Beyond YA Review: The Wedding Date - Jasmine Guillory

The Wedding Date
Jasmine Guillory
Series: n/a
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Publisher: Berkley
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Goodreads

A groomsman and his last-minute guest are about to discover if a fake date can go the distance in a fun and flirty debut novel.

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...

Wait, I need to wipe my happy tears!


When I first saw this book, I thought it would be a good fit for me, because I love fauxmance romances, and I was right! This book was delightfully sweet and charming, and I enjoyed it very much.

Who?

• Alex, a former lawyer, now chief of staff to the mayor of Berkeley, who has been so busy building her career, she had no time for romance.
• Drew, a pediatric doctor, who prefers to casually date and keep himself emotionally detached.

What?

While in Berkeley for his ex-girlfriend's wedding, Drew finds himself trapped in an elevator with Alexa. There, he asks her to pose as his fake date in order to avoid the pitiful glances of the other attendees. The date may have been fake, but the sparks were all too real. Their wedding weekend turns into the more, but will it turn into more?

Why?

Alexa and Drew were both fantastic characters. They seemed to have it all on the surface, but underneath the perfect veneer, they had a few flaws. I found I could relate to both Drew and Alexa because of these flaws. Aside from the flaws, they had a lot of great traits.

Alexa was an independent woman. She had career goals and did what she needed to in order to achieve those goals. She was also fun and vivacious, determined and passionate. I hated when she felt insecure, because she really had a lot to offer. I was glad Drew was sometimes able to remind her of those amazing qualities from time to time. She also had an awesome bestie, Maddie, who encouraged Alexa to go outside her comfort zone, as well as being her cheerleader.

There was something about Drew that pulled me in immediately. He was easy going and kept it light and easy, but as the story went on, I felt like he slowly began giving more and more of himself to us. I really liked his friendship with Carlos. I love a good bromance, and those two definitely had one. Carlos was such a solid friend, and often served as the voice of reason, when Drew was allowing his fear to govern his decisions.

I also really enjoyed the story in general. The heart of this story wasn't the fake date, but rather, what happened after. It was about Alexa and Drew and their blossoming relationship, and I thought Guillory did a great job letting it unfold. I am so glad she went with a duel point of view, because flipping between Drew and Alexa really added to this story. I couldn't imagine not being in one of their heads. It just would not have had the same effect.

Guillory filled the book with Alexa and Drew's work life and separate social lives, but what I looked forward to were their weekends together. They were hot, steamy, and swoony. The feelings that were growing between them were more than obvious and I just couldn't wait for Alexa and Drew to acknowledge them.

And let's talk about that ending!!! Oh, here come the happy tears again. I swear, it was perfect.

Overall: Fun, flirty and filled with too many smile inducing moments! I had so much fun being a part of Drew and Alexa's fauxmance to romance.

*ARC received in exchange for an honest review.

EXCERPT

Alexa danced with Lauren, letting the movement and the laughter shake away her annoying thoughts. When she felt a hand on her waist, she turned to see Drew behind her and laughed again, at how ridiculous the evening had been and how much fun she was suddenly having. He took ahold of one of her hands and swung her around to face him and laughed back down at her. Other members of the wedding party joined their group and danced with and around them, but song after song came on, and he never moved from her side.

“Water?” he said in her ear after they’d been on the dance floor for a long time.

“Yes, please.” She walked with him over to the bar.

She glanced up at the ornate clock over the bar, surprised at how late it had gotten. And how much she didn’t want this night to end. Damn it, it had been fun to be Drew’s fake girlfriend, but she knew that once the clock struck midnight, so to speak, the fairy tale would be all over.

He leaned against the bar, his jacket off, his bow tie untied, a little sweaty and disheveled from dancing. Good Lord, this guy was hot.

He rolled up his sleeves, exposing his tan forearms. She wanted to run her fingers up and down them and feel how warm and strong they were.

She needed to stop letting her imagination run away with her. “Um,” she said. “It’s getting late, and if I want to make the last BART train back to the East Bay, I should probably leave pretty soon.”

Why had she said that? Why, when she was standing next to a hot guy, basically panting over him? If she was Maddie, hell, if she was Amy, she would have grabbed one of those hot forearms and wrapped it around her body, letting him know what she wanted without having to say anything. Sadly, she was Alexa, so she would flee instead.

He put his water bottle down and looked at her.

“Okay.”

“Okay,” she said. Olivia and Maddie would get mad at her for not throwing herself at him, but they didn’t understand that she just didn’t know how. Plus, rejection from this guy was the last thing her self-esteem needed. Talk about the opposite of getting back on the horse; that would make her avoid horses, and stables, and all farm animals for another few years. So to speak.

He stepped closer to her and put his hand on her waist. Her hand landed on his arm, and, without even meaning to, she ran her fingers up and down. Oh God, touching him like this was as good as she’d thought it would be.

“Or”—he looked straight down into her eyes—“you could stay.”

A question was in his eyes, and a smile hovered over his lips. His thumb drew slow circles on her hip and then moved up her side to her ribs. His other hand moved up to her face and traced the outline of her lips with his fingers.

She shivered.

He waited.

“Or,” she said, “I could stay.”

Jasmine Guillory is a graduate of Wellesley College and Stanford Law School. She is a Bay Area native who has towering stacks of books in her living room, a cake recipe for every occasion, and upwards of 50 lipsticks.

As well as writing books, Jasmine sometimes writes about books, pop-culture, and food, some of her favorite things. Here are some of her recent pieces:

• Words With Friends
• The 33 Best Romantic Comedies of All Time
• If Michelle Obama Were Your Girlfriend
• If Nigella Lawson Were Your Girlfriend
• What to Do When ICE Raids Your Restaurant
• If Lupita Nyong'o Were Your Girlfriend
• If Barack Obama Were Your Dad

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