Thursday, November 14, 2013

BIG SKY WEDDING by Linda Lael Miller

Publisher:  Harlequin
Date:  August 27, 2013
ISBN: 978-0373777747
Contemporary, Western
Obtained via:  Publicist


3
 Hearts


On what should have been the happiest day of her life Brylee Parrish’s world came crashing down at the wedding that wasn’t.  Despite the fact that Hutch Carmody tried to tell her it just wasn’t going to work between them, Brylee pushed to go ahead with the wedding.  Hutch manned up, albeit it a little too late in the game and left Brylee at the altar.  With the passage of time Brylee came to accept that Hutch was right but that doesn’t mean her heart doesn’t ache for a man and a family of her own.


Zach Sutton has had it with Hollywood. Starting out as a bronco rider he never asked for the fame and attention that came with a leading man’s life. Done with the glitz and glamour he packed his bags and moved to Three Trees, Montana. While out one fine day after arriving he meets his neighbor, Brylee and from that moment on he can’t seem to get the woman of his mind.  Before he can act on his feelings and get to know Brylee better his Hollywood housekeeper, Cleo, descends on him followed quickly by younger brother Nash.  Just as things are settling down his other brother, Landry appears and his presence doesn’t bode good things.


Still, there is something between Brylee and Zach and the lightening isn’t all from the storm that brings them together.  They both have pain in their past, relationships that have gone south.  Can they trust that they may have met “the one?”


I felt bad for Brylee when Hutch left her at the altar and I applauded her strength of character when she picked herself up and built a highly successful and thriving business.  In some of the Big Sky books she was strong and resourceful and in others she lamented not having a man of her own.  Linda Lael Miller’s BIG SKY WEDDING opens wish Brylee feeling like she’s never going to meet the man of her dreams.  I felt like it was a step back for a character, a woman, who had built so much in her life.


I did like Zane.  He is a character with substance, leaving behind a life that stopped working for him and didn’t look back.  He’s got a plan and even with a housekeeper he was pretty darn glad to have around arrived along with a younger brother he barely knew, he rolled with the punches.  Even when Landry with his questionable character arrived on the scene Zane was a stand up guy. Awesome character.




Cleo was a fun character as well although there wasn’t a whole lot of difference between her and Opal who, up until BIG SKY WEDDING seemed to move house to house setting the residents lives in order.  A scene or two with Opal and Cleo meeting, especially since Parable and Three Trees are both small towns, would have been highly entertaining.  With their bigger than life attitudes and hearts that have room for anyone that comes into their lives, they would have had some dynamite scenes.


BIG SKY WEDDING is the kind of story that would serve as a nice intro to romance for a teenaged daughter.  Except for the quick and dirty ending bringing Brylee and Zane together.  If there was chemistry between them it happened outside the pages of the book.  It’s a nice story.  I like what Ms. Miller does with the secondary characters, including the dogs and horses.  There just didn’t seem to be anything going on between the two main characters.  I kept wondering when the sparks would fly between Zane and Brylee and as the pages marched on and on I wondered if they would happen at all.  Then all of a sudden the story wound up and after a quick summation the story ends.  I didn’t dislike the story; I enjoyed it as a stand-alone contemporary story about people in general.  But the romance was a non-event.

 

 

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


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