In Wedding Cake and Big Mistake by Nancy Naigle, After escaping Adam’s Grove at the first opportunity, Carolanne is back. Just in time to help her best friend Jill celebrate her wedding, to buy her perfect house, become partner’s with her friend Connor in his law firm, and perhaps slowly rebuild her relationship with her father.
Carolanne has sworn off love and marriage. After seeing how her mother’s death affected her father, she is determined she is never going to go through that. Even while helping Jill with her wedding plans, “The thought of a wedding of her own sent her pulse spinning like an ice-skater, and not in a good way. She’d never let her happiness revolve around someone else.” Love and marriage is just not a risk Carolanne is willing to take.
Connor is starting to feel more than friendly feelings towards Carolanne, but Carolanne is sure she doesn’t want a relationship with Connor. When he takes the opportunity to kiss her, he makes her feel things she tries to deny, “But her heart refused to listen to what her mind was trying to tell her. There was no mistaking that when he’d kissed her, she’d felt something…A reckless abandon to the tenderness of his touch in a way she’d never felt before.” The harder Connor tries to be with her, the harder Carolanne pushes him away. She is still determined that a loving relationship is not for her, especially with someone she is business partners with! Complicating her feelings towards Connor is the fact that he is good friends with her Dad, who she has yet to forgive for the past and move on to a relationship they can have today.
To make matters even worse, when a young woman new to town is murdered and her body is found on Jill’s wedding day, Carolanne’s Dad becomes a suspect. The death, Carolanne’s Dad, and Carolanne’s unresolved past hurts are coming between any relationship that Connor and her might be able to have. Adam’s Grove is such a small town that there will be no way to avoid each other…will Carolanne realize that love is worth risks and see what she can have with Connor? Or will she forsake love for her perception of safety? Will her relationship with her father be forever strained, especially with the death of this young woman?
I really liked Connor and Carloanne. Carolanne was a bit frustrating because as smart, independent and mature as she was, she held onto her past hurts with her Dad with a death grip. I wondered if she was more insecure than she came across as, because as an adult she could see why her father acted how he did after her mother died. It didn’t make it all right, but it gave more perspective to his behavior. Unfortunately she is using that behavior as a shield to avoid relationships and love, which is sad. I thought Connor was very patient with Carolanne! For him it really seems to be true love and I found myself hoping Carolanne could move past her father’s actions and see what she could have with Connor. Carolanne and Connor had a lot of fun together in Wedding Cake and Big Mistakes, and I could easily see their friendship moving to the next level, if Carolanne would only give it a chance….Will they get their happily ever after?
The mystery Nancy gives us with Wedding Cake and Big Mistakes adds an interesting scenario to the story line…who did it and who exactly was that young woman? My only complaint would be that I felt that in the end the mystery was wrapped up so quickly that I still had some questions and felt unclear on exactly what happened. Having said that, the mystery added more depth to an already great romance that is emotionally charged from the first page.
I loved being back in Adam’s Grove, finding out if Pearl’s predictions for love will come true. It was so much fun to see it from Carolanne’s perspective, at the same time catching up with everyone there and meeting some new people (good and bad!). Wedding Cakes and Big Mistakes can easily be read without reading Sweet Tea and Secrets (the first book). Nancy gives us just enough background so that you’re never confused, but I highly recommend reading Sweet Tea and Secrets too because it’s great!
I love Nancy’s writing and Wedding Cake and Big Mistakes did not disappoint! Nancy writes so descriptively about Adam’s Grove and small town romance that I really wanted to be there!
Book Info
Publisher: Montlake Romance (July 9, 2013)
Welcome to Adams Grove…where the wedding cakes are sweet, but the recipe is murder.
For years, Carolanne Baxter dreamed of a life beyond Adams Grove. Being the daughter of the town drunk was no picnic, so when college offered her a chance for escape, she took it. Now Carolanne has returned home, finally ready to make amends with her father, Ben, and to celebrate the wedding of her best friends Jill and Garrett. Of course, the fact that Connor Buckham, her sexy new law partner and Garrett’s best man, happens to be the same guy the town matchmaker named as Carolanne’s perfect match…well! That’s just icing on the cake.
But Carolanne’s hopes for a fresh start are dashed when a dead body surfaces during Jill and Garrett’s wedding reception…and Ben Baxter becomes the prime suspect. The murder throws the town into uproar, threatening to destroy the tentative peace between father and daughter—and to derail the budding romance between Carolanne and Connor. Has the matchmaker’s perfect streak come to end? Or will the truth finally bring Carolanne the happy ending she’s dreamed of for so long?
Sharlene Wegner
I was attracted to the cover on this book & the story line sounds good, too! Thanks!