Sweet

When reading a book by a new author, your expectations are everywhere. A Lowcountry Bride was the perfect relaxation read. Maya the wedding dressmaker, struggling to stay healthy while making a name for herself in the world of fashion. Derek has suffered loss and is on the verge of losing something special. Maya and Derek learn to navigate the waters together.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read for an honest review.


#Cillasbookmaniace #Netgalley #MamaToni #AvonBooks

A wonderfully romantic story with real life issues. This story follows the “girl returns to her town” romance trope, but then leads readers into deeper issues of chronic illness, grief, familial black history, and unfairness in the workplace.
The starring female lead, Maya, is a hardworking Afro-Filipina dress designer who is juggling her ties with her widowed father and the management of her sickle cell anemia care. Derek is a former serviceman and widow with a tween daughter.

Romance readers who appreciate swoon over steam will enjoy their developing relationship. Church and its activities are mentioned as a background in some of the scenes. There is a “bad” boss in this story which will keep readers entertained and appalled. Definitely hope there will be more trips back to this community in Charleston, SC.

I listened to the audiobook and read along with the e-galley for parts of the book.
Thanks to Avon and NetGalley for the e-galley. My ratings and reviews are my own.

Source: NetGalley; ARC provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review

Preslaysa Williams' debut is about a bridal gown designer, Maya who has high ambitions to become Head Designer at the famous Laura Whitcomb brand she has worked for for years. She's hoping that her eye for detail, her creativity, and her forward-thinking vision will catch the attention and trust of her well-established employer, Laura Whitcomb. No matter how hard she works she seems to always fall just short of what her Laura needs. When Maya finds out her dad is recovering from an injury, she convinces her Laura to let her work remotely and sell her own designs out of one of the bridal gown boutiques they're scouting. The boutique is owned by widower, Derek who's balancing a floundering business and life as a single dad with a daughter who's still mourning the loss of her mother.

I thought the storyline around Maya's career goal was on point. Every interaction with her condescending boss made me cringe. It was very obvious to me that Laura was taking advantage of her skills while also tempering any hope she might have of upward advancement. It was a lot of promises if she continues to work hard and deliver on time yet now is not a good time to promote you blather that a lot of employers do to their employees. I just didn't get why Maya didn't see that, especially because she's so determined to accomplish so much in a short period of time due to her chronic illness - sickle cell anemia. Maya here chooses to downplay her health issues by not speaking about it much and pushing through her pain whenever an episode occurs. There were times where I didn't know if I should admire her for her stubbornness or be frustrated that she'd let work or anyone come before her health.

It's while she's staying with her dad and working at Derek's boutique that Maya starts to open her eyes to a different approach to life. Her reason for working so hard is that she wants to fulfill a promise to her mother. Her mother taught her to sew and incorporate her Filipino heritage into her designs. Her work ethic coupled with her mother's keep her motivated. Though she is career-focused, she also can't help but fall a little bit for Derek. He's a devoted father, a caring employer and just an all around decent human. He's suffered his own loss - his wife was killed in a church shooting - and Maya doesn't want to lead him on to think that there's a long future for them because her illness means she's on borrowed time.

Aside from those three biggest issues, there was more packed into this little story. Derek's daughter is resistant to him dating Maya initially but does have a change of heart eventually. At the beginning, in a conversation with Laura about working from Charleston, the conversation runs in to racist territory when Laura mentions the proximity of an African-American history museum in the vicinity of the bridal boutique is, how it's not good for the are or the business, and the possibility that the museum will be closed. Laura's flippant view of the museum, Charleston's history and the history of that particular business district, and dismissal of their importance - all done to Maya's face - is incredibly offensive. However, I did get Maya's stunned reaction and hesitation to speak up or contradict her boss. This is an area where Maya does develop a strong backbone and finally stands up to Laura.

I thought A Lowcountry Bride was good overall but I have mixed feelings about it. I appreciated much about the characters individually but thrown all together I felt something was off. The romance didn't grab me, and I think there was a lot in the story that weighed it down. If you're looking for a romantic escape from reality (kind of what the cover implies, and the blurb downplays her illness), then this may not be the best choice. On the flip side, it is wonderful to see a character who has a chronic illness get her HFN.

~ Bel

Ughhh… I really wanted to love this one. On paper, it sounded like I would love it: adorable cover, a Charleston setting, the weddings industry, diverse characters (one with a chronic illness), and more. However, I just didn’t like it. I really didn’t connect with Maya, Derek was fine and nothing special, and I hated Derek’s daughter and her 180. This just wasn’t for me.

Thanks to @NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyagers for my ARC!

