The Wedding by Julie Garwood

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The November trope for the Smart Women Read Romance Patreon exclusive review was marriage of convenience. The book that won the poll was The Wedding by Julie Garwood. This is the 2nd book in her Lairds' Fiancées series. I also was able to use this book to cover the prompt book you're excited for for Fall in Love part two.

Brenna has been sent north to the Highlands to be wed to Laird McNare. On the way, Laird Connor MacAlister "kidnaps" her for himself. He is getting revenge against McNare and also needs a wife. However, Brenna and Connor met when they were younger and Brenna ended up proposing to Connor as young kid three times. After the gruesome death of his father Connor has grown up with vengeance as his main motivating factor, but they are waiting until they have proof of who the traitor is before moving against McNare and his supporters. As Connor and Brenna travel to his and his brother's lands, they really learn more about each other and start to connect.

This is the second book I've read by Julie Garwood, the first being The Secret. I loved it and I really loved this. First off, I wanted to read The Bride first since it's book one in the series, but ended up skipping it. It was the book club book in October for the Historical Hellions, but I ended up getting so sucked into paranormal and Halloween reads that I didn't pick it up then. Not reading it didn't really detract from the story that much, but I do feel like when we meet Jamie and Alec and their kids it would've been a lot more heartwarming to see them living their HEA. I definitely do want to pick it up in the future. One thing that I love that Julie does is how she incorporates humor. I found myself laughing quite a few times. I also teared up and really went through the ringer. One of my favorite things was how Brenna would not only randomly misplace and lose her things, but also pick up other's things. One of my favorite scenes dealt with this. So earlier on Connor has the guards put a chest in the great room for people to put Brenna's things that they find around the keep. When Connor comes back from a trip, there's a contingency of the clan that ask him if they can take their things back from the chest. The whole thing just cracked me up and I loved that it was consistent throughout.

The heart was really present as well and I felt so bad for Brenna and her relationship with her family. We could see how as the seventh of eight children she was kind of forgotten a lot. When she was young it was heartbreaking, but I also liked that while she had her insecurities in the present time, they weren't debilitating. It was just done masterfully and I loved that Julie gave her a happy and pleasant life without letting whatever issues she had keep her down for long. I can see how others could find Connor rude and domineering in the beginning, but as far as older historicals go, Julie doesn't really have the usual problematic scenes that are more commonly found. At least from what I've read. I didn't mind Connor at all, but I do prefer the more gruff and broody alpha heroes.

If you haven't read Julie Garwood and like or want to get into older historical romances, please giver her a try. I really recommend this and The Secret. They are both so good with romance, humor, heart and everything I want from historical romance. I will definitely continue reading her and definitely plan on getting through all of her historical backlist at some point. I feel like she's a good author for me when I want a cozy historical that I can just get swept away with. I had a lot of fun last month talking with everyone about it during the live. If you haven't yet, certainly check out the Smart Women Read Romance Patreon. It's my favorite podcast. If you have the extra funds, consider joining their Patreon as well. Even when the books isn't quite my cup of tea I always love the smaller discussions.

Have you read The Wedding?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: The Wedding, Julie Garwood, 5-stars, 1 day, eBook, 388 pages, published in 1996