Review: 3.75 stars out of 5
When drama threatens to ruin a romance on a reality show, only a true friend can save a groomzilla’s wedding.
Daniel Green, an event planner with a neat, quiet, orderly life, reluctantly agrees to plan the wedding of his childhood friend Ander, an outrageous fashion designer soon to marry a wealthy entertainment lawyer named Rafe. To complicate matters, the happy couple have agreed to have their wedding made into a reality show—something that practical Daniel isn’t sold on.
Daniel is neither a romantic nor a wedding planner, but he’s the only person in the world who can manage Ander. Distracting him from his mission is Owen Grainger, a too-handsome-to-be-true producer whose quiet charm pulls Daniel into his orbit.
When the stress of the show triggers bad behavior from Ander, co-producer Victor Pierce decides it’s the key to a ratings bonanza, and he begins to undermine Ander and Rafe’s relationship to create more drama. Daniel is determined to protect his friend and his own reputation, but when he finds himself falling hard for Owen, there’s much more at stake than ratings.
Tere Michaels is a author who can tear at my heart with her characters and stories, her just concluded Faith, Love, and Devotion series is a perfect example of that. So I was curious to see if she could deliver light hearted romance as well.
She does. Tere Michaels style.
That means that angst, a pinch of sadness and a dash of anxiety gets thrown in with the humor and lighthearted romance. It all starts with Daniel Green, an event planner with an unhappy childhood only made bearable by a boarding school friend Anders who is now Daniel’s only family. Ander’s childhood is equally painful and they became each other’s support and heart sibling despite their startling differences in appearance and behavior. Now Ander is getting married and wants Daniel to plan the wedding as well as be his best man. Oh, and it’s all a part of a new reality online series. What could go wrong?
That would be everything.
Daniel and Ander are both two damaged men who have worked through their issues, mostly, to become men who understand themselves and each other. I loved Daniel, he’s worked hard to get where he is, with his own business, a degree from Harvard but he realizes that he’s starting to coast. Ander is smarter than his extravagant exterior and I love the surprises that his character continues to deliver throughout the narrative, especially when you least expect it. They are exactly the type of characters Tere Michaels does best. Daniel and Ander look so different on the outside, one sort of nicely average, the other peacocky gorgeous, and yet so alike underneath where it counts. The author makes them believable, flawed, and so likable it hurts at times.
Ah, Daniel and Ander. Their relationship dynamics are the heart of the story, not the romance between Daniel and Owen, or even Ander and his fiance Rafe, and that’s probably why I didn’t connect as much as I did with Daniel and Owen. It was because I was already invested emotionally in the deep friendship of Daniel and Ander and the wedding from hell. I was so caught up in what this wedding was doing to their friendship that it almost made everything else extraneous. I also needed a little more of the Rafe/Ander dynamic, although what I had was delicious, especially those scenes at the end. And Victor felt exactly like a reality show “villain” and I couldn’t make my mind up where that was good or bad.
Owen? Yes, I liked Owen even if I felt I didn’t get to “know” him as completely as I did the others. I certainly could see him as part of Daniel’s life. Perhaps if Daniel and Owen had their own story after Groomzilla and left this one to Daniel, Ander, and Rafe, that would have made me completely satisfied. But that’s not how Tere Michaels wrote it, so I will say I loved so many portions of this story, and the ending left me misty eyed and smiling. Those scenes with the video felt as “in the moment” as anything in the story. These scenes were “character capsules”, delivering a punch of emotion that I had been waiting for and now got. These were the people I wanted more of, the ones I had gotten fewer glimpses of as the catastrophe of a wedding starts to overtake the story (pretty realistic element), ones that Daniel was missing too. Really,that’s was wonderful thing to work into this plot. How the stress can make the best of us go a little crazy and maybe even lose sight of who we are and who we love.
Oh, Tere Michael, how I love your writing, characters, and storylines. Not familiar with this author? Groomzilla is a fun place to start. I think you will fall in love with Daniel, Ander and Groomzilla. I know I did.
Cover art by Anna Sikorska is cute but suffers from model use overload. That dark-haired model is everywhere, from books about chefs (more than one) to geeks in love. He’s cute but over used. This cover makes me think of other books instead of this one. A definite no no.
Sales Links: Dreamspinner Press | All Romance (ARe) | Amazon | 
Book Details:
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 