I lovedddddd this book. Culture is a major part of this book & made it super enjoyable :) I've already recommended this to all of my friends who love romance

New to me author Preslaysa Williams writing is stellar!! I am speechless at the depth of the entire storyline. It's an exceptional story of self-discovery, acceptance, real life emotions and second chances. This story moved me in the most beautiful way. Maya and Derek's journey to love is such a profound, captivating love story. I especially appreciated the diversity of both characters. Bravo!!
#ALowcountryBride #NetGalley

Book: A Lowcountry Bride
Author: Preslaysa Williams
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Steam: 🔥🔥/5 (Cool on the Smut-O-Meter)
Series: Brides of Lowcountry #1
Tropes: Contemporary, Single Dad, Chronic Illness representation - Sickle Cell Anemia, Romance Back Home, Biracial Heroine (Black and Filipina), Military Veteran Hero
Content Warning: Reference to real-life terrorist attack, Grief, Losses of parents and spouse, Anxiety over able-ism at work, Racism

If you’ve ever wanted a Hallmark romance movie in the form of a book, A Lowcountry Bride should be your next read. Williams’ crafts a deeply sincere and sweet story that tackles grief, courage, heritage, faith, and family. While the story focuses on Maya and Derrick’s relationship, we also meet an interesting cast that really shows the power of Southern communities.

Maya Jackson is a junior wedding dress designer for Laura Whitcomb, a major power-house in the wedding industry. She has been grinding for years to get Laura’s approval but her Afro-Filipina designs are always dismissed. When her father breaks his hip, Maya is forced to take an unpaid leave of absence to go home to Charleston and take care of Carl Jackson.

Derrick Sullivan’s life was devastated when a terrorist attacked his family church and killed his mother and wife. In the aftermath he retired from the military to run his mother’s bridal boutique and raise his daughter, Jamila, as a single father. With the bridal shop on the brink of bankruptcy and no experience in the wedding industry, Derrick is desperate for help after his only employee retires.

Maya and Derrick work together to revitalize the boutique and make it an anchor business within Charleston’s Black community once again. The pair slowly fall in love despite Maya’s impending return to New York, her hidden illness, and Jamila’s dislike of Maya. Keep in mind there’s no steam but Maya and Derrick definitely have romantic moments. Derrick finds ways to bolster her confidence as a designer. Maya shows Derrick that he can run the boutique and how important it is to keep his mother’s legacy alive.

Laura Whitcomb gave off serious Cruella de Ville vibes with her phone calls to Maya and their last meeting. Part of the reason A Lowcountry Bride didn’t quite make 5 stars is my frustration with Maya for not seeing Laura’s manipulation. Also Williams' writing got repetitive at times.

Living with a serious illness is a huge part of what pushes Maya in her career as a fashion designer. She aims to land a prestigious promotion within a famous bridal gown company in New York, but her plans stall when she goes back to South Carolina to care for her injured father. In Charleston, a bridal boutique and its owner—Derek, a military veteran and widowered father—present Maya with some business and personal prospects she may not be ready for in A Lowcountry Bride by author Preslaysa Williams.

So! What did I like most about this sweet romance novel featuring a Blasian (Afro-Filipina) heroine down south? The sense of history and family legacy that permeates the story is compelling, from both Maya's side and Derek's. Along with that is the novel's theme of authenticity, illustrating the challenge and need to be true to oneself in one's purpose, goals, relationships... It really spoke to me.

While the two main characters didn't have the kind of charisma or dialogue that draws me into the romantic side of a story, I appreciated seeing their respect for each other. Overall, there are places where the novel's style could have been sharper with more originality and fewer repetitive phrases, actions, and explanations.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed this inspiring read about people holding on to and finding ways to tell their stories. And I adore the novel's lovely cover, which also shares a message of authenticity.
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I received an advance reading copy of this book via Netgalley for an honest review.

A Lowcountry Bride by Preslaysa Willams was a great read. I featured it as Book of the Day on all my social media platforms, and I’ll include it in my monthly roundup of news releases for my Black Fiction Addiction blog. I also interviewed her for Black Fiction Addiction.

I normally can appreciate when an author sprinkles in a bit of realism in my romance novels. It takes away from some of the fluff that is presented but there are times when the subject matter and how it is handle can be a bit daunting or too heavy to absorb. This is one of those rare cares where there was too much to take in and it didn’t help me with the storyline.

Maya Jackson suffers from sickle cell anemia, a debilitating disease. She has her own life goals and aspirations but she puts that on hold mainly to return home to take care of her father. Now is not the ideal time as she wanted to be the head designer at her company. Maya is strong and use to handling difficult life situations.

