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Gracie Holland lives for Happily Ever Afters—just not her own. After a crushing breakup, she’s thrown herself into planning weddings at Larkwood, the ivy-covered Rhode Island estate where she also lives in the guest cottage. But when her beloved boss passes away and leaves the estate to her grandson, Gracie’s carefully rebuilt life is suddenly on the line. Jude Larkwood is everything she’s sworn ruthless, practical, and immune to romance—he’s a divorce lawyer, for crying out loud! Worse, he plans to sell Larkwood by the end of the summer.
Jude has spent his life cleaning up other people’s romantic disasters—and he has no interest in watching another love story fall apart on his family’s lawn. But inheriting Larkwood comes with one its maddeningly optimistic wedding planner. Gracie’s sunshiney faith in love unsettles Jude almost as much as her ability to push through his defenses. He’s built a life on keeping emotion out of the equation—but something about her keeps slipping past his guard.
When Gracie’s ex calls out of the blue asking her to plan his wedding, she sees an unexpected opportunity. Jude reluctantly agrees to give her until the wedding to change his mind, and in exchange, she drags him into a two-month crash course in love to make even the most hardened cynic start to wonder if love might not be such a scam after all.
But as cake tastings and vendor emergencies give way to late-night confessions and undeniable chemistry, Gracie and Jude must confront the fears they’ve spent years avoiding. But can a hopeless romantic and a confirmed cynic find a future they both believe in?
This is my first title by this author, and I did enjoy it enough to want to read her other titles.
The characters were complex and you really have a chance to get to know them as people throughout the story which is always great. I also thought it was balanced well, as the character development moved the story forward without taking away from the humor or the spice between the characters.
I liked Jude and Gracie, although at the beginning of the story, I wasn't sure what I was going to think about Gracie as she did come across as a little immature, but I also think this was partly because of the fact that Gracie wedding planner who lives on the estate and in order for the story to work and put her and Jude into the same place, she needed to be exactly where she was emotionally. Jude is a divorce attorney who inherits the estate after Gracie's boss passes away.
This sets up very differing end games for each of them, and it definitely sets up their tension. I found it believable and I was invested in the characters
