2.5 stars
Devon hasn’t been having the best month. She’s just lost her job, she’s got an apartment in Boston filled with designer shoes that she can’t afford, and her former best friend is marrying the love of her life. Devon has no desire to return to her hometown for Allie and Josh’s wedding, but doing so will enable her to put on a good front before she heads to nearby Greenbush Island to follow a lead on a job. But her short stop in Promise Harbor takes an unexpected turn when Josh is left at the altar and he turns to Devon for help.
For the past year, Josh has put his loved ones’ happiness in front of his own, which is how he winds up at the altar, all set to marry his longtime friend, Allie. Only instead of being married to a woman he cares about, Josh finds himself jilted. He may not be heartbroken, but he is concerned about Allie, and he’s determined to look for her on Greenbush Island, where they were supposed to have their honeymoon. When he asks Devon to help him search for Allie, Josh knows he’s playing with fire. Devon broke his heart once, but he’s still not over her. Could Josh’s disaster of a non-wedding actually be what leads him to happiness?
Kelly Jamieson kicks off the multi-author Promise Harbor Wedding quartet with the fast-paced Jilted. I really liked the premise of the story, but I felt like the book ultimately fell short of the mark, thanks in large part to Josh being overly perfect, Devon’s character never fully coming alive for me, and the overuse of the distracting phrase “Jeebus Crust” (though I do recognize that the last element may not pull other readers out of the story like it did me).
What I really liked about Jilted was the dynamic between Devon and Josh for the first half of the book. Ms. Jamieson did a great job of showing how natural the two of them are as a couple, while adding a healthy dose of realism in the awkwardness of two exes thrown together in an unusual situation. Since much of their relationship is based on their shared history, I do wish we’d seen a bit more of said history to get a better sense of them as a couple before the sexual tension between them caused them to hit the sheets, thereby throwing the romance plotline into high gear. I never got the feeling I understood why they were in love, other than being told they always were.
Jilted isn’t a bad book, but I’ve read other stories by Ms. Jamieson that I’ve liked a lot more. That being said, even though Jilted wasn’t for me, I’m still looking forward to reading the rest of the Promise Harbor Wedding series.
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed.