Don’t Kiss the Bride Review

Hey guys,

Happy review Friday?….
Basically, I have fallen behind on my reviews again and one review a week isn’t cutting it so I am going to sporadically throw more reviews in as well as Review Sunday, so you’ll have another one then.
I hope your week has been going well. Mine has been okay, nothing particularly special happened so I spent most of it reading…hence why I need to do multiple reviews a week now.
As always this is a Spoiler Free review.
This book was a rec from a friend because I was in the mood for reading an age gap romance after Birthday Girl by Penelope Douglas so she threw this my direction.
Let’s jump into the review.

Title: Don’t Kiss the Bride
Author: Carian Cole
Genres: New Adult, Romance, Contemporary, Age Gap
Publisher: Self-published/Indie
Publication Date: January 31st 2021
Pages: 484 pages
When I Read It: April 19th 2021
Goodreads Rating: 4.26 Stars

Goodreads Description: ~
I guess you could say I was a damsel in distress, and he was my knight in shining armour.
But more accurately, I was a girl with a lot of bad luck, and he was a guy with a lot of muscles and tattoos.
Jude “Lucky” Lucketti wasn’t just a sexy, brooding construction worker. He was my own personal hero who seemed to be in all the right places at the right times. Like when my car broke down and I needed a ride home, and when I face planted on the sidewalk right in front of him and had to be taken to the emergency room.
Those weren’t exactly my best moments, but they were his. We became friends, and it didn’t matter that he was sixteen years older than me. We had a lot in common—like our love of old rock music and vintage fast cars, and our aversion to relationships.
When he approached me with a crazy idea to help me out, I couldn’t say no. The arrangement was supposed to be temporary. A marriage on paper and nothing else. It should’ve been easy, but it wasn’t. Because here I am, eighteen years-old, still in high school, and married to a man I was never supposed to fall in love with.
We had just one rule—no kissing the bride.
But we broke that rule, and it sealed our fate forever.

My Favourite Quote:

“Hey, Skylar! If you need a ride, I got one for you right here.” The kid grabs his junk and laughs hysterically.
“That’s a little small for me, Michael,” she yells back. “I’d rather ride your dad and make you call me Mommy.”

Review:

This was a super sweet romance with just a little bit of a spicy smutty kick here and there. I loved the subplots in this book, they balanced the main age-gap romance plot out really well and just made everything feel so realistic – which is one of the amazing things about this book, the ups and down and imperfect nature of their relationship even during the highs.
I adored the writing style and the dual-POV’s. I have never read anything by Carian Cole before and this is a great way to start with this author! It was really funny and a good balance between descriptive and chatty. Even the smuttier parts were really sweetly written.
I loved the characters. They were super fun and I liked their backstories and motivations. Jude’s Aunt and Uncle were my favourite. I loved them and their story. I also adored Megan. The secondary characters here were great fun to read.
My only gripe is there was certain things that felt a little unfinished in places and I wish they were tied up, I understand that some of them were there to help with the whole realism thing because real life doesn’t have nice tied up endings all the time, but things with Jude’s Sister, Jude’s friend and Skyler’s dad and mum felt too open. I wish they had been tied up a little more or just addressed in general.
Otherwise, great read – really enjoyed. Definitely recommend.

Overall Score = 8/10
Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

That’s all for today’s review folks. I hope you enjoyed even if age gap isn’t your thing, cause I know it definitely isn’t for everyone. I only recently got into the trope myself so I am still trying to work out what I liked and dislike about it. Anyway, I hope you enjoy your weekend and I will see you on Sunday ❤