When I read a good book, it always leads me to the desire to read another. I go on a reading binge, so when I finished last week’s Friday read, I immediately decided to buy another book.
I bought this based on a review from the Dear Author website. I have found her reviews to be very on target for what I’m looking for in a romance. So, I decided to purchase Here Comes the Groom by Karina Bliss on the site’s recommendation.
This was another well done, realistic romance. Though at times I didn’t understand bits and pieces of the writing (maybe a dialect thing, as it’s set in New Zealand), this story really struck a chord with me.
First let me say that I am a character driven reader. Usually, I have to love the hero and the heroine to really be engrossed in a story. That didn’t happen here. I was kind of ambivalent about the heroine, and the hero was decent, but neither of them had me sighing I wish I knew or was these people.
And yet I devoured the book in the course of an evening/morning. The plot was so compelling on so many levels, that I could not put it down. There’s a lot going on in this book, and a lot of it is sad, but that fit my own writing for the moment. (Usually sad is not my thing). Almost everything that happens is realistic, except the ending which seemed a little farfetched, but I still smiled and felt happy about it so it didn’t put me off that much.
The one thing I must say about this novel, and why I am recommending it, is because of all the reading I have done, specifically in romance, no love scene has ever made me cry. Now, I am an emotional reader, I cry or almost cry usually at least once in a book, but never during a love scene. This love scene was so heartbreakingly touching that I had tears streaming down my cheeks as I read.
For that, and that alone, I would say that this book is a great read!
Nicole Helm 