DNF at 50%, read through chapter 11. I feel that this is enough grounds to write a review.

I thought twins switching places in the run up to a wedding could be cute and fun. I read the first chapter and made the conscious decision to suspend disbelief and just go with it. But after trying to go with it for half the book I needed to tap out.

My primary issue with with the sustained lying. Yes, I expected some and expected it to be cringey, but I also thought it would be whimsical. Whimsical and over the top, followed by a fairly swift reveal, are the only things that would have helped. All the connection between the two MCs is based on a lie, one for which the heroine is not expressing enough angst over, Not that the hero is excused, clueless as he is. Until the lie was exposed, I couldn't feel anything for either of them except cringe. And I couldn't believe their connection, because, again, it was predicated on a lie. And half the book is too long for the lie to have gone on.

My secondary issue is around food. Original twin is very strict with her diet - low fat, no carbs. Replacement twin (heroine) mentions calories in the first chapter and how she gains weight thinking of food. I didn't care for this and it just kept coming up. It honestly felt very dated to me. While I don't recall any explicit body negativity, it was just skirting the edges of it, waiting to happen.

I love a fake relationship, but both parties need to know they're in one. This is definitively not for me.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Duplicate Bride is a fun and quirky read. With a plot that unfolds at a nice pace so you really begin to appreciate the subtle differences in the characters and understand their motivations.

A very cute rom com that had me falling in love with love all over again.

How far is too far when helping out your twin? Well Hope definitely goes above and beyond to help her sister but this time just might be the last! When Jackie finds herself in a pickle and can’t find a solution she calls her twin sister Hope to help her out but what she has planned is more than Hope thinks she can pull off! With a resolute no she heads out to meet her sisters future in laws only for a mix up to happen and in a heated moment Hope finds herself pretending to be her twin!

As Jackie’s excuses become more prolonged Hope finds herself starting to enjoy the man her sister has agreed to marry as well has his family! She also finds out some hidden truths that have her questioning everything, but as each opportunity to tell the truth passes she digs herself deeper and deeper until she can’t lie anymore!

The consequences leave her alone and heartbroken but love is an amazing thing and just might win in the end!

First of all, set your expectations: any book about twins trading places the week before the bride's wedding is going to require some pretty hefty suspension of disbelief.

This would have been a 4 star read for me, but I dropped a star because of fat shaming. It's not really bad in this book, but I'm sick of seeing heroines lamenting over how they hate running and love donuts and feeling guilt/shame about that. Seriously, a single comment about how they think they're fat and thus unattractive and I'm dropping a star. This book opens with Hope talking about how her neighbor bakes amazing desserts and brings them over to her, "which would have been great if Hope has inherited her mom's fast metabolism. But no. She gained weight just by reading high-fat recipes." And then there's stuff about her trying to fit into her twin sister's dress despite being curvier than her - but she still fits into the dress of her high-metabolism, low-fat and low-card, runs 5 miles every morning sister. Um, okay. Sure. I'm also kind of sick of seeing the thin, career driven woman as cold and unfeeling while the chubby teacher is the warm one.

But enough about the bad stuff, let's get to the good stuff!! I liked Hope and Brent's dynamic. They've got great chemistry even though Hope is pretending to be her sister (and doing a really terrible job of it...) The rom-com aspects really come into play once Brent starts trying to get a little more amorous and Hope has to keep coming up with excuses to avoid getting intimate with him. Brent's entire family is lovely, and Hope's mom is a riot. I'm assuming we're going to get another book for the BFF and little brother, which I will be here for because I really liked Meredith.

A story of Hope and Jackie, where Hope was forced to act as her twin on the week leading to her wedding with Brent. Unbeknownst to Hope, Jackie and Brent has a marriage of convenience and is expected to wed within the week. Jackie is a wedding planner and she is stuck organising wedding for her client even though her own wedding is coming soon. Hope, who was forced to be in a situation where she have to act as her twin, found herself attracted to her twin’s fiancé. Something that she didn’t want to happen but it did. Throughout the story, it tell how Hope together with her mum and Jackie’s best friend trying to keep up to the charade until Jackie arrive.

Being a twin myself, we did played the swapping prank during our school days but it stop there. What Hope and Jackie did is wrong and rather unfair to Brent. But I love to read the conflict throughout the story so much. This book is instead a very good read for me.


https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49247030

The Duplicate Bride was a quick, cute read. The supporting cast was strong and very likable. The book read exactly like While You Were sleeping with a twist.

