The Wedding Shop by Rachel Hauck

 

Title:  The Wedding Shop

Author:  Rachel Hauck

Narrated by:  Windy Lanzi

Publisher: Zondervan

Length: Approximately 10 hours and 57 minutes

Source: Checked out with Hoopla through the Kewaunee Public Library.  Thank-you.

Do you have a favorite shop to get new clothing?

Cora Scott has inherited her aunt’s wedding shop in the 1930s Tennessee.  She loves a mysterious river boat captain, Rufus, but she has been waiting years for him to marry her.  Meanwhile her friend Birch helps her and tries to persuade her to marry him.  All the world goes through major changes in the 1930s. Will Cora find her happy ending?

Eighty years later, Haley Morgan has returned home after serving as an Air Force Captain.  She wants to rebuild the wedding shop as she and her late friend Tammy dreamed of doing while they were kids.  Tammy’s fiancé, contractor Cole Danner, helps Halley with the project.

My thoughts on this audiobook:

·       This was the June pick for the Kewaunee Library Page Turners Book Club.  It seemed liked the club all enjoyed it back in June and we had a good discussion.

·       This novel was part 3 of The Wedding Collection series.  I read it as a standalone and it worked for me.

·       This novel is an inspectional Christian fiction and clean read.

·       The loved the details of the shop and the shopping experiences of the bride.  It was a good read for June.

·       There was a “magical” wedding dress and people kept giving Haley money to help her build her shop.  It was hard to believe. 

·       I liked how the two storylines come together at the end and how they connected throughout the novel.

Overall, The Wedding Shop by Rachel Hauck was an engaging story and audiobook.

The Wedding Veil by Kristy Woodson Harvey

 

Do you have a special wedding veil in your family?  My Mom bought me mine and I have it sealed up for my daughter to use if she would like to in the future.

I’ve read and enjoyed Kristy Woodson Harvey’s romance novels and I was thrilled to be able to read her first historical fiction / contemporary novel.  The Wedding Veil is the intermingled stories of four different women through time.  In 1879, Edith Dresser dreams of the day she will wear her family’s historic wedding veil.  She grows up and marries George Vanderbilt in a beautiful wedding.  George has built the Biltmore estate in Ashville North Carolina.  After his untimely death, Edith tries to hold everything together for her daughter Cornelia to inherit.  Cornelia has the dream wedding of her own, but she wonders, is their more out there in life for her?

In present day, Julia Baxter is ready to be married using her family’s historic wedding veil.  After receiving a video, the day of her wedding showing her fiancé cheating on her, she knows she needs to change the direction of her life.  Luckily her Grandma Babs is there to support her.  After becoming a widow late in life, Babs wonders, can she move forward and have the life she wants while she still can?

I loved this novel.  The four women and two dueling timelines was intriguing and kept me vested in the story.  I enjoyed both timelines equally.  In contemporary times, I wanted Julia and Babs to figure out what they wanted to do with their lives and to solve the mystery of their family veil.  In the past timeline, I learned about Biltmore and the Vanderbilt women.  I had not read about them before, and I found their story to be fascinating.  I have always wanted to visit the Biltmore estate and Ashville ever since I watched Last of the Mohicans (filmed on location there) as a teenager.  This novel made me want to visit even more!  I also just love to read about weddings, historic clothing, beautiful estates, and this book had it all.  It also had very interesting characters and conflict as well.  I love that they all had to find their inner strength and forge their own paths.  It was an uplifting novel.

I enjoyed the author’s note at the end and hope that the author writes more historical fiction novels.   I think if you enjoyed The Gown by Jennifer Robson or The Last Dance of the Debutante by Julia Kelly, or any of Kristy Woodson Harvey’s previous novels, you will love this book.

Book Source:  A Review Copy from Gallery Books and Spark Point Studio.  Thank-you! I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

A Lowcountry Bride by Preslaysa Williams

What is the last five-star review book that you read?

 Mine was A Lowcountry Bride by Preslaysa Williams.  I just read this book on my vacation last week and I LOVED it.

 Maya Jackson dreams of having her unique wedding gowns showcased by Laura Whitcomb, Inc., the premier wedding gown designer that she works for.  She has a chance to move up in the company with a new unique design, but first she has to return to Charleston, South Carolina to help her father after a fall fractured his hip.  Laura Whitcomb will not pay her while she’s back in South Carolina, so Maya takes a job at a local bridal boutique.

 Derek Sullivan is back from the military and the owner of Always a Bride.  It was his mother’s dream and legacy, and he is struggling to keep it from bankruptcy.  He and his daughter are still struggling over the loss of his wife in the Emanual AME mass shooting.  He can’t connect with his daughter.  When Maya Jackson enters his store with her unique dress designs, looking to sell her gowns, and later to work at the store, Derek feels like his prayers have been answered. 

 Will Maya be able to realize her dreams to become a famous bridal gown designer?  Will Derek be able to save the dress shop and connect with his daughter?  Will they be able to find love?

 I LOVED this novel and read it quickly.  I loved Maya Jackson as the heroine.  She is an independent woman who struggles with finding love for herself as she suffers from sickle cell anemia and will only live for ten to fifteen years.  She decides to put everything into her dress designs to become the success in New York City that her mother always dreamed of.  I loved Maya’s journey through the novel.  She has to realize what is best for her.  What does she really want?  I love that both her father and Derek support her and her ability to make these decisions for herself.  They don’t want to change her.  I loved that. 

 I also loved to read about Maya’s designs.  I would love to see them for real.  I love that her inspirations were from her Afro-Filipina heritage.  Her heritage was discussed throughout the novel, and I was intrigued by it.  Her special Filipina stitching learning from her mother sounded fascinating. 

 I also enjoyed that this was a clean read.  There is definitely romance and love, but it does not get into any bedroom scenes.  Church is also identified as being very important to many of the characters. I really like it.

 Overall, A Lowcountry Bride is a perfect read with a great heroine and sweet romance.  The novel had wonderful characters and plot. I greatly enjoyed it.

 Book Source:  Review Copy from William Morrow.  Thank-you!