Book Review: Always the Designer, Never the Bride by Sandra Bricker

Always the Designer, Never the Bride

It ‘s taken Audrey Regan years to establish herself as a wedding dress designer, and to date she ‘s been roped into creating dresses for nine of her girlfriends. Request #10 follows her vow to Just say no and comes from her very best friend. She can hardly turn Carly down Audrey arrives in Atlanta early to perform all of her maid-of-honor duties along with final fittings for a one-of-a-kind dress. But Carly ‘s wedding is nothing short of an event, complete with Prince Charming, and the festivities make Audrey question whether there ‘s a prince of her own anywhere in her future. Enter the groom ‘s brother and best man. Shaggy-haired, tattooed bad boy J.R. Hunt couldn t be any more different from Prince Charming if he rode in on a Harley Davidson. Oh, wait. He actually did ride in on a Harley.

The third installment in Sandra Bricker’s Emma Rae Creations series doesn’t disappoint! She brings back the characters from the first two books and adds some wonderful new ones to the mix.

Audrey is a bridal gown designer – something she’s wanted since she was little. Trying to make it in NYC is tough though, and she’s struggling to make ends meet. She heads to Atlanta for her best friend’s wedding on her last dime and in the middle of trying to land an account that would put her on the map.

JR was introduced in book 2 as a friend of Russell, the Australian movie star. He’s a Harley riding, semi-bad boy full of wanderlust. He returns to Atlanta to spend time with his brother and sister-in-law before his brother ships out.

I loved Audrey and JR and seeing all of the characters from the first two books come back to flesh out their happily-ever-afters. I particularly loved Russell’s story of redemption from his first introduction in the second book through the end of this one. His story isn’t finished, and I would love it if Bricker would continue his story in another series, but there’s enough closure that I’m happy :).

The ending did seem a bit abrupt. The HEA resolution, that is. It’s not something I could quite put my finger on, but the last chapter seemed like it might have been better served as two or something. As a writer, I know the author doesn’t always have a ton of control over how much space they have and sometimes it’s beyond his/her control, so I can give the benefit of the doubt and go with ‘the happy ending was there’ even if I would have liked to see it a bit more fleshed out.

This is my third book of Sandra E. Bricker’s. It won’t be my last.

Overall rating: 8 out of 10 stars

Thanks to NetGalley and Abingdon for a review ecopy of this book. The opinion expressed is my own.