Georgia Toffolo

3.5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

Every time Lily Atwell punched a fist into the icing she was kneading, she imagined Henry Hawkesbury's face.

Meet Me at the Wedding is the conclusion of a four book series about a group of friends that grew-up together, experienced tragedy, and now ten years later getting ready to attend one of their wedding. I haven't read the other books in the series and while enough of the past is relayed here, as our heroine Lily is still working through the pain of the past, you could randomly pick this up, but because of how well this group of friends was written, I'd suggest starting from the beginning so you could experience all the emotions. The four friends, Victoria, Malie, Zoe, and Lily were on their way to their last school dance when a car accident derailed their lives. Lily only sustained some scratches and scarring, but Victoria was injured enough she learns she won't be able to have children naturally, and Zoe lost feeling in her legs. The way this affected and shaped the characters obviously gets dealt with throughout the series and this last installment focuses on Lily.

He'd had no idea how involved in the estate she'd become in the last ten years.

Also involved in the accident, in the car with his girlfriend that hit Lily's, was Henry, the local troublemaker. His girlfriend ended up dying in the accident and this caused a huge fight with his dad and had them not speaking for ten years. When Henry comes back home to Hawke's Cove after his father dies, he plans on selling the family estate, an estate that has been a haven for Lily over the last couple years and the place where Victoria planned on having her wedding. Henry initially cancels all events, planning to sell, but needs help from Lily on conducting a tour, specifically of the winery part of the hotel estate, and has to agree to letting the wedding happen to get her to help him. There's immediate raw feelings from both sides toward each other, Henry jealous, hurt and angry over how his father seems to have made time to be Lily's father figure but couldn't make time for him and Lily angry over thinking Henry is a spoiled rich boy and how thoughtless he is in selling the estate and not thinking about how it will affect the small town and it's citizens. There's also that inconvenient attraction for each other between them.

“The wedding for the tour.”

This was pretty much contemporary romance, maybe a touch of chik-lit/women's fiction but Lily and Henry have their own baggage to work through and get fairly even page time to do so. Their relationship and attraction also gets top billing along with their inner emotional strife; there was a closed door bedroom scene. They both started off with some hackles raised by-play that couldn't help but morph into flirty teasing poking because of their attraction. They actually have it out in the first half and I was a bit worried about what was left to keep them apart in the second, but, with just a little steam lost at times, them finally putting to bed their individual baggage, had them ultimately being fully open to each other. Henry had to learn how to forgive himself for his troubled past, any blame he took on for the accident, and how off the rails his relationship with his father went, and Lily had to let go of any responsibility she took on for the awful way her ex-fiancé treated her and not bury herself in work.

It's just that she wasn't used to being the “rescued.” She was used to being the “rescuer.”

If you're a reader of the series, you're going to love how the “Awesome Four” friendships get some time to shine, as a newcomer to the series, I didn't feel like the previous couples overtook or over stayed their welcome, just made me want to go get their books and read about their romances. Henry even gets some time with his own friend and readers get to see an important other side to him in the beginning. I would have liked Lily to have even more time with her mother because of how sweet their relationship seemed to be. This was fairly low angst but with some emotional issues, if that makes sense. I liked how it was shown how friendships change after romantic partners come into the picture and how Lily did feel lonely but happy for her already partnered friends.

As if she'd cast a spell over him, over the estate, and he was beginning to see less of the past and more of the future.

The ending had a sort of felt forced to try and create one last emotional drama with Henry acting in a, what felt like out of character after how he was so caring and thoughtful towards Lily, moment to drag out will there be a HEA or not (spoiler alert, there's an HEA). Lily decides to not be scared anymore and Henry sheds his not thinking he's worthy and these two find a path together. There were at times I felt like Lily and Henry's personal baggage almost took too much time away from developing their romance, I could believe in the growing attraction when they had their flirty teasing and sweet taking care of each other moments, but I did finish thinking maybe there was less depth and too much, “she has beautiful auburn hair” and “look at his broad shoulders”. Series readers are going to love the wrap-up epilogue set in the future that delivers a sugary sweet look at all the couples happiness. This was sweet, laced with emotional issues, and had a charming couple. If looking for a shorter series with an engaging group of friends to read about, this would be one to pick up.… (plus d'informations)

I needed something light after finishing The War of the End of the World and Les Misérables and it delivered, though I found it a bit boring. Malie was also getting on my nerves with her "I needed to push you away before you... before you hurt me" and "She owed it to him, to herself, to get her life straightened out first. And why can't you do that with him by your side?" Really, Malie, why can't you? The life is never really straightened out and won't be. But it took only a week for Malie to straightened hers out and reach HEA.
I guess the "push you away before you hurt me", "fear to commit", "I'm not ready" are just not my tropes. Or I really need to believe the reasons for acting like this and I was not convinced by Malie.
I'm also cringed by the millionaire trope and rags to riches. Why did Todd need to be a millionaire? Furthermore, it's never mentioned what his multi-billion enterprise did. I did like the youth work part as I just recently attended one seminar for youth workers and his charity work resonated with it and I think he would be a much more convincing character if he was just a youth worker.
It's not very authentic on Hawaii, but I learnt a few things, which I also looked up on the Internet. For example, Coqui frogs, rip currents, the Queen of Pipeline competition on Oahu's North Shore, Dole pineapple plantation with pineapple whip and one of the largest mazes in the world get mentioned in the book.
Overall, it was an OK entertaining, light chick lit with some cliché tropes.… (plus d'informations)