A July Bride

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Author, Beth Wiseman
Published, June 24, 2014 Publisher, Zondervan Kindle edition, 120 pages Series, A Year of Weddings #8

DESCRIPTION FROM GOODREADS:
A year's worth of novellas from twelve inspirational romance authors. Happily ever after guaranteed.
Can she forgive the man who left her at the altar?
Alyssa Pennington dated Brendan Myers for three years before she accepted his proposal. For almost a year, Alyssa's friends and family helped her plan a lovely wedding to take place in the church she'd grown up in. It was the happiest day of her life when she walked down the aisle to be united with the man of her dreams. But when Brendan left her at the altar, Alyssa was consumed by humiliation, embarrassment, and a broken heart that wouldn't allow her to trust anyone. Especially Brendan.
Brendan Myers knows he will spend the rest of his life regretting what he did to Alyssa, the only woman he's ever loved. Without her, his life is empty. In one fateful moment, he'd panicked, destroyed their future, and ruined everything. Now he plans to win her back.
But winning back his bride might prove much more difficult than he can imagine. And even if he does get her to the altar again, will she think turnabout is fair play?

MY THOUGHTS:
This was an interesting and easy read but it was not my favorite in the series so far. I felt that the characters made very bad choices over and over and also that they needed to grow up a bit. But decisions made by the characters did keep me guessing at who was going to end up walking down the aisle with who.
Brendan knew that walking away from Alyssa was the wrong choice but she had moved on to Dalton. So they find themselves in a love triangle. Brendan worked hard to find ways to stay in her life but at times she wants him to go away and let her have a new life. The overall theme of the novella was forgiveness. The characters needed to learn to forgive each other for many things before they could expect to make a marriage work.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for a honest review. All thoughts and opinions are mine.

Alyssa is jilted right at the alter by her one true love. Within days, he realizes his mistake and goes to great lengths and cost to try and win her back. I can understand the hurt and pain that she probably felt, but thought she was a little immature to treat Brendan the way that she did. The story suddenly shifts to a love triangle and I honestly wasn't sure which guy was going to win her heart. Secrets are uncovered--secrets which led to the breakup, but it still seems a little silly. The ending surprised me but I was hoping for more of a connection between the characters, more romance.

I've really enjoyed this wedding series, but this one was a little more serious and not one of my favorites. I love the cover and I love the time of year, but most of the story seemed to take place in the wintertime and I wanted a fun July story.

Content: talk of sex, waiting for marriage--vague references to some couples not waiting; talk of adultery and cheating, no details. Technically clean.

*I received a copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*