a secretarial agency and, after deciphering Jessica's writing, returns an immaculately typed manuscript. To gain authentic background for her books, she has travelled and researched in Greece, Russia, Egypt, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Hong Kong, China and Japan.

Reviews

[*CJ* · Rating 2 out of 5]

"A Wedding Worth Waiting For" is the story of Karrie and Farne.

Our h is a gorgeous and innocent belle, who has grown up in a conservative family. Been warned against men and their intentions from childhood, ever since she realized the truth about her parents'marriage, she is wary of men who flock around her like bees around nectar. So much so, that the book begins with her coworker serenading her beauty with 'I'd love to walk barefoot through your delicately pale, ripening corn-colored tresses' . LOL.

Anyways, the H comes into her life and sparks fly from both sides. They instantly fall in love, there's some back and forth with drama, and after a small hiccup, ends in a HEA.

There was just..nothing after all the buildup we had in the first half. I was expecting some passion or angst, but nope, it was pure happy-happy-small roadblock-happy-happy. Not exactly my cup of tea.

Safe
2/5

[MissKitty · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is unusual in the sense that it’s not wacky like other harlequin romance books. It is, so far, the most normal one I have come across. I mean, no revenge plots, no pimping parents/relatives, no evil other woman. No hate vibe between the characters...so I kinda liked it since it was ordinary, if a bit boring.

The couple meet, flirt, go on a few dates, are totally attracted to each other. They are on the course for a whirlwind romance, and marriage. The Hero wants to marry the heroine within 10 days and after knowing her for little more than a week. It’s only upon intervention of the heroine’s mother that they agree to a 3 month engagement. The author shows how insecurity with each other’s feelings almost leads to the wedding being cancelled but all gets resolved in the end and they get their HEA.

What I found weird, was the author’s portrayal of the heroine. The heroine is supposed to be a 22year old working woman, but she had all the symptoms of arrested development. I think the author wanted to show her as conservative and virginal, but instead, she seemed more like a 15year old going through her first big crush. The author did actually do a good job describing the extremes of emotion when in the face of an intense attraction, plus the insecurity that comes of not really knowing the depth of the other person’s regard. The heroine constantly vacillates between being happy and worried since she is unsure of the Hero’s feeling. The readers all know he is just frustrated but the heroine can’t figure it out, which is why she acts more like a teenager than a grown woman. She was just too naive to be believable.

[Ivy H · Rating 3 out of 5]

A delightful, old fashioned romance with a H who's a gentleman and courts the heroine before asking for her hand in marriage. The heroine Karrie is a bit of a ninny at times because she's very sheltered and allows her mother's cynical perspective on romance to affect her life a little too much. Karrie also has the good luck to have all the guys chasing after her, like her co worker Darren and her best friend Travis. Karrie's mother, Margery, is a bitter lady whose husband Bernard ( and Karrie's dad ) has no time for her and doesn't love her. He had only proposed to her after she became pregnant and his dissatisfaction with his marriage only worsened when his wife was unable to give birth to the precious male heir he desired so much. In spite of her parents' jaded attitudes and horrible marriage, Karrie is still an endearing and kind young lady who has even chosen to work as a typist for another company, instead of her father's. That's where she meets the H Farne. Farne is the big boss in charge of the parent company that employs Karrie. He visits all the subsidiary companies infrequently and all Karrie's fellow typists have huge crushes on his handsome hotness. But he has never paid attention to any of the female minions in the typing pool, until the day he visits and sees the beauteous Karrie.

