ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID by Elaine Hopper

Publisher: Wild Rose Press
Date published: March 2010
ISBN: None listed
Contemporary Romance
Ebook
Reviewed by Tammy
Obtained via Publisher


CLICK TO PURCHASE!Elaine Hopper’s contemporary romance, ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID, is extremely thought provoking and emotional.

Nine years ago, Breanna Parker was engaged to Troy Youngwolf, the love of her life. Before she could tell him that she was pregnant with his child, he shocks her by telling her that while drunk one night, he slept with her best friend, impregnated her and married her. Breanna’s world having fallen apart, she miscarried and moved to Ft. Lauderdale to lick her wounds. Now she is home for her sister’s wedding and of course, the first person she runs into is Troy.

Elaine Hopper’s ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID so easily could have been just a sweet little romance of reunited high school sweethearts. Thankfully, it is so much more than that. Hopper really pulls at the heartstrings with this one. This reader had to put the book down more than once to reach for a tissue – a true sign of a memorable book. Whether you agreed with the way the romanced was resolved or not, this book definitely provoked some strong emotions and deep thought.

It is easy to identify with the heroine. Breanna had her heart shredded by the man she adored and the betrayal of her best friend. Then salt was poured in the wound when she lost her baby. She was emotionally destroyed so badly that after her ex-best friend dies in a car accident, she still couldn’t bring herself to attend the funeral. And then there is Troy. For this reader, at least, it was very difficult to sympathize or even like this man. Though he says he apologized many times for betraying his fiancé in such a horrible way, he still seems to think that Breanna should forgive and forget. As she points out at one point in the book, had her child lived and she remained in the same town with Troy and his new family, the entire town would have pitied Breanna and her bastard child and she would have had to watch Troy and his wife live the life she was supposed to have. Even after she tells him about the baby, he has the gall to get mad at her for not telling him. Incredible. And while he was drunk and apparently completely out of his mind when he impregnated the best friend, are we to believe that this best friend was also unaware of what she was doing? Please. And knowing that he thought of their encounter as a horrible mistake, she still goes ahead and marries him knowing that it would destroy Breanna. Again, all I can say is, please.

At the end, love wins out and a happy ending is found. This reader was left wondering if the ex-best friend had not died, would the ending have been the same? Still, a book that keeps readers on such an emotional roller coaster and leaves them with such deep thoughts (both while reading and after), has got to be worth the read. And ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID is definitely that. If you are looking for a light and airy romance, this is not the book. But if you are looking for something to really get you thinking and reaching deep into your heart to see if you could find a way back to a man in this same situation, then Elaine Hopper’s ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID is the summer read you absolutely have to pick up.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.