The Matchmaking Wedding Planner

by Bonnie Engstrom

What’s a wedding coordinator to do with a crazy bride?Jill Spooner is the ultimate wedding planner, a role she loves . . . until the Trumble wedding. She’s been in her wedding coordinating business, Divine Weddings, for over twenty years, but she’s never encountered a situation like this one. Nor, a bride like this one. She had privately nicknamed Jessica the bride a “spoiled brat” for insisting on having an auction to fulfill her bridesmaid spots. With the bids starting in the hundreds, she wonders if anyone will show up.When her niece Lizzie and her friend Carolyn drive from Scottsdale to Newport Beach to participate in the auction, mostly for the fun of it, Jill predicts one of them will win the Maid of Honor spot. They even devise a dress up scheme based on the bride’s idea of a storybook wedding. It works well, until Carolyn raises her bidding paddle.Lizzie’s love struck friend Brad shows up in Newport Beach to court her. Jill helps him with a plan, but what to do with Carolyn while he romances Lizzie? Suddenly she’s a matchmaker, and a problem solver for the wedding party. None of that was in her contract. Fortunately, as an experienced consultant, she pulls ideas and answers out of her sleeve when shocking love secrets are revealed. Who really loves whom? Was Jessica the bride-to-be lying? What about her twin brother’s college roommate? Thank goodness Jill took an iron-clad, non-refundable deposit from the Trumbles. She will earn every dollar as the wedding coordinator in captivity. She is almost ready to give up the wedding coordinating business when her matchmaking proves fruitful. Suddenly, she finds herself planning two more weddings that take her out of her element, and out of state. Will she be able to pull them off? Maybe she should start a matchmaking business.

126 pages, Paperback

Published November 7, 2017

Reviews

[Lila Diller · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am sorry to have to do this, but I must honestly say that I didn't like this book. The story was cute, but I was continually confused by the different perspectives. The prologue starts out in Jill's thoughts, then the first couple chapters are in Lizzie's thoughts, then it switches to Brad's thoughts, then Carolyn's a few times, and then Jill's again.

I am still not sure what the overarching story goal is. If Jill is the main protagonist, as the Author Note seems to imply, then once she took care of Jessica's wedding, that should have been the happy ending. If it was Lizzie and Brad's story, then we didn't need Carolyn's or Jill's thoughts at all. There were too many stories fighting for attention.

And the romance itself was sadly lacking. We went from Lizzie just thinking of Brad as a friend and Carolyn thinking that Mitchell was too young to Lizzie kissing Brad a lot and then both couples engaged!

And then the self-righteousness of Lizzie with the racial divide. It destroyed any influence toward racial unity, in my opinion. It was too obvious and preachy.

It just felt like this wasn't finished. I wish I could have given developmental notes to the author or editor. The story was only 115 pages in paperback, but I had to force myself to finish it several times. It needed to be fleshed out more.

Favorite quotes: none

(I received this book for free from the author. I was not compensated for this review. All opinions are my own, as was my decision to write a review.)