I finished reading another book this April, upping my count to 4 books read so far out of 20, my 2021 GoodReads Reading Challenge goal. Now I’d like to share my thoughts on the book, The Wedding Date. This is my second Jasmine Guillory book review. My first encounter with this author was when I read Party of Two. It’s the fifth book in the book series which starts with this book I’m reviewing now, The Wedding Date. This is Jasmine Guillory’s debut novel.

What’s the Story?

From GoodReads:

Agreeing to go to a wedding with a guy she gets stuck with in an elevator is something Alexa Monroe wouldn’t normally do. But there’s something about Drew Nichols that’s too hard to resist.

On the eve of his ex’s wedding festivities, Drew is minus a plus one. Until a power outage strands him with the perfect candidate for a fake girlfriend…

After Alexa and Drew have more fun than they ever thought possible, Drew has to fly back to Los Angeles and his job as a pediatric surgeon, and Alexa heads home to Berkeley, where she’s the mayor’s chief of staff. Too bad they can’t stop thinking about the other…

They’re just two high-powered professionals on a collision course toward the long distance dating disaster of the century–or closing the gap between what they think they need and what they truly want… 

My Thoughts on The Wedding Date

I also wrote another Jasmine Guillory book review when I finished reading Party of Two. So what did I think of her debut novel?

This wasn’t a bad read although it’s not one I will rave about either. The plot is interesting – a last minute wedding date ends up becoming a full bloom romance. It’s definitely a meet cute beginning to the story. It’s also interesting because it explores an interracial relationship. Alexa is a black woman while Drew is a white guy.

In this book, Jasmine Guillory explored some of the issues an interracial couple encounters. How does one deal at a party where you’re sure to stand out because of the color of your skin? Do white people understand the privilege they have over black people such as when it comes to the law?

When it comes to romantic chick literature, the main characters’ sexual attraction between each other is usually explored and weaved in the story. This book has a lot of sex in it, like almost every single time they see each other. It’s a whole lot of hot sex. Kinda reminds me of another author I love and who also writes descriptively hot sex, Colleen Hoover.

Like in Party of Two, the characters in this book are always eating! The heroine has a love for desserts, particularly donuts and coffee. I’m beginning to think that’s Jasmine Guillory’s trademark. Book characters who love food. It sure made me crave for donuts and coffee – a great food combination.

What starts out as an interesting story soon became an annoying read. Alexa and Drew both hold high powered careers. She’s a lawyer and he’s a doctor. They’re also in their thirties, full blown adults. But they acted like they were still in their teenage years. There was a lot of does he/she feel the same way about me? It’s definitely understandable at the start, you know? After all they were strangers who simply agreed to go on a fake date and who clearly thought the other was attractive.

By the middle of the story, that doubt about their true feelings for one another was no longer understandable. Why couldn’t they just communicate with each other? One other reader who also wrote a review on GoodReads shared the same sentiments. She said (not a direct quote) “Why couldn’t they just talk? Oh right. Because they were too busy having sex.”

I did like the supporting characters though. The best friends of both characters, Maddie (Alexa’s best friend) and Carlos (Drew’s best friend) were my voice on the story. They said the thing we wanted to say to the main characters; “Talk it out.” I particularly liked Carlos. He’s supportive but also knows when to call out his best friend on his bull shit.

Overall I rated this book 3 stars out of 5 on GoodReads.

Next Up on my Book Review

This is a book series and despite my average review of The Wedding Date, I’m interested to continue reading the other books that are part of the series. Just to be clear, you don’t have to read the series in order. Their stories are not interconnected but you’d have a little backgrounder on the characters.

I’m currently reading The Proposal, the next book in The Wedding Date series. It’s Carlos’ turn to be the hero of the story.