The Unexpected Wedding Guest by Aimee Carson is another KISS title that didn’t fail to keep me entertained! This is the first book in the Wedding Season Quartet. Check out our review of the prologue The Wedding Dress Diaries.
Reese had a privileged life. Aware but slightly ignorant about her family and how she was treated, she had nothing to complain about. In college, she met and bonded with three other women, and they were dubbed “The Awesome Foursome”.
Her friends accepted Reese for what she was, even if she was a little spoiled. She wasn’t obnoxiously so, in fact, she seemed to be oblivious of the fact. They pidgeon-holed her into a mold in which Reese didn’t want to fit.
Mason was a football star and the girls never missed an opportunity to watch the hot guys play. When Reese and Mason met off the field, things went into high gear. He knew he’d never really fit into her world, but heaven help him – he wanted to try.
They married in secret to the dismay of Reese’s family and friends. The honeymoon phase didn’t last long though – Mason had enlisted in the Marines and was sent to Afghanistan. When he returned almost a year later, they communicated even less than they had when he was deployed. Reese couldn’t handle his distance and demanded a divorce.
Ten years later, Reese is preparing to marry Dylan – the ‘perfect’ man. They were compatible in every way, and the relationship was more than comfortable. A few days before the ceremony, Mason shows up – and all of Reese’s plans go up in smoke.
Dylan “postpones” the wedding so she can get closure with Mason, and leaves the two of them at the Hamptons’ estate together. Mason isn’t sure how he feels about that. His psychiatrist had sent him there for exactly that purpose, but once he arrived it didn’t seem like such a good idea.
Mason can’t bring himself to confess all his secrets to Reese – a mirror image of their marriage. Reese is torn between hating him and wanting to understand him, which is of course in direct opposition to his pathology.
But how can he tell her how broken he is? Their marriage had been ruined the first time around, what makes him think fences can be mended now that he had too many problems to count. Funny how almost getting killed by an IED can fuzz your perspective on life.
This installment of the series was quite a bit more serious than the prologue, but just as much, if not more than enjoyable. I loved the tension between Mason and Reese, and that she learned so much about herself through his eyes by the end of the book. Dylan seemed inconsequential, and he was perhaps the one weird thing that just didn’t seem right. I guess that’s why he wasn’t the Hero though, right? So far, I highly recommend this series.
Book Info
Publication Date: June 18, 2013 | Series: Harlequin Kiss (Book 21)