Rating: 4🌈
I’ll be honest here and admit I’m torn as to how to rate this story.
Here’s the facts.
Getting Married At Crofton Hall by Rebecca Cohen is a novel I’ve been waiting on as I’ve followed the Crofton Earls from Cohen’s historical romances (The Crofton Chronicles) all the way through the Modern Crofton series, of which I thought this was the culmination of them both.
It’s not, but more on that later.
So it fair to say I’m a very invested reader and a person committed to these characters and their relationships. Plus I like the author’s writing style.
Getting Married at Crofton Hall becomes a novel of primarily 4 people, 2 couples. With a scattering of side relationships in their various stages, from completely settled and happy to troubled and verging on disastrous. All of which are either at the Hall or coming to the wedding.
What I should be completely enthusiastic about and happily invested in every element of their story is the main couple , Ben and Ashley, who are getting married.
No, instead they are where I have the biggest issues.
Who do I love? Chris Gamling, Crofton Hall’s new writer in residence, just back from a painful, career low stay in LA that sees him returning home in debt. Chris is such a lovely character, with his dandelion hair, utter sweetness, and a determination to stay true to himself.
Of course, love awaits him in the form of Ashley’s best friend and former bf, Jack Webb. A barrister, he’s here to be Ashley’s best man and all around support for the wedding. Having been recently dumped, he too could use his friend’s support as well.
Jack is snarky, intelligent, deep, and tremendously loyal. Watching these two slow burn connect is amazing. Watch out for that hair brush scene!
They are couple goals. And everything that Ben and Ashley aren’t. At least during this wedding.
Or should I say Ben isn’t . Because up until approximately 86 percent of this novel, I found Ben to be arrogant, unsupportive, oblivious, and frankly, unlivable.
Where is the Ben I enjoyed from the prior books? The one who at least had some semblance of intuition about Ashley’s thoughts and feelings.
Here he is gone. I couldn’t figure out if that personality was sacrificed for the groomzilla/wedding/stress plot needs or just forgotten. Either way to see it bound back remarkably towards the end, then disappear when Ben behaves badly under the influence of alcohol, then appear again. Well, it made Ashley seem like a stressed doormat for the majority of the time.
Their aspect of the story, Ben’s behavior, his expectation that Ashley would just tolerate his toxic words and actions, or that Cohen saw no issues with their relationship at this point, is problematic.
Love works things out . SMH. No, sometimes it doesn’t or shouldn’t.
There’s so much here to unravel. That Ben knew he was wrong and continues. His friend(s) points out some of the glaring issues. They are ignored.
That it take Ashley, not Ben, breaking, to almost make it right.
What is wrong here?
The fact that there’s a lot of healthy relationships in and around Crofton Hall I’m not sure the main couple is one of them.
The rating? For the other couples, the reality of the writing, and the fact that it does feel believable.
I love Jack and Chris. And many of the other couples. I would have told poor Ashley to get Ben into couple counseling before I got married to someone who treated him so poorly then proceeded with such self-involved excuses.
Or maybe if I was Cohen I wouldn’t have written Ben into someone who almost defies any connection from a reader. At least this one.
Cohen writes she has several more stories to tell in this series. If they are in the same vein as Chris and Jack, count me in. I quite appreciative of that pairing.
It’s based on them that this book gets a recommendation.
Modern Crofton series:
🔹Saving Crofton Hall #1 (orig released 2014
🔹Making History at Crofton Hall
🔹Below Stairs at Crofton Hall
🔹Getting Married at Crofton Hall
A spin-off from The Crofton Chronicles-historic romance series
🔹The Actor and The Earl #1
🔹Duty to the Crown #2
🔹Forever Hold His Peace #3
https://www.goodreads.com › showGetting Married at Crofton Hall by Rebecca Cohen – Goodreads
Ben and Ashley are getting married! For the first time in history the Earl of Crofton will be allowed to marry a man.
But wedding admin isn’t always fun, and frayed tempers and bickering are not the best ways to prepare for the happiest day of their lives, but hopefully they’ll make it down the aisle before one of them kills the other. The arrival of two of Ben’s old friends at Crofton Hall does not help matters, especially with their rather messy shared history.
The hall also has a new writer in residence, Chris Gamling, and while he’s not always with the plot in the real world, he’s a brilliant wordsmith. When he meets Jack Webb, Ashley’s best friend, Chris feels the spark he’s been waiting for. Sometimes meeting the love of your life doesn’t have to be difficult.
This is the fourth Modern Crofton novel, featuring Benjamin Redbourn, the 16th Earl of Crofton and descendant of Anthony Redbourn, 1st Earl of Crofton from my historical series, The Crofton Chronicles. Each book in the Modern Crofton series will feature Ben and Ashley, alongside another couple finding love at Crofton Hall.
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 