Lottie had her whole life planned out to the tiniest details, including her wedding day to her college boyfriend. Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned and now seven years after their break up, Lottie is working as a junior wedding planner.

Through a chain of events, Lottie ends up being the one to plan her ex's wedding, while trying to find purpose in her own life and career.

The premise sounded interesting, but the execution wasn't my thing.

The pacing at the start of the book was so slow, that it almost put me to sleep. It gradually got better, but I still think we saw too many weddings.

The chaos was interesting to witness (especially the dancing ghost lady, I liked that scene a lot), but not much happened. It was basically meet with clients-plan a wedding-attend wedding and then rinse and repeat.

There was a little romance sprinkled in, and out of possible love interests I liked Matt the most. Griffin was a little dull, and they didn't really have chemistry. But at least he helped her get over Brody, (eventually).

We also had a mini antagonist which I wasn't expecting. That part was alright, even though it feels like that character did what they did just because they could, I'm not buying their deeper motives.

And about Brody, his own wedding plays a very small part in this story. It's kind of in the background until it isn't. I was convinced that it would be a much bigger deal, but Lottie was already on the way to recovery, she just needed an extra push and that was it.

*Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review*

Lottie Jones thought she would be a lawyer one day. She worked hard to become a lawyer all her life, until she is rejected in college by her college sweetheart. Has Lottie gone too far in booking and planning their entire wedding without him ever actually proposing? Yeah, probably, but she never imagined they wouldn't get married at the end of their college careers.

Lottie put her own dreams on hold to plan this wedding and be available to move to whichever city her football player boyfriends is drafted to for the NFL.

When things take a turn and she realizes she isn't ready for the bar exam, she takes a job assisting a florist for weddings and eventually becomes a wedding planners assistant. When Lottie's career is on the line, will she be able to plan to the wedding she dreamed of herself during college? Is she equipped to manage this in real life and will her photographer friend be there for her along the way?

This is a book about Lottie becoming her own and being sure of what she does and does not want from this life.

This book was just a hot mess from start to mess. The main character does not appreciate the stable job she has. She also wants to marry her college sweetheart who has no intent to propose and sets off on a course to sabotage other events. The dialogue was awful and this book was so dull in some parts. Cannot recommend.

So glad this was a Netgalley book but cannot recommend. I did like the cover.

Thanks to Netgalley, Mary Hollis Huddleston and Harper Muse for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 12/7/21

"Lottie" has fallen into the role of floral designer assistant turned wedding/event planner. She lost herself somewhere during college and the reader is left wondering if she'll ever manage to find herself in her late twenties, when the story begins. Reading later that the writers incorporated one of their event planning experiences made sense, as it seemed like a series of plot points with a romantic line to tie the story together. Reading this was a bit of a chore for me. The side characters were too flat, too cliché for me. Lots of words spent on overly descriptive office spaces to impress upon the reader how ridiculously extravagant the people were. Please note - rich people don't really revel or notice how expensive or over the top other people or places are. It's uncouth. So even though Lottie isn't from 'that world' it seems insane to just name drop every interior or fashion design house in each scene. I probably would have DNF'd this if I had checked it out from the library, but I am not a quitter, especially with ARCs. I was hoping for a redeeming last quarter but even the eventual peak of confrontational drama with both the heatbreaker-ex-boyfriend and subsequently the potential love interest was disappointing.
Thanks so much for the opportunity to read this ARC.

2.5 ⭐️

Without a Hitch is a clean romance that gives off cutesy Hallmark movie vibes, but it wasn’t the “rom com” I was hoping for.

I found Lottie and Griffin’s characters to be underdeveloped and irritating—Griffin kind of sucked 🤷🏻‍♀️. The pacing was also a bit off—it was slow for the majority of the book and then randomly picked up towards the end. I was also expecting more ‘laugh out loud’ moments, especially with all the wedding shenanigans, but meh.

Overall: not for me

This book is promoted as Sweet Home Alabama meets Emily in Paris...and as a woman who hasn't seen it with (sweet emoji), I thought this book was so cute! I like to think, with one of the MC's, Griffin, you get a James Marsden in 27 Dresses vibe as well!

Lottie is an aspiring wedding planner in the south where bigger MEANS better, she has to balance learning and growing her wedding planning skills, while trying to balance a romantic relationship hopeful. Along the way, she finds out she is helping to plan her ex-boyfriends wedding to a Hollywood star, and has a blossoming friendship/ baby crush on Griffin, the event photographer she often gets help from when wedding disasters occur.

3.75/5 for me - This book is advertised as Humor + Women's Fiction + Romance, and I thought it was very Women's fiction, with a dash of clean romance in there. Lottie was a cute, funny, character and I enjoyed her growth and "coming of age" into her profession in this book!

Lastly, thank you NetGalley and Harper Muse Publishing for the eARC access to this book, in exchange for an honest review!

This was just okay. It had its moments but I wasn’t overly drawn to the characters. The entire book was laid out like I would expect. Most of the interesting stuff came in the last 10-15% of the book.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. Pub date: Dec 7

Without a Hitch was so fun! It was a light and sweet little romcom that was a quick and enjoyable read! The cover initially caught my eye as I have not heard of this author before and from the first page I was laughing! When the blurb says "Sweet Home Alabama" you got me!