Derek is struggling to maintain his bridal boutique but he has so much to juggle with the shop, his daughter and the pain from losing his wife in a violent church shooting. He in introduced to Maya and can’t help his attraction to her. The author barely scratches the surfaces of Derek’s character so I didn’t connect with him outside of his own tragedy.

I kept waiting for all the warm small town romance elements to kick in. Instead, the two constantly circle each other while staying in their heads. Maya kept saying she had only a certain number of years to live. As someone who knows this disease up close and personal, I wanted her to be stronger than that. There is no guarantee how long she would live. Her harping on it so much made the romance felt slighted. There are so many adults living longer with the illness so the author’s use of ‘life expectancy’ in this way to stress the severity of the disease took away from the romantic arch.

I felt like Maya’s own internal struggles took focus of the story and while I had initially enjoyed it. After a while, I no longer cared what Maya was trying to figure out. I wanted to see more of her and Derek in a romantic way. Bottom line, the warm and fuzzies was not here and I didn’t want to be bogged down with their inner dialogue.

~ Samantha

REVIEW: A (rating)
Reviewer: Shirley Fleming

Maya Jackson is a fashion designer who lives in New York. When she learns of her father’s fractured hip, she returns home to South Carolina to take care of him. She’s worried, however, that she might lose her job and the opportunity to be head designer for a well-known bridal brand. Maya will only be home for a few weeks and feels that she can continue to work while taking care of her father. Derek Sullivan is a local business owner in Charleston who happens to run a bridal shop. When his assistant retires, he hired Maya to fill the position temporarily. Derek agrees to take some of Maya’s beautiful creations on consignment, which helps bolster her designs' confidence. Neither Maya nor Derek envisions love to develop from their business arrangement. Maya never expected to be a bride, and Derek never expected to find love again. As fate will have it, they were both wrong.

Maya is a unique bridal fashion designer with health issues. She wants to be as famous as her employer, but there is one thing holding her back; herself. Maya doesn’t believe in her talents as a designer. She continues to work for a person who rejects her designs until someone special convinces her to take a chance. Derek is a veteran and widower with a twelve-year-old daughter. It’s been three years since his wife’s death, but both of them are still recovering from his wife’s death. The healing doesn’t begin until a woman with a big heart and lots of love to give comes into their lives.

A LOWCOUNTRY BRIDE is a beautifully written romance with fantastic characters and a credible and relatable storyline. This heartwarming story tugs at the heartstrings. Maya has Sickle Cell Anemia, but she is determined to live her life to the fullest. Not expecting to be a bride herself, she designs one-of-a-kind bridal creations for other women to enjoy. Derek enters the picture and changes that perspective. I love the way this story unfolds. With the heroine's chronic health issue, the author has created a kindhearted hero who loves her just the way she is. When Derek finds out about Maya’s illness, he doesn’t turn his back on her; he embraces her. He is unwilling to deny himself or his daughter the joy of having a loving relationship in their lives even after losing his first wife. Very emotional story but excellent writing!

I enjoyed reading A LOWCOUNTRY BRIDE. The small-town setting is sweet, with characters you will love. I recommend you add this page-turner to your list of must-reads. You won’t be disappointed.

Great read! Truly appreciated a romance novel that feature individuals with chronic illness. I have been recommending this book a lot. It's cute and sweet!

I love that cover and the premise seemed (to me) a sweet story with light angst. Unfortunately, this feels like a switch-a-roo.

I liked Maya. She’s talented and passionate and it really came through. I liked reading her trying to figure out what she wanted out of life, not only professionally, but personally as well. Derek didn’t feel fully fleshed out to me, but I did love Jamila.

Plot wise, it was okay. The flow of the writing didn’t really work for me. It was dense and clunky at times and even with a good amount of dialogue, I struggled to settle into the story, especially the romance part of it. The bright parts were definitely the bits of Maya’s heritage and and how she incorporated that into her designs.

The thing that really threw me is all of the heavy topics that didn’t seem to match the mention in the synopsis. Maya is terminally ill and a good amount of her inner monologue is about managing her health and how she’ll be dead in 10-15 years. Derek’s wife died in a mass shooting in a church and it’s touched on several times.

Overall, this story had me continuing to see how it ended; however, I could have easily set it down and left it unfinished.

**Huge thanks to the publisher for providing the arc free of charge**

This book just doesn't work. It's so frustrating to watch these two characters circle each other and make basically no moves, Maya in particular since she seems unable to work through both her romantic feelings for Derek and her obvious unhappiness at her dream job. I was very uncomfortable with the "White woman discovers her Roots of Color" subplot, and was super taken aback by the fact that Derek lost his wife in a mass shooting event at their church. That particular piece of the story is so underdeveloped that it really just serves as a kind of shock and awe feature meant to amp up the reader's empathy for him, which isn't necessary!!

