New York Times says ‘Women are addicted to her (Nora Roberts)
novels as chocoholics are to Godiva’.
The Guardian described it as ‘sheer entertainment’.
The Washington Post claimed that Nora Roberts was ‘The
greatest novelist on planet earth’.
~~~
Will Parker and Mal ever get their Happy Ever After?
I couldn’t wait to find out.
This book is the last of four books based on a successful
wedding planning business run by childhood friends Mackensie, Parker, Laurel
and Emmeline. Although they helped couples to organise the biggest day of their
lives it seems they had trouble finding their own partners. This book is
devoted to Parker who was the brains behind the outfit and the last to remain
single. That is until Mal came along.
It is a typical Nora Roberts love story. Don’t misunderstand
me, I like a good love story but this one started to irritate almost from the beginning.
Why? Because it came across as a bit too sugary.
I don’t know if weddings are organised differently in the US
but I doubt anyone does it this way in the UK. Usually brides do things for
themselves, by choice, but it seems that the wedding business took over all the
decisions, choosing the dress, shoes, flowers, the guest list, the gift list,
the who-should-sit-where list, and the settling of family feuds. She took phone
calls from nervous brides at all hours of the day and night which made me
wonder what mothers were for! On top of all that the reader was taken through
many weddings and given prolonged insight into the decor, the cake making, dress
selection etc. which changed with each wedding. My goodness, I felt breathless.
Enter Mal, a nice guy with a realistic manner, who falls in
love with Parker. The sex scenes are a Nora Roberts speciality, she leaves little
to the imagination and knows how to get the reader’s pulse racing, koff koff. It
was only curiosity that kept me going with the book; I did at least want to
know how the Mal and Parker relationship achieved Happy Ever After.
I hit on a problem with names. It took me about half the
story to get used to the names Mac, Mal and Parker. Mac (short for Mackensie) and
Parker seemed such masculine names and Mal (short for Malcolm) had a feminine
ring to it. I had to keep going back to check out who was who.
I like Nora Roberts but I think I have over-read her work. I
have now started reading another Harlan Coben which was not only exciting from
the first word but a more comfortable read.
