Title: Vision in White
Author: Nora Roberts
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release: 04/09
Format: trade paperback
For: personal choice
Synopsis: (from book jacket)
After years of throwing make-believe weddings in the backyard, flowers, photography, desserts, and details are what these women do best: a guaranteed perfect, beautiful day full of memories to last the rest of your life.
With bridal magazine covers to her credit, Mackensie "Mac" Elliot is most at home behind the camera - ready to capture the happy moments she never experienced while growing up. Her father replaced his first family with a second, and now her mother, moving on to yet another man, begs Mac for attention and money. Mac's foundation is jostled again moments before an important wedding planning meeting when she bumps into the bride-to-be's brother...an encounter that has them both seeing stars.
Carter Maguire is definitely not her type: he's stable, and he's safe. He's even an English teacher at their high school alma mater. There's something about him that makes Mac think a casual fling is just what she needs to take her mind off dealing with bride-zillas and screening her mother's phone calls. But a casual fling can turn into something more when you least expect it. And with the help of her three best friends - and business partners - Mac must learn how to make her own happy memories...
Review:
The Good:
The hero in this book is charming, he made the read for me. I found many of the scenes with him funny and very endearing. He was romantic and out to win the girl, in his own "geeky" way.
I laughed aloud and, as always, enjoyed the lighthearted wit Nora Roberts shows in her books. The pace of the novel was not bad and held my interest. The romance was good, with some really good moments and only one or two lame and utterly predictable ones. I wasn't sure I liked them as a couple but then we have people in real life who feel that way to us, don't we?
The Bad:
I was not enthralled with the heroine (nor her friends for that matter). She was weak-willed and bitchy, then would turn around and be sappy and upbeat(in a "I'm going to fix myself" kind of way) - overall not very lovable. You found yourself cheering for the happy ending because you wanted HIM to get the girl (not necessarily the girl to get the guy).
The book felt shallow to me, as if she (Nora Roberts) is publishing the book as a money-maker because romance readers have no expectations other than happy endings. There was no antagonist, not even the "love me, love me not" daisy petal pulling felt like an obstacle, as we all know the happy-ever-after is coming. So all of the missing depth reduced the heroine to the status of drama-queen, in my humble opinion.
Also this is a typical Nora Roberts "series." The novel follows a set formula that she made up some time ago and she is just spewing out another. It feels the same as the last trilogy... and the one before that... and the one before that.
Overall:
I would recommend this book for romance readers, especially to fans of Nora Roberts who enjoy her "trilogy" style of novels. It was an enjoyable, if shallow, read. I will probably continue to read the series, but, if given a choice, it won't be the first book I pick up.
On a side note, it is a trade paperback and twice as expensive as a normal mass market. Visit your local library if you are not a huge fan of NR who collects her books, you won't find anything new in here so renting it works just as well.
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