The Substitute Bride (The Great Wedding Giveaway #7) by Kathleen O’Brien @Tulepublishing #bookreview #romance

Title: The Substitute Bride

Author: Kathleen O’Brien

Publisher: Tule Publishing

Publication Date: May 17, 2014

Page Count: 152

My rating:  3 stars

About the book:

The Great Wedding Giveaway – Book 7

Once upon a time, Marly Akers had believed that, for better or worse, people made their own luck…

Marly wonders how she could ever have believed it. Jilted and pregnant, she’s come back to Marietta with her tail between her legs, the blow to her ego huge as she begins working at her family’s small newspaper, the Copper Mountain Courier, and sharing a tiny apartment with her disapproving mom.

Things can’t get any worse. Or maybe they can. Drake Everett, who secretly captured her teenaged heart and then publicly trampled on it, decides to make her re-acquaintance. Though Drake isn’t the sharp, funny, cocky, arrogant rich boy of yore. These days he seems sharp, funny… and supportive and decent, and Marly realizes she could fall for him all over again… if she listens to her heart. But what about her reporter’s head, which has sniffed out a story that paints Drake as the sweet talker she’s always known…?

The Great Wedding Giveaway Series
Prequel: The Tycoon’s Kiss by Jane Porter
Book 1: What a Bride Wants by Kelly Hunter
Book 2: Second Chance Bride by Trish Morey
Book 3: Almost a Bride by Sarah Mayberry
Book 4: The Unexpected Bride by Joanne Walsh
Book 5: The Cowboy’s Reluctant Bride by Katherine Garbera
Book 6: A Game of Brides by Megan Crane
Book 7: The Substitute Bride by Kathleen O’Brien
Book 8: Last Year’s Bride by Anne McAllister
Book 9: Make Believe Wedding by Sarah Mayberry

The Substitute Bride by Kathleen O’Brien is the seventh book in the contemporary romance The Great Wedding Giveaway series by various authors. Each book in the series features a different couple in Marietta, MT where there is a contest to win a free wedding. All the books in the series could be read as a standalone although there will be flashes of previous characters in the stories.

In this book Marly Akers has returned to Marietta after her engagement fell apart but now she is pregnant and husbandless which is exactly what her strict mother always feared for her. Taking a job working for the family paper in town, the Copper Mountain Courier, Marly ironically ends up covering the wedding giveaway.

Drake Everett was the cocky high school bad boy that Marly had a crush on ten years ago. The pair had never had a relationship but both had a bit of longing for just that happening so now running into one another again the spark is back. Drake and Marly though each have problems they are carrying with them so the question becomes whether they will be able to see eye to eye and fall in love.

The Substitute Bride is again set in my favorite romantic small town of Marietta where everyone knows everyone and the gossip spreads quick. The story between Marly and Drake had a bit more angst to it then I am normally a fan of but I couldn’t help but wish things would work out and Marly get a HEA with her baby on the way. As the couple worked through the angst I got the fun of small town life so in the end I found this one alright overall.

Find this book online: 

Goodreads  /   Amazon

About the author:

Since the day Harlequin bought her first novel, Kathleen has published more than 30 titles with them- everything from hot, sexy contemporaries to dark, brooding suspense. Read in more than 30 countries and 29 languages, she’s a five-time finalist for the prestigious RWA RITA Award, a winner of the Maggie Award, and a three-time finalist for Romantic Times’ Reviewer’s Choice.

Kathleen comes from a family of writers, poets, and journalists- though she may be the one shameless romantic in the bunch. A true Cancer, she values home and family above everything and wouldn’t dream of ditching a single friend, memory, gift, or love letter. Consequently, her office is a mess, full of books, colored cut glass, photo albums, Madame Alexander dolls, and a cockatiel who whistles the theme from “The X Files.” She is addicted to Mozart and Elvis, Dancing With the Stars, Dorothy Dunnett novels, and sugar-free Popsicles.