0
0
Great love stories often begin at weddings—I know this because I met my husband at a wedding. In the multicultural romance The Wedding Date by author Jasmine Guillory, an unlikely couple’s wedding weekend agreement may not start a great love story, but it certainly starts a complicated one.
The story begins in a hotel elevator, as Alexa Monroe is heading up to visit her sister and Drew Nichols is begrudgingly preparing to be a groomsman in his ex’s wedding. When the hotel’s power goes out, trapping Alexa and Drew in the elevator together, Drew tells Alexa that he’s dreading attending the wedding without a date—and, on a whim, he asks her to join him. Normally professional and reserved, Alexa surprises herself by agreeing to be Drew’s fake girlfriend for the weekend. But once their steamy wedding weekend is over, they go their separate ways, trying to decide what they want from their unexpected romance.
It may be a fluffy contemporary romance, but The Wedding Date sets out to tackle a number of social, racial, and relationship issues along the way. Alexa and Drew deal with the complications of both a biracial relationship and a long-distance one—all while Alexa is working on a proposal for a teen arts program that’s close to her heart. These topics aren’t explored in too much detail, though—because the characters spend most of the story focusing on the physical aspect of their relationship.
The book’s greatest problem, though, is that it follows a couple of smart, professional adults through the kinds of relationship issues that seem more appropriate for college-age characters. Drew is a pediatric surgeon, and Alexa works as the mayor’s chief of staff. Yet he seems to alternate between the stereotypical commitment-phobic frat boy and the nervous teenager with his first crush—and their relationship turns her into a timid, insecure teenager who spends her days obsessing about Drew’s assumed lack of real interest in her. Granted, all relationships come with their share of doubts and insecurities—and we all have our communication breakdowns—but it’s frustrating to read along as two grown professionals panic and mope and obsess instead of speaking honestly with each other like adults.
The Wedding Date is a light but steamy romance with an interesting story. But the characters’ adolescent insecurities sometimes get in the way of telling an enjoyable, grown-up love story.
Listen to the review on Shelf Discovery:
