Suddenly a Bride

Second Chance Bridal #1

by Kasey Michaels

Single mother Elizabeth Carstairs had no illusions about getting married. Tying the knot the second time around wouldn't be about love and romance. It would be about friendship and compatibility and making a home for her family. Then she met her sons' sexy baseball coach....

Will Hollingswood liked his life as a footloose bachelor. That was before his matchmaking cousin introduced him to Elizabeth...before the Widow Carstairs and her lively twin boys started him dreaming about white picket fences and forever after.

Could he convince Elizabeth to say "I do" to a lifetime of love?

Genres: Romance, Harlequin, Contemporary Romance, Ebooks, Category Romance, Contemporary, Fiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1941

About the author

Kasey Michaels is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than 100 books (she doesn't count them). Kasey has received three coveted Starred Reviews from Publishers Weekly, two for the historical romances, THE SECRETS OF THE HEART and THE BUTLER DID IT, and a third for contemporary romance LOVE TO LOVE YOU BABY (that shows diversity, you see). She is a recipient of the RITA, a Waldenbooks and Bookrak Bestseller award, and many awards from Romantic Times magazine, including a Career Achievement award for her Regency era historical romances. She is an Honor Roll author in Romance Writers of America, Inc. (RWA)

Kasey has appeared on the TODAY show, and was the subject of a Lifetime Cable TV show "A Better Way," in conjunction with Good Housekeeping magazine, a program devoted to women and how they have achieved career success in the midst of motherhood (short version: "with great difficulty").

A highly praised nonfiction book, written as Kathryn Seidick, "...OR YOU CAN LET HIM GO," details the story of Kasey and her family during the time of her eldest son's first kidney transplant.

Kasey has written Regency romances, Regency historicals, category books including novellas and continuities and a few series "launch" books, and single title contemporaries. She has coped with time travel, ghosts, trilogies, the dark side, the very light side, and just about everything in between. Hers is also the twisted mind behind her ongoing Maggie Kelly mystery series starring a former romance writer turned historical mystery writer whose gorgeous hunk of a fictional hero shows up, live and in color, in her Manhattan living room – to melt her knees, to help her solve murders, and to leave the top off her toothpaste. And, says Kasey, she's just getting started!

Series:
* His Chariot Awaits
* Lion On the Prowl
* Crown Family
* London Friends
* Chandlers Request
* The Trehan Brothers
* Maggie Kelly Mystery
* Romney Marsh
* Sunshine Girls

Reviews

[Saly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book mainly because there was something so charming about the writing. The heroine Elizabeth finds herself practically pushed into a second chance bridal shop and talking with the owner Chessie where she confesses that her boss has just proposed to her, and no they don't have that sort of a relationship, but he is financially stable and doesn't mind her twin sons and is kind of dependent on her, he is a absent-minded writer.

Chessie tells her that she can make her seven year old sons join baseball being coached by her cousin Will and then she tells Will to wake Elizabeth up, she's been sleep-walking through life only as a mother since her husband died five years ago and doesn't realize that she's still young(28) and pretty.

There was something so magical about Will and Elizabeth, from the start we see him falling for her, while he like a typical lawyer tells himself, it is nothing. He likes spending time with her kids and her and when he kisses her he dreams of white-picket fences.

Will is a bachelor and happy with the status but that all changes, I liked how there were no major hurdles or misunderstandings in the book, just a simple exploration of a relationship and Richard too finds his happy ending.

[Paige · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good overall.

I enjoyed there was not a lot of drama between Elizabeth and Will. It was nice that the fact that Will being set up to take her out and the fact Elizabeth was considering marrying another man did not come between them at the end and cause problems.

I also enjoyed Elizabeth's twin sons and how Will took to them. Unlike Richard, the writer who offered her a proposition proposal, he connected to the boys and saw them as more than little boys.

Will's bachelor was also didn't cause problems as he took very well to the fact he had fallen for Elizabeth. And it was nice not having Elizabeth weep over her the husband she lost.

Very quick read as well.

[Delacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed this funny romance.

[Anne Patkau · Rating 3 out of 5]

*** In "Suddenly A Bride", Kasey Michaels puts funny lines in the mouth of a rumpled gentle action-murder-author to use himself for a wacky romantic comedy (makes sense?). I must be susceptible to cute blonde curled twin toddlers such as I once cared for, because I didn't even throw up over them or collie Sam the Dog herding their beginner baseball team. Baseball and soda, rah rah USA. Modern-day rake, aka hotshot lawyer, Will is an oat-sowing bachelor until his cousin introduces him to gorgeous mom of above-mentioned scamps. A rushed trip to emerg reminds the family of their late dad's last days, the infatuated adults have secrets to reveal, and other happy individuals, like matchmaker Chessie, are waiting for you to read about them. [Nope. No spoilers. Read it yourself. It was worth combing the non-alphabetized Harlequin shelves. I enjoyed first a short story by Michaels, then a Regency, then contemporary, and hunted the library.]

[Gail · Rating 4 out of 5]

The heroine is the widowed assistant to a wealthy mystery novelist (he inherited money too, for those wanting more realism). He's proposed, and she's indecisive. She goes to try on wedding dresses to see if that psychs her up to say yes--and the bridal shop owner sends her to a T-ball team for her twin sons, then calls her cousin the coach and tells him to flirt with the heroine. Make her feel feminine again. The hero is a "player" but he really likes the heroine, and weirdly, has fun hanging out with her and her sons. Heroine is conflicted, because her boss might be her fiance, if she says yes. There's not much plot to this story-- Some kiddie ball, a date or two, heated encounters--but it's thoroughly enjoyable. Neither hero nor heroine is expecting the other, nor expecting to enjoy and like them as much as they do. It's a good read.

[Megan]

I found this to be a sweet, slim read, with a romance between grown-ups who (gasp!) acted like grown-ups. The humor was spot on, and Elizabeth was a good-humored, competent mother and assistant, which I always love to see. The children were not annoying (often a pitfall for me) and struck me as realistic. However, I wanted more about the friendship between Elizabeth and Chessie, the clever and friendly fairy godmother of Second Chance Bridal, and I kept thinking, "If this was a Nora Roberts book, we'd get more of that." So, yeah: the romance was better than average, but I was more interested about the female friendships and had wanted more of that (and I think that would have assisted Elizabeth in her growth more than just the romance).

[Sarah Mae · Rating 3 out of 5]

Requested this from the library and after I finished I realized that I had bought a copy from the Friends book sale. Not my favorite of her books but I think I'll read the rest of the series.

[Nancy Luebke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a nice romance with a good touch of humor.