It's almost love at first sight and Farne breaks his own rule by asking Karrie out on a date but she refuses politely. He doesn't give up, however, and continues to pursue her. Their love affair grows gradually as they go on dates more regularly and Farne even gets jealous of Karrie's platonic male best friend Travis. Farne was a really chivalrous H. He never forces his studly sexy body upon Karrie and when he discovers how old fashioned she is, he proposes to her. He even does the gentlemanly thing by asking her crotchety old father for her hand in marriage. The issues that the MC's face in this novel are not very angsty at all and it's mainly due to Karrie stupidity and the way she lets her mother control her life so much. That's the only part I didn't like so much. I loved Farne. He was the quintessential strong, silent type of H and he was besotted with Karrie from day 1. The only main conflict revolved around Karrie's fear that Farne didn't love her and would eventually turn out to be a workaholic like her dad. This was such a stupid fear because Farne always treated her really well. She let her own insecurities get the better of her but things did work out well and the novel ended on a high note with a beautiful white wedding.

[Book Elf · Rating 4 out of 5]

My copy of this book was given to me by the author herself. I love all Jessica Steele's novels.

[Nightwitch · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was just so old school that it reminded me of sneaking my grandmother's classic Harlequins on holiday visits. The heroine's parents have a miserably unhappy marriage which began with her mother's unmarried pregnancy, so she has promised her mother that she will never, ever have premarital sex. She meets and falls for the hero, but when they start getting hot and heavy, she tells him she won't have sex until marriage and he says, "Welp, I guess we better get married then." Are they engaged? She's not quite sure. Turns out yes and he wants the wedding, like, within the week. Her mother balks and heroine dutifully reports to hero that oh yeah, they're going to have to wait six months. He seems less than thrilled about this (and makes the I think very salient point that "seriously? you're allowing your crazy, miserable, thwarted mother to schedule your wedding in preference to discussing it with the groom?") and gets it down to two months, most of which he spends avoiding her every time they have a chance to get intimate and cuddle, to the point that he schedules a two-week trip to Australia to end the day before their wedding. Heroine is not unsurprisingly confused as to whether they're still in an actual relationship and calls off the wedding. Hero shows back up and is like, what gives. Turns out he was avoiding the heroine because she was so desirable; he assumed at first she had some sex hang-up so was cool with marrying her to get nookie because I guess his lovin' is just that good so he figured she'd get over the sex hang-up once he gave it to her, but when he realized she didn't have a sex hang-up it became really, really hard to avoid having sex with her, so he considerately put a couple of continents between them. Like, okay. This is such a ridiculous premise that it's hard to find it offensive, actually. Anyway, they get married at the end - and that's why you should never give away the milk for free, girls!

[Debby · Rating 2 out of 5]

There’s a whole lot of talking.


I don’t feel a lot of chemistry going on between the h and H. The h is a 22 year old virgin who lives with her parents. She wants to wait until she is married with having sex. The H agrees to wait, but wants a special marriage licence so they can get married within 10 days.

Then the mother of the bride says she wants her daughter to have a special wedding and that the wedding should be after 6 months. So the h tells the H that he has to wait for 6 months.

Anyway, if she were so sexually attracted and head over heels with him, she wouldn’t have wanted to wait 6 months. Not with the wedding and not with sex. That’s why I don’t see a lot of chemistry.

Actually it was boring. Too much talking, too little heat.

[RomLibrary]

True love is worth waiting for…
WHITE WEDDINGS
The boss has
found his bride…
Karrie has been instantly smitten by company executive Farne Maitland. His mesmerizing blue eyes and powerful masculinity have won her over, and she's been the envy of her colleagues since they found out just who she's been dating!
But Farne is a man of the world and he's keen to take their relationship another step further�while Karrie isn't! Her upbringing has made her determined that she will be a virgin bride. So, as Farne sees it, there's one solution: marry�and quick!

[Prac Agrl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nope!!
Again h is immature and no communications and jumping to conclusions
How idiotic it is that you are calling off your wedding and not telling your fiance first!!!!!
Seriously!!!
I understand the h's mother concern but again i feel it was easily manipulations of h (by both her parents) and she was under the thumb of her mom and basically needs to talk to a psychiatrist.

[Lianna · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was ok. The main guy, got really possessive. It wasn't romantic to read about somebody like that. At first they were cute though, but then I lost interest.

[Poonam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the banter between the H and the h. h was really spunky. H was possesive.