Hope and her twin sister Jackie decide to switch places. Her fiancé Brent and his family has no idea what is happening. This leads to some funny and awkward moments as Hope tries to dodge PDA and finds herself falling in love with the groom. Disaster looms as the wedding day approaches and the real bride is still absent. The characters are fun as the wedding week activities lead to all kinds of hilarity. In the end it all comes down to who is his true love.

THE DUPLICATE BRIDE was a fantastic rom-com read that I absolutely devoured. Hope and Jackie are twins, and although they look the same, they are quite different at heart. Jackie is about to get married to a guy she's been with 3 months, but she's a busy wedding planner and seems to be unable to make it to the wedding week festivities in time. When Jackie calls Hope with her plan to have Hope take her place for a day, Hope is adamantly against it.

Hope agrees to go as herself, but when she arrives, everyone mistakes her for Jackie. After hearing some snide comments that offend her on her twin's behalf, Hope goes with the flow. Soon, she learns the truths about Jackie's whirlwind "romance," and in the hopes of making her sister's wedded life better, she takes some turns that have her falling head over heels - for the guy her sister is marrying that weekend.

This was such a fun read, and I delighted in all the characters, the intrigue, and the mishaps along the way. The romance is really well done, and although the premise may sound really far out there, the author makes it work seamlessly. I really enjoyed every second spent in this delightful story, and I fell in love with Brent and Hope along the way. Highly recommend for fans of rom-coms like The Proposal and Two Weeks Notice.

Please note that I received an ARC from the publisher through netgalley. All opinions are my own.

I have to say I'm struggling in how to review this book. I don't want to say I hated it, because I did finish the book which proves I didn't hate it. But at the same time, I think I only finished reading to see how the twin swap would get revealed/resolved. If we forget about the craziness of grown women trying to pull off a twin swap, can we just question what kind of fiancé doesn't realize the difference between two women? Especially, when the author keeps pointing out how the twins have such different personalities and behaviors! This was just way too far-fetched for me to enjoy and the only way it might have worked was if it was a historical mail order type bride rather than a romance where supposedly the engaged couple already knew one another before the swap.

This was a super cute read! I really loved how the twins switched places. Hope was such a real character and I really enjoyed how she tried to do the right thing even when it killed her inside.

I really loved Brents character and how we get to meet his entire family and get to see them bond with Hope. I would have loved to see Meredith and Derrick together at the end!

The bachelorette party was absolutely hysterical! I loved Grandmother Margaret so much 😂

My favorite part about this book was that it was told in dual perspective so we get to see them falling in love with each other! I loved the plot twist at the end as well! The epilogue was the cutest!

If you want a cute feel good wedding book then I highly suggest this one!

I have read some of the reviews that were posted for this book and while they all had some truth to them I still feel like this book deserves no less then 5 stars. My reason behind this is because the reason I pick up and read a romance novel it to get away from everything that is happening especially with what is going on in the world today. This novel grabbed my attention from the very first chapter. I loved the characters and I thought the story line was fabulous even if a little unbelievable. For me that is what made this book so special. I have always believed that we cannot control who we fall in love with an this book more then proved that. It also showed that no matter how much we look like someone there is always differences. If you are looking for a great romance read that will keep you reading and reading until the very last word look no further because this book is for you. Thanks Net Galley. I voluntarily reviewed this book in exchange for an honest review.

Twins changing places? Sounds like a fun trope but this one basically requires to leave reality at the door and take everything with a grain of salt.
It should have been a shorter read, and not run in circles as it did with Brent and Hope.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book received from the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I recieved a free copy from netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Okay a part of me hates admitting this but I really did like the book. The reason I hate myself for liking it, because the whole book revolves around lying Hope lying about her identity and pretending to be her twin while falling for her sisters fiance during their wedding week. With me so far. Hope spends literally the entire time lying about who she is and her mom and sisters best friend go along with the lie.
Hope knew what she was doing was wrong and says so over and over again but literally waits until the last possible second to say something. Actually no she goes beyond the last possible second to tell the truth.
Brent was sweet even if he initial just wanted a marriage of convience with Jackie to get his grandfather's company. He falls for Hope really fast wanting to make their marriage real. But in the end Brent deserved better. They make him say that it was partially his fault for not being able to tell the difference but you know what Hope shouldn't have been forgiven.
Even with all of the problems with the plot, Hope and Brents relationship was sweet as well as all the interactions between hope and Brents family.

The classy book cover caught my eye and intriguing synopsis lured me into saying “I do” to a NetGalley advanced reader copy, folks. Now I’m finding I don’t have the words to adequately stress my thoughts on this trio of main characters. So I’m thinking a brief heart to heart with each one of them separately may do the trick.

Poor Brent, you really were duped so badly I don’t even know where to begin. Maybe with eliminating the “poor” part for starters. Not just because you are from an insanely wealthy family and thought to outdo your older bro, but because you were so darn, unbelievably gullible and ultimately looking for love when you didn’t even realize you were looking for love. In the wrong place to boot, meaning with “just thinks about herself” Jackie. Really, what were you thinking? Am I talking in circles? Well, that’s exactly my emotions right now, buddy, so I guess we’re in the same boat. I’m not surprised her identical twin, Hope, was like a life line and breathe of fresh air compared to the woman you actually proposed to previously.

Jackie, oh, how I really didn’t like you from the get go. Success wasn’t good enough for you, hon. Money and lifestyle hungry to rub elbows with the rich is obviously what always got your motor running. Agreeing to Brent’s hairbrained proposal to begin with proves that. It isn’t any wonder you wanted in their pockets and in Brent’s bed, so you could live the life of a socialite parasite. Even worse was how manipulative and selfish you became towards your own family, who you professed to love dearly, in making sure you always got your way. Am I sounding too harsh, girl? Well, it’s a good thing they still love and forgive you.

Hope, dear, there isn’t an easy way to tell us this, so I’ll be blunt. You definitely dropped the ball here and didn’t live up to your name. You see, there really isn’t any hope for someone who sets their principles by the wayside so easily just to appease someone else, especially when that somebody does not deserve to be catered to. Yeah, you admit you got carried away and why, but I still think you had it in you to have done better. At least you and Brent went the extra mile and owned up to your part in all this hot mess and sincerely asked for forgiveness. Making me do the same for you two knuckleheads. The tied things up in a bow, sweet conclusion made sure of that, my fellow romance book loving friends. Ultimately, I just couldn’t stay mad at the right couple here and were glad they got their HEA.

Title: The Duplicate Bride, Author: Ginny Baird, Pages: 368, stand-alone, school teacher & wedding planner identical twin sisters, rich guy hero, one complicated hot mess, passionate kisses only, clean romance.

(I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced reader copy of this book via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I was not given any payment or compensation for this review. There is no affiliation or relationship between this reviewer and the author/publisher/NetGalley.)

The Duplicate Bride is a story about Hope Webb who due to strange circumstances ends up taking her twin sister, Jackie’s place on her wedding weekend.

It was only supposed to be for one day, but Hope tells her sister that she will not pretend to be her even for one day as they are no longer little kids, and a wedding weekend is no place to be pulling this kind of shenanigan.

Even so, things are out of control when Hope finally arrives are her sister’s in-laws’ place and somehow ends up pretending to be her sister. When she notices that even her sister’s fiance, Brent doesn’t realize that she is not the same women who he proposed to, it finally dawns on her that Jackie has stupidly agreed to a marriage of convenience.

But of course now that she has taken her sister’s place, she can’t just tell the truth, even to Brent, and what was only supposed to be a day, turns into another, and another, eventually becoming a whole week. The lies keep piling up and in the end, she knows she’s going to end up with a broken heart because Hope has fallen in love with her sister’s husband.

I know what I was getting myself into when I requested this book for review on NetGalley, and while I usually love a marriage of convenience or a twin swap trope – which is why I choose to request this book in the first place, Hope’s actions to me were just cruel.

I can forgive the initial deception of Brent and his family since she really thought she was doing the right thing, and so helping her sister, but the longer the deception carried on, the harder it became to forgive Hope and Jackie’s actions as anything but purposefully cruel.

Here Brent is falling in love with his fiance, thinking they can turn their marriage from a marriage of convenience into a real marriage with all the works, but it never occurs to Hope to clue Brent in to the truth.

Jackie was a character I just did not like from the start, she had in my opinion no business getting married. Seriously who asks someone else to take their place at their own wedding week, I mean just because you can doesn’t mean that you should.

The whole story just felt wrong to me, until the last two chapters when everything suddenly gets resolved and they live happily ever after. Maybe if the truth had come out a little earlier in the book, and the resolution didn’t feel so rushed, I might have enjoyed this book.

I want to thank Entangled Publishing and Net Galley, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange of my honest review.

The description of this book really did it for me. I was into the story - but then found myself really stressed and just begging the main character to reveal her secret. Overall the stress of the tale won out in the end for the vibes I felt while reading this one! I mean the lie went WAY too far, in my opinion. So while this one wasn't exactly for me - I enjoyed the premise.

Thank you to entangled publishing and netgalley for the advanced readers copy of this book!

Hope and Jackie are living in another world. Why would you ever a ask your sister to be you. The whole plot is unbelievable but entertaining. You know what is going to happen but you can’t stop reading because you want to find out how they are or aren’t going to get away with this whole mess.

The Duplicate Bride By Ginny Baird is worth reading.
From the first sentence in the story to the last sentence, this book captured my heart. The characters that were placed in this book brought the story more to life. I enjoyed the roller-coaster in this book and how it was such a page turner which made me laugh,cry, and love the characters so much more.

I also enjoyed both main characters point of view, it gave me a way to observe what their thinking and saying while having share the same opinion with them. I love how Hope Interacted with Brent's family, its like she was a part of there family before she meet them. And I love how Brent wanted to make thing right and fall in love with his bride even though he was hurt before and wasn't sure to opening his heart and the deal that he had with his bride.

I will definitely recommend this book.
Rating:5/5
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the e-arc!

The Duplicate Bride is a romance based on the identical twin switcheroo trope. Sweet and easy to read this book is suited to those that enjoy a clean and light read. Although the book had a lot of promise, it didn’t quite hit the mark for me. First, it was clean, almost squeaky clean. I really didn’t feel the chemistry between Hope and Brent, I like a bit of heat and sexual tension with my romance and I just didn’t feel it at all.
My biggest problem though, was just how far Hope was willing to go for her twin. To me, stepping into her shoes for the wedding prep was one thing, and had the potential for many funny encounters and events (that didn’t really happen), but Hope went further, and to me that was too far. If I was Brent I don’t think I would have forgiven her that quickly.
The Duplicate Bride had a lot of potential, but it didn’t quite live up that potential. It was a sweet read, but it was a shallow experience with not much character development (IMHO).

I’ve put a lot of thought into how to review this book. I mean, it’s not often that a romance really sends me into an introspective crisis, but it always seems like the contemporary romances I pick up have this line they cross (or flirt with crossing) with regards to trigger/content warnings and I never really know how to address that. Especially given that none of the other reviews mention it at all and I kind of feel like I’m overthinking it, but I want to address it anyway because I feel like it’s important.

This book is about twin sisters, Jackie and Hope, and Jackie’s fiance, Brent, and Brent’s family. Jackie is a workaholic and she has a crisis the week before her wedding—when she’s supposed to be with her fiance’s family, ironing out details and meeting the majority of her future in-laws for the first time. A few things happen and the long and short of it is that Hope pretends to be Jackie through the ENTIRE WEEK of wedding planning, and takes it upon herself to improve her sister’s situation. Jackie and Brent have mutually agreed to enter into a business-arrangement kind of wedding and Hope doesn’t approve. She spends the week working to get Jackie’s future in-laws to love her, and more importantly, to get the groom to love her, and ends up falling in love with Brent herself in the process.

Somehow this all wrapped up in this neat little bow in the end and while that’s expected from a romance, it left me feeling rather uncomfortable because I feel like there’s a conversation to be had here regarding consent that we aren’t having. I get that this is a contemporary romance. I get that it’s G rated and there wasn’t actually any steam to be had. But I also know that if I were dating a guy, and I spent an entire week with him and ended up sharing private and personal thoughts, moments, fears, etc with him and then found out that it was his identical twin brother the whole time? I would feel violated in a way that would probably take years of therapy to get through. I’m just saying, it’s not okay. Maybe it doesn’t cross the line into full-on sexual assault, I don’t know. But it’s not okay. It left me with an uncomfortable and kind of gross feeling. And everyone just... got over it. Like it really wasn’t a big deal because Brent and the bride he ended up with were perfect for each other and that really made it all worth it because love always wins and they should ahve been together in the first place.

But that’s not why I’m rating this book the way I did. I just... didn’t think it was for me. I felt like it could have used a lot of polishing, and the questionable plotline aside, the constant comparison between Jackie and Hope to paint one twin as all wrong and the other as all right came across as very Sweet Valley High to me and this is supposed to be a clean romance for adults, not high schoolers. It might fare better in a young adult market. And anyone with half a brain should have realized the switch half a second in—I know this was explained later on in the plot, but when “Jackie” showed up having a complete 180 from her established personality I feel like Brent should have maybe thought more into it than “did you hit your head? We discussed this” for something like 5% of the book.

I almost never read and review a book and tell everyone to skip it, and I’m not doing that now. Maybe after having read the review you are okay with the content and you have more reasonable expectations and it sounds like a good thing and that’s great! Please pick up this book and read it. It just was not for me.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.