Quick and fun romcom, not life-changing but certainly not bad. The pacing wasn't my taste, and that stopped me from enjoying the book more. But it was cute, well developed, and I'm happy I read it! Great choice if you need a quick and easy fun read!

I received a complimentary copy of Without a Hitch from NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

I loved everything about this book! I think that secretly, every woman would enjoy a job where weddings are involved on a daily basis...I was able to live out this wish vicariously through the main character of this novel and I loved every minute of it! Her life took an unexpected turn, however when the helium balloon that she had attached all of her dreams to suddenly popped. Although she was an adult throughout the novel, I believe she had truly matured by the end of the book.

This book was a fun and quick read. I enjoyed the story. I always enjoy a cute romcom that is easy to read and is a fun little story.

Junior wedding planner, Lottie Jones, has planned her fair share of events, none without their individual hiccups. She's at a point in her life where she questions is this the path she was destined for, or is there more to life than whiny rich bridezillas, high strung bosses, and a nonexistent love life?

As a newly engaged woman, I found the premise of this book fascinating and confirmed I need to hire a wedding planner ASAP! Besides that, I enjoyed Lottie and all the side characters. They felt real, relatable, and were down right funny. I loved the "will they or won't they" romances and, was overall consumed with life in Dallas, TX.

However, at times I felt the pacing was bit sporadic and never truly hit its groove with no real climax to save it. There were random bits of actions, but a ton of fluffy wedding talk and side plots that took away from Lottie's story.

Overall, this was an easy breezy read that left me rooting for Lottie and her future and ready to plan a wedding myself!

I wanted to absolutely love this one, but I think I am settling on...it was cute, I enjoyed it for what it was, but is it incredibly memorable for me? Not really.

This was a sweet little read, one that would pair nicely with a beach vacay or pool day, but not one that I will be rushing out to recommend to people as a must read. It held my attention, but I honestly don't have much else to say other than it was a quick, light hearted read.

Without a Hitch is well written, but it wasn't;t what I expected. I thought wedding planning for the southern, rich and complicated would be backdrop to the story, but it's more like the story itself. This will probably be enjoyable for someone who envisions that they would enjoy this as a show, but it was not for me.

I'm very surprised this story has low reviews! I really enjoyed it. This is between a 3.5 and 4.

Lottie Jones is a wedding planner at a very exclusive event planning firm. This was not her original plan though. Her original plan was to marry her college sweetheart and be a sports wife/maybe lawyer, while having the most amazing wedding she'd been planning forever. This all went down the drain when she was dumped, leaving her heart broken and her future unknown. Throughout the story, Lottie experiences the ups and downs of weddings, friends and relationships, meeting Griffin, a pessimistic man who she'd like to know better, along the way.

I really liked this story! I will say it was a tad long and I would never call it a romance. It's more a journey of self discovery, it's very funny and has a lot of interesting weddings throughout it. The story takes place over a long period of time as well. I did like the relationship between Lottie and Griffin, although it is an extreme slow burn. I do wish that we knew more about Lottie. I felt like I did know her-but I didn't completely understand her obsession with her own wedding. The book made it seem like her own wedding not happening was a huge thing but it never explained the why well enough-why was it so big? Why did it bother her so much? I didn't get that part. I enjoyed reading about Lottie's friendships and relationships with her co-workers. This story kept me interested the entire time and I enjoyed it! I love reading about weddings and this fit the criteria. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the free preview in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book. I could picture the characters, the settings and the clients. As a Southerner, we know everything bigger has to be better and weddings certainly put this to the test. It was an entertaining read!

Lottie Jones is a wedding planner at a top tier boutique event firm in Dallas. She is unlucky in love herself, but enjoys helping others achieve their perfect big day. Lottie's boss announces he's going to open a new office in Atlanta and she is eager to prove she's the right person to be in charge.

This book was a lot of fun. I'm a sucker for any kind of bridezilla behavior in media. While this book didn't really have too many ugly brides it did have a lot of over the top fun characters with big ideas about their big days. I liked Lottie a lot and it was interesting to watch her learn and grow. The only thing I didn't enjoy was the repetitive conversations the characters seemed to have. The topic of Lottie's unluckiness in love and not being sure if event planning was right for her were beaten into the plot a little too much. But overall, a cute and fun read.

I was given this book in exchange for my honest opinion. Thank you to Harper Muse and NetGalley for this ARC.

A fantastic laugh out loud story about life behind the weddings. My mind was blown by the eccentric couples and their out of this world weddings. I loved the out of the box problem solving and can’t wait to her of Lottie’s next adventures.

DNF 25%

Sadly, I’m having a tough time continuing with this one. I feel more invested in the wedding planning aspect than Lottie or her journey. The constant information dumps that last pages and pages are setting back the progression of myself as a reader immersing in the story.

Love the concept, but execution has me putting this one aside.

Thank you netgalley for the advance copy,

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to like this book, but it didn't hold my interest very well.