Always the Bridesmaid is a story about Charlie and Sarah. Charlie is a comedian battling his demons and Sarah is a widowed lawyer, also battling her issues about commitment since her husband's passing.
Charlie and Sarah start of as sort of enemies, annoying each other at every chance possible. They meet at her best friend's wedding (Jess and Jake from the previous book).
As the week of the wedding goes on (where they have to share a room), Sarah and Charlie become friends after a bit of forced proximity and also a bit of desire and later they become even more. After a few shared moments, Charlie pulls away and ghosts Sarah.

This is a story about overcoming fear and commitment issues, learning that trust and relying on another is not a bad thing, but rather it is a blessing to find a friend and a lover in the same person.

4/5 stars. Great story, but I feel like the point where their friendship turned into more was a bit fast and hasty and not shown enough.

Always the Bridesmaid by Laura Carter

I received an advance review copy for free thanks to Rachel's Random Resources and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Blurb

A cheeky chappy comedian Charlie is most comfortable playing the funny man in front of boisterous crowds in London’s comedy clubs. But he’s about to be swapping his routine for wedding speeches. And his new acquaintance Sarah, thinks he is anything but amusing. The woman who’s got it covered Weddings are always a difficult time for widower Sarah, but you would never tell – she’s too focused on making the week of her best friends’ wedding as perfect as possible. She definitely has no time for the grumpy and surly Charlie, who it's clear her friends are trying to set her up with. And only one room left at the rental... When a drunken invitation adds more people to the pre-wedding holiday house than Sarah organized for, she finds herself spending A LOT more time with Charlie than she intended. If only they could both let their guards down, they might find they have more in common than they think.

My Opinion

This was the first book I had read by Laura Carter - with this being the fourth book in the series I did feel like I was missing some of the back story but I was able to follow it easily enough. I do actually have the first book for this series on my want to read list so I will be going back and reading that at some point.

Laura Carter has written a heart-warming tale, that was enjoyable to read. This book has some mixed reviews, but for me it was a lovely book to read on a miserable weekend.

Rating 4/5

I thought this book was okay, but it wasn't one that I would read again. It doesn't work too well as a standalone book without really knowing any of the characters. The writing was good, but I couldn't connect with Charlie at all and I think that was the biggest issue. He wasn't particularly funny, and I didn't like him which made it harder to enjoy the whole story. I would read another book by Laura Carter, but not one with these characters.

This story was enjoyable and cute but in a way it seems like Charlie and Sarah were forced together. Sarah wasn't entirely likeable at the start, neither was Charlie but they did grow on you and I'd say the last 25% of the book was probably the best. But I was definitely tempted to put it down out of anger/outrage at a certain chapter towards the end (no spoilers). Only because what happened was cruel and unnecessary.

Funny and heartfelt - this slow burning romance was a joy to read! I love the author's style of writing, and the story kept me turning the pages to see what was next. A fab read!

This is now the best book in the series. It was fun, interesting and engaging to read. It brought on all the emotions- joy, laughter, tears.

Even though it was a slow burn and hardly had any spice, it was intriguing and suspenseful and there was no way to predict how the story will end.

For one, these two couldn’t stand each other at first and they both had this annoying way of getting on the reader’s nerves with their actions and inactions.

I love how real Charlie was. He reminds me both physically and action-wise of a comedian I follow.

It was good to catch up with the gang and I love how the author gave us a brief recap of the previous couples and their stories.

The last 15 per cent of the book had me wiping my eyes several times. I love how open ended the ending was.

I received an advanced copy of this book and the review is entirely mine and voluntary.

Always the bridesmaid was an emotional book filled with love, admiration along with ups and downs. That first four chapters gets off to a slow start which wasn’t my favorite but as I continued reading the pace picked up. The two main characters Charlie and Sarah had me rooting for them to conquer all their demons they have going on and sucessefully be together. Their were some emotional moments in this book at one point it had me crying. I loved every second of reading this beautiful novel by Laura Carter and I hope everyone is captivated along with loving it as much as I did.

dnf @ 20%

This is the second book by the author that I have picked up and unfortunately I don't think her writing is for me, I can't connect with the story or the characters. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review!

Sarah visits the UK to attend a friend's wedding, there she is met by another of the guests, Charlie, and is immediately put off by his grumpy attitude. Due to last minute invites they have to share a room at the hotel where the wedding is being held, this is the start of a love / hate relationship.
I loved this book, I really felt for Charlie and could understand what he was going through although I could never be a stand up comedian like him. Sarah really misses her late husband and has always struggled in forming a new relationship and it was interesting to see how she started having feelings for Charlie, despite them being totally different personalities . The tour of London included places that I've visited, so they were easy to visualise. This is actually book four of a series, however this didn't spoil my enjoyment and, yet again, I'm going to have to read the first three to catch up with the other character's stories.
I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley, however this did not influence my review of the book.

Always the Bridesmaid is a cute, lighthearted romance.