The story has STRONG religious undertones, which is not my jam, and is slow-burn very low-steam. Overall, the plot is underdeveloped and the writing is robotic. Dialogue is incredibly stilted and Derek's 12 year old daughter talks like a 40 year old woman with an MBA. A swing and a miss.

It's getting harder to fall in love with romance books. It's either a hit or a miss. Never in-between. And unfortunately, it was a miss for A Lowcountry Bride. I really tried to like A Lowcountry Bride but I just did not like the writing style. It was more of explaining and summarizing than actions and dialogue between the characters. I could not get past it. I felt I was reading cliff notes rather than reading a romance book.

Maya, a wedding gown designer for a big New York brand, temporarily returns to Charleston to care for her father while he recovers from an injury. While she’s in Charleston, Maya needs a job and finds a position at a local wedding gown boutique. She discovers not only a place to work but also an opportunity to showcase her designs. The added job perk is the handsome, widowed father and owner of the boutique.

Charleston, South Carolina is one of my favorite places to visit so I was looking forward to reading this charming book. The local bridal boutique’s role in the community and the history of the strong, women of Charleston added a layer of depth to this contemporary romance.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for the opportunity to review this book before the release on June 1.

But sickle cell anemia flare-ups didn’t wait for bridal gown designers.

Maya Jackson has been trying to make her mother proud by working her way up to lead designer at the prestigious Laura Whitcomb Inc., the nation's top bridal gown designer. When a promotion opportunity opens up, Maya is ready to try and impress her boss who has a tendency to reject her Afro-Asian influenced designs in favor of more conventional. Life and timing, as it is, also has Maya asking for time off as she wants to go back home to the lowcountry to help her father who has just broken his hip. There in Charleston, Maya confronts if she can trust again, who she wants to be, and what she really wants out of life.

This man was not going to mess with her focus. Not happening.

Lowcountry Bride was a heartfelt story that didn't always delve enough into some of the heavy topics it incorporated but still delivered some incredibly sweet moments. The romance was low heat, just some kisses, and I thought the romance between Maya and Derek was actually the weakest of the story. Derek is a widowed single father who lost his wife to a mass shooting at the New Life Church and is trying to keep his mother's legacy of a bridal dress shop from going into foreclosure and repair his relationship with his daughter. His wife dying in a mass shooting is one of those heavy topics I mentioned wasn't delved into enough. I live in America, so maybe this hits me more than it would others but while it never came off as a salacious additive, it still didn't have the emotional depth I would have liked to see with such an impacting topic. I did enjoy how the author had Maya going home to Charleston to take care of her father but then backing off a little when his “friend” Ginger is there also trying to help him, especially when Ginger is set to retire from her manager job at Derek's bridal shop and has more time now. A bridal shop that Derek desperately needs help at and Maya's boss refused to give her paid time off so she needs to make some extra money on the side. This was all excellent plot threading and made these two entering each other's worlds believable.

“Excellent. Operation Save Always a Bride shall begin,” he said.
And Operation Save Maya would begin too, because the way Derek winked at her just now made her entire body warm.

With Maya working at Derek's Always a Bride shop, their attraction begins but Derek's daughter, Jamila, has attitude about feeling like Maya is trying to replace her mother and makes Derek promise not to date her. Jamila was a character I wish we could have gotten more depth with, she's a teenager dealing with some heavy emotional tolls but she swung wildly from stark to warm and it was clearly to create road blocks/angst in the romance. Derek's fear of loving because of his losses of his wife and mother and wanting to repair the relationship with his daughter and Maya's fear of people not being able to handle her sickle cell anemia were enough to keep the friction between this couple.

Maya had to try. She would try. Like Derek had said, if Maya didn’t believe in herself, who would? A seed of confidence took root in Maya. Confidence— and hope.

With Maya being the stronger character and delving into her life and issues more, this did have a slight women's fiction to it and what I think was the story's greatest strength. Going on the journey with her as you want her to stick up for herself and her designs with her boss but understanding why she feels she can't, dealing with her illness, fear of trusting someone to love her, her relationship with her dad, and eventually finding and using her power to be all who she is in an environment that constantly tries to stifle her, will have you cheering her on.

Was true love a one-time thing, or did his heart have room for a second chance at falling in love?

