Review: It Happened One Wedding

IT HAPPENED ONE WEDDING
FBI/US Attorney #5
Julie James
304 pages
Adult Contemporary Romance
Jove
Available Now
Source: Finished copy from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
SHE KNOWS BETTER THAN TO SAY “I DO”

After a humiliating end to her engagement, investment banker Sidney Sinclair is done with commitment-phobic men. But when her sister winds up engaged after a whirlwind courtship, she’s thrown in to close contact with exactly the kind of sexy playboy she wants to avoid—the gorgeous best man. She’s stuck with him, for better or worse, until her sister walks down the aisle, but that doesn’t mean she has to give in to his smooth advances, no matter how tempting they are…

BUT HE MAKES IT HARD TO SAY “I DON’T”

Special Agent Vaughn Roberts always gets his man on the job and his woman in bed. So Sidney’s refusal to fall for his charms only makes him more determined to win over the cool and confident redhead. Only what starts out as a battle of wills ends up as a serious play for her heart. Because the one woman who refuses to be caught may be the only one Vaughn can’t live without…

MY THOUGHTS
Reading a Julie James novel is like going to a best friend’s house for a simple night in: Warm, welcoming, and easy, leaving us with a satisfied smile on our faces as we return home at the end of the evening. It Happened One Wedding is no different from her previous novels in that regard, giving us a couple who starts out fairly high on the antagonistic charts only to be worn down by the other’s snark, charm, and persistence as the story continues. It’s a feel-good romance perfect for picking up on a dreary day or after an exhausting week, substance and fluff beautifully combining to guarantee we have nothing but a good time while reading.

Sidney is a woman who has little time for dating games, a cheating ex forcing her to learn the hard way that things aren’t always what they seem, so her new tactic is to be honest (sometimes brutally so) with the men who approach her and demand the same in return. She weighs and measures Vaughn instantaneously and puts zero effort into sugarcoating the fact that she finds him wanting, and given Vaughn has an inordinately healthy ego on him, we can’t help but smile when she knocks him down a peg or two. She’s not overbearing in her interactions though, her snark wielded precisely and with skill, and since Vaughn learns to take her hits on the chin after their first meeting and then return fire, their interactions have a fun and flirty quality to them rather than making us wince as they banter back and forth.

Vaughn is not quite as instantly likable as Sidney as a result of his aforementioned ego, his self confidence and his repeated admissions that he has no interest in anything other than fun and games leaving us little choice but to root for Sidney to give him hell. Over the course of the story however, while he clings desperately to his supposed disinterest in commitment, the heat of their hostility transforms into a different type of heat entirely, and he begins to see the value in having someone in his life for more than a single night. His romance with Sidney is free of games and low on drama, the two of them slowly progressing from belligerence to friendship to love in a way that’s both believable and oh-so gratifying in the end.

Overall, It Happened One Wedding is light and sweet, a classic contemporary romance that delights with every page and has us seeking out the entirety of Ms. James’s backlist if we haven’t devoured it already.

Rating: 4/5
 

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This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.