Fans of forced proximity romances are going to enjoy this love story. I enjoyed Laura’s previous book, The Law of Attraction, so I was excited to get my hands on her upcoming book, Always the Bridesmaid. I am happy that Laura did not disappoint me with this story. It had all the charm, wit, and romance that I have come to expect with her writing. This is the fourth book in the series; I highly recommend reading the previous books because it will give you the background stories of many of the characters in this book (including Sarah’s). I love this group of characters and this sense of found family that has developed throughout this series. I fell in love with Sarah’s character when we were first introduced to her in The Law of Attraction. She is smart, sassy, and so much fun to be around. So, I am glad she got her own story.
The overall story was great and had perfect pacing. Laura throws in humour, unexpected twists, and drama at just those right moments. Sarah and Charlie don’t get off on the right foot like most rom-coms. These two clash right from the beginning, and their banter is sharp and witty. I loved it when they befuddled or stumped each other. Of course, as the story unfolds, their heated exchanges become heated for another reason—cue those butterfly feelings.
Always the Bridesmaid is a sweet, delightful romance that will have your heart pitter pattering a little faster.

I wish I'd known beforehand this is part of a series, I feel it doesn't work great as a standalone as the cast of characters is too vast. That being said, I felt like the main story wasn't really focused on Sarah and Charlie, but rather on their friends's wedding, and it made me not care about them getting together. Also Charlie is a comedian but he's not funny at all? It was an okay read, not great but not bad either.

I thought this book was OK, but I didn't love it. I couldn't connect with the characters and I found both the main characters to be annoying with much of the supporting characters to be self involved.

Sarah's husband died 8yrs prior and she hasn't been with anyone ever since due to the sense of loyalty she feels to him. This is understandable to an extent but she's only in her thirties so not at all realistic. Thankfully she does move on when her mother-in-law tells her too but she was incapable of making that decision on her own.

Charlie is obviously supposed to have a British sense of humour and is a comedian doing quite well for himself but I don't think his toilet humour or crassness is particularly funny or particularly British either. He wasn't funny and comes across as being emotionally stunted and unintelligent. We do see him perform a set later in the book which has much better comedy in it, though self-deprecating most of the time, but he does redeem himself somewhat.

Sarah is definitely a people-pleaser and I think she's overly organised in an effort to not have to stop and reflect on her own life but I don't feel like her friends really appreciate it. It felt more like they expect her to organise everything for them and just leave her to get on with things.

Thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

I really enjoyed this laugh out loud forced proximity romcom.

This is part of a series, and there were quite a few characters. Although it stands on its own, I think I would have enjoyed it even more if I read the entire series.

I absolutely loved Sarah and Charlie’s story, particularly that Charlie wasn’t your typical mmc and didn’t have the feeling of “too good to be true.” I loved the humour and couldn’t get enough of all of these characters!

sarah and charlie do not seem to get along but they have to for the sake of their friends in order not to ruin the wedding.

what i liked
sarah and charlie’s distinct personalities made it hard to predict how they end up together which kept me reading. the two main characters seem to balance each other out with charlie being the easy-going comedian and sarah the meticulous planner.

what i disliked
this is honestly on me for not realising that although this is a standalone it is book four of a series, which was maybe why some of the jokes or context didn’t land quite right with me. the book reads very british, which might be intentional but pulls me out of the book at times because sarah is supposed to be american but it could also be attributed to her being friends with brits. lastly, the title doesn’t really fit because we find out early on that sarah is a widow, so she has been a bride before, which is a bit confusing.

Ahhhhhhh slow burn romances. Almost as obnoxious as enemy to lover romances for me.

I did like the dual POV, but it was a bit too slow for me. Everyone's comparison to 27 dresses is pretty accurate.

Didn't love this. Thank you Netgalley & Boldwood Books.

This book was cute and have a good rom com vibe to it. I got 27 dress vibes at the start. It was easy to read!

Always a Bridesmaid is a dual POV romcom about two people who have had a rough go in life getting stuck together at their friends' wedding, and, after getting over initial annoyances with the other, finding friendship, then love.

Overall, I found this to be a fast, entertaining read. I liked that Sarah and Charlie didn't hit it off right away, that it was more of a slow-burn romance. It was sweet to see Sarah's feelings for Charlie evolve throughout the book. There was very clear character development as we get to see them battle with some inner demons that held them back throughout the story and overcome them by the end. Charlie and Sarah's interactions were mostly cute but also very awkward to read at times. Which I think was the point, Charlie is not a typical love interest (when Sarah first met him his shining attribute was that he had CLEAN TEETH). He's weird, and I totally and completely get behind the weirdness, but some details that were included to be part of his sense of humor didn't strike me as funny. It actually made me say "ugh gross" a few times. Reading about the MMC having "taken a dump" in the toilet an hour before the FMC is vomiting in the same said toilet just isn't something I really care to read about in romance books.

Thank you to Netgalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

This book is so boring and they have absolutely no chemistry. Every part of it was horrible to read. The fact that they somehow fell in love is so unbelievable. I hate this and no one should read it.

I received an arc through netgalley.

The story of Sarah and Charlie, who clash at their first meeting. Both have heartache from the past, so will it keep them apart? An emotion a read. I would have liked to have seen more of an epilogue to see what happens next.