Overall, this was sweet with some hard topics but the author had a soothing tone to her writing that gives you hope, even when you're hurting with the characters. While I do wish there had been some more depth to what felt like underdeveloped relationships, especially the romance, I did feel some of the issues (racism, gentrification) were incorporated and utilized in a way that is not always common in books from big publishing, making the contemporary feel all the better for it. The passage of time was a bit vague at times and because Maya lives with sickle cell anemia and it's a constant in her life, the reminders of her “ten to fifteen years” life expectancy gave this somewhat more of a melancholy ending feel. However, Derek's grandmother's letter and the moment between him and his daughter Jamila while he's doing her hair, will make your eyes water and were so sweet that those moments alone will have me checking out this author's future works.

“The truth is that we’re all dying, Maya. It’s not the dying that matters. It’s the living.”

A Lowcountry Bride is just not a book for me. Unfortunately, I gave up at around 25% in. There is a lot of hard things that the characters are going through, starting out with Maya's clearly racist boss who forces her to work without pay while Maya is on a leave of absence from work all the way down to Derek's money issues causing him to consider selling his family business. The part I read was setting up so much backstory for each of these characters, and so much of that backstory was tragic that it was really hard to get past.

I don't have a problem with tragedy befalling characters, or even sad beginnings of romance novels, but by the 25% mark, Derek and Maya had barely been on page together, and I didn't feel enough of a pull toward their blossoming romance to keep going. Maybe if there had been more growth to their relationship early on, in tandem with revealing their respective circumstances, it may have been easier to get into. As it was, I just wasn't invested enough to keep reading through the depressing events to get to the happily ever after.

Going home to take care of family, fighting a chronic health issue, and dreaming of her own design career while he is honoring his mother’s dream as the business barely holds on, working through the grief of a wife and mother gone too soon, and trying desperately to connect with his daughter. Is there enough hope left for romance? This story looked charming, sweet, and emotional and I was eager to try this author for the first time after seeing the excitement for her books in a few reader pals.

As I noted, this was my first time opening one of the author’s books, but I’ve had my eye on them for a while. So many, found characters and romances that resonated with them and shared that in their reviews that I took the chance with this standalone. It does start off at a gentle pace and relies strongly on character-driven plot.

I thought I was prepared for the emotional punch, but this one dug deeper than I was expecting. Her chronic health issue turned out to be Sickle Cell Anemia, a terrible one I’m all too familiar with in my former job (people have ongoing health trouble, sometimes get treated differently from others, and mostly die young) and his wife’s death was a church shooting that, understandably, devastated him and his daughter. There was also gentrification, racism, and other up to the minute troubles our society faces. I did have the stray thought that all this might be too much for one story. But, that was selling this author short. She wrote with heart and deep interest that came across in her characters, setting, and plot so the story was bittersweet at times, but also hopeful and heartwarming.

Maya designs beautifully, honoring her mother’s diverse heritage through her gowns and having a special friendship with her boss. She grasps her situation, but she is a woman of strength who sees life as a precious gift and lives it. I adored seeing her slowly get through to Derek’s hurting daughter and forge a relationship with her apart from their own slowly connecting romance which was sweet rather than fiery and not difficult once they got started. I appreciated this because I felt they had so much else to overcome individually that any extra drama in the romance would have been too much. As for Derek, he is a wonderful man and something truly special the way he puts so many others first and cares. He knew the score about loving a woman with Maya’s condition and what it would be like if he put his heart on the line after losing one beloved wife, but he opened his heart anyway.

An amazing heart-felt story and now I know why readers love her books so much. Those who want a contemporary romance that digs deeper balancing a current reality for people of color with a beautiful love story should definitely pick this one up.

Y’all! This is such a sweet romance with so much substance and heart! I read this quickly and enjoyed every minute. Very much on the cleaner side for steam, I loved how this book not only has the lovey dovey aspect I want in a romance, but also takes on heavier topics such as racism, mass shooting, grieving the loss of a spouse, and living with sickle cell anemia. 

One of the highlight moments for me in this book was reading about how Maya brings her culture to her wedding gown designs. Those moments learning about her culture and traditions really made me feel the love and pride she had for her heritage and family ties. It’s like I could feel her face light up just reading her words! 

Reading about Derek and his daughter Jamila and Maya and Jamila was such a complex situation and was written so well and evoked so much emotion. From teenage anger to hurt, and so much trepidation then love, it was very heartwarming to read Jamila find her new way and build her relationship with her dad and Maya. Their romance was also one for Hallmark movies. From the beginning he gave off strong but sweet vibes, and gah it was so sweet reading Maya bring him back to life!

A Lowcountry Bride is a sweet romance with so much substance and will definitely have you smiling! It’s out NOW so check it out!

TW: mass shooting, racism, chronic illness, death of spouse/parent