Happy Ever After

Title: Happy Ever After
Author: Nora Roberts
Series: Bride Quartet (Book 4)
Genre: Romance


Parker, the coordinator and "general" of Vows, is perfect. She always looks immaculate, she can fix any problem and has the up bringing that lets her know how to act in any situation. She is one of the "Browns" and that should speak for itself.

Malcolm has had a less then perfect childhood, including being knocked around by an uncle, an unfortunate accident that almost killed him and other not so great relationships.

This romance has been leading up throughout the other books, and unfortunately the best I can say once again was it was okay. I don't know if I've changed through the years leaving me to feel like Nora Roberts just isn't putting out the same quality stories as before, or if she's already hit the high note in her career and is going south.

That being said, I did enjoy the story but much like the others there wasn't much meat to it. Perfect flowers, perfect cake, perfect photos, perfect couples, just perfection from Vow. The relationship between Parker and Mal didn't have much in the way of bumps either and the few they did encounter were swiftly smoothed out an unrealistic too short of time.

Hopefully when her next book comes out, which we know there will be more, she can redeem herself.

Savor the Moment

Title: Savor the Moment
Author: Nora Roberts
Series: Bride Quartet (Book 3)
Genre: Romance



Laurel, the pastry chef for Vows, likes Del, Parker's brother. She thinks that Del views her as another sister and couldn't have feelings like that for her. One day in a moment of frustration, she kisses him, and he kisses her back.

They decide in a very adult (and slightly unemotional way) to try out dating for a month (without sex) and see where it goes. See if they can move past their past "label" and become more to each other.

I felt that the story overall was severely lacking in conflict or essentially plot. Couple kisses, decides to date and then BAM! One day Del asks Laurel to marry him. Sorry if that was a surprise.

I looked forward to this book more then any other in the series and I felt a little disappointed in it. Although I might not enjoy the descriptions of photos or flowers from the previous stories, I LOVED reading the descriptions of the cakes. I cannot wait to pick out a wedding cake when that day comes. I wouldn't say it was a bad book, just simply non-eventful.

A rather uneventful book, although come November, I'll pick up the fourth in the series and hope that it can redeem itself.

Bed of Roses

Title: Bed of Roses
Author: Nora Roberts
Series: Bride Quartet (Book 2)
Genre: Romance



Emma is the florist for Vows. She is a hopeless romantic and wants it all. Her big dream is to have a moonlight dance in a garden with the man she loves.

Jack has been around the family for years. As one Parker's brother's best friend he knows all the girls and is almost like a brother, except to Emma. Jack is an architect and has a few issues with people invading his space. He goes through girlfriends quickly, but still seems like a nice guy.

During a wedding at Vows, Jack takes a leap and kisses Emma. The two have been yearning for each other all of these years and a romance breaks out between the two of them. It's an interesting pairing when Emma wants it all and Jack wants to keep her at a distance. Eventually this comes to a head and the two have a major fight and "breakup."

The book couldn't end this way, so eventually after everyone has calmed down they reunite and Emma gets her Happily Ever After

This book definitely brought out the hopeless romantic in me. It had me dreaming these amazing dreams where I was being whisked away to far away places (Stowe, Vermont) and having incredibly romantic vacations (Here). I've never been there before, but always have wanted to go and those pictures stayed in my mind and came to life.

Aside from that, the book was decent enough. I don't remember enough about the previous book to remember if it was better or the same. Sometime there would be paragraph long descriptions of the flowers, which makes sense that's what she does. But I cannot picture many of the flowers that were used. I also felt like maybe Emma was to simple of a Character. I noticed this when talking about her above, I really didn't know what to say about her.

Still a good book, and Nora Roberts remains a favorite.

I am very excited about the next book. It revolves around Laurel, who is the Pastry Chef for Vows. I love cake and would love to make wonderful cakes. I really would like to go to Culinary School. This makes me wait for those paragraph long descriptions of cakes :) Unfortunately, it looks to be released May 2010. This may be a long 6 months.

Vision in White: Bride Quartet Book 1

Title: Vision in White
Author: Nora Roberts
Series: Bride Quartet (Book 1)
Genre: Romance


I had my eye on this book a while back and was waiting and waiting for it to be released. Then I simply forgot about it until a few weeks back when I was at Target and saw it there on the shelf. Being Nora Roberts, I had to buy it to add to my bookshelf :) Shortly after that my life was a spinning disaster and I had other library books I had to read first. Luckily, I finally got the chance to read it over the past few days.

The basic premise behind these books is a group of four female friends that run a wedding company. Each woman has a different role in the company. Mac, who Vision in White is about, is the wedding photographer. We also meet Emma, Laurel and Parker, each of which will be the main character in one of the following books.

Mac has a screwed up relationship with both her parents. Her mother bleeds her dry for everything she needs and makes sure that the world revolves around her. Mac's father isn't in the picture. Needless to say this sets her up for some screwed up visions of what her love life should be. When she gets close to someone she wants to run.

Along comes Carter, a man who she went to high school with but never really saw. Carter has always had a crush on her, but now it's as a grown man. The two hit it off and things go wonderful. Of course Mac tries to screw it up due to the parental issues mentioned earlier.

I thought the book overall was okay. It has only gotten three stars on Amazon, and I can agree with some of the posters that it wasn't one of Nora's better books, but I still highly enjoyed it. Usually after I read her books I feel like I am left waiting to read the next installment because I've fallen so in love with the characters and stories she's created. This time, it was over (with a mediocre ending in my opinion. Sorry to ruin it, but I wanted a wedding, they do after all run a wedding business. Perhaps this will show up later in the series, or maybe the ladies will have a 4 part wedding) and I closed the book and was done with it. I didn't even read the little excerpt from the up and coming.

Bed of Roses is Emma's story. She is responsible for the flowers for the weddings. The book is released December 2009, and it will be on my Christmas list.