A great love/hate romance with strong, believable characters. We need more romances that represent people of color, and this one had me breathless!

The third of Guillory's books doesn't disappoint. I enjoyed spending pages watching Maddie and Theo fall in love with each other without realizing it was happening, and yelling at them to hurry up and figure it out. Guillory's Bay Area is populated with smart, funny people who are great at meeting their true loves and I'd love to visit it someday.

I just love Jasmine Guillory. She is a great new voice in contemporary romance. The Wedding Date and The Proposal were wonderful and I enjoyed The Wedding Party as well.

With Theo and Maddie you have the common first meeting with misconceptions, annoyance to romance trope, secret relationship with a deadline date (this time the deadline is until Alexa’s wedding) and casual hook-ups to serious relationship; all the while having pride and miscommunication get in the way of lasting love. I have seen this “recipe” in many a romance, but Guillory makes it all fresh and modern.

I especially loved that Theo and Maddie’s story played out against the backdrop of Alexa and Drew’s wedding planning. You don’t need to read Guillory’s previous books to enjoy this book, but you are going to want to.

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for the ARC

The Wedding Party is the third book in Jasmine Guillory's series that began with The Wedding Date - I'm not sure why these books aren't marketed or labeled as a series/companion novels as there is so much overlap and reference to the couples in the friend group. Books 1 and 3 have the same cover style to indicate the connection, but book 2 has a completely different looking vibe to it - it makes no sense from a consumer stand point, let alone for booksellers that don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of every book in the store - help your foot soldiers out, publishers!
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At any rate, lets look at the content of the story. Alexa and Drew from the first book are getting married, and Maddie and Theo have been drafted into Alexa's wedding party - and they don't get along due to an initial social faux pas/overreaction during their first meeting. The book starts off with them hooking up, not so drunkenly, after Maddie is enchanted by Theo's dance moves. The story hits the expected rom com points from there, but with a decent amount of focus on Maddie and Theo's career aspirations, so they come off as well rounded.

This series doesn't shatter the mold, but that isn't really what the romance section is for - and really, what I like is the representation Guillory puts into her books, minority rep that is glaringly absent from in the rows of bookshelves in this section at work. I will continue to recommend her books, especially to those new to the genre, as they aren't particularly explicit and offer a bit more emotional heft.

Thank you to the publisher, via NetGalley, for providing me with a copy of The Wedding Party for review.

Jasmine Guillory has hit another home run with her newest book, The Wedding Party. Maddie and Theo share a best friend in Alexa (from an earlier book The Wedding Date) and can’t stand each other. Of course, being a bridesmaid and a “brideman” means they can’t avoid each other and, as they get closer, they realize that their first impressions weren’t right. Guillory’s stories are perfect escapism reading. Her characters are smart, funny people who screw up, freak out, break up, and make out. Her book isn’t just appointment reading, I’m going to throw it a (Wedding) Party!

Jasmine Guillory did it again! I just love how she portrays characters with flaws but makes them still so lovable! The end was a little drawn out in my opinion which knocked off a star, but I still loved the entire book and read it in almost one sitting. I cannot wait to see what she comes out with next, Hopefully Olivia's story!!!