Planning For Love (Aisle Bound, #1)

by Christi Barth

[Cocktails and Books]

“Hopeless romantic Ivy Rhodes and anti-Cupid Bennett Westcott request the pleasure of your company for their disaster of a courtship” (direct quote from Amazon.com)

With a hook like that, I had high hopes for Planning for Love. Filled with an entertaining cast of wacky supporting characters, I had hoped for a stronger female lead. Planning for Love begins phenomenally with Ivy’s accident being caught on camera. This leads the reader to believe this will be a book filled with one mishap after another, all leading up to a grand happy ending for our two main characters. Instead we get a female lead who is very reminiscent of a 15 year old. Ivy’s enthusiasm for all things romantic is sweet, and as a former Event Planner myself, it’s exactly what brides want to see when they hire a coordinator. However, at times Ivy was so sweet I could feel the cavities forming.

Ivy has had her wedding planned since she was a child. And whereas, yes, most little girls do have their happily ever after planned, however vaguely, in Ivy’s case the groom is interchangeable and comes in second to the idea of being in love. It’s so laughable that even her own employees have an office pool going about her walking in the morning after a FIRST date and going on and on about how “this one” is perfect and he’s the one. A pool, which by the way, she has yet to ever actually win since every guy is the “the one”. Bennet put it best when he said, “Ivy, you don’t love me. You’re in love with love itself.” That pretty much sums up Ivy in a nutshell.

Bennet is indeed portrayed as a man running from love. He doesn’t believe in happily ever after, even avoids it at all costs. However, I’ve read thousands of romance novels and I have yet to ever read one where the main male character is running towards the alter instead of away. So Bennet’s character comes as no surprise.

If I am to be completely honest, I’d have to admit to cheating. I tried to enjoy this book. I really did. But my enjoyment was hampered by my love/hate relationship of Ivy. I went as far as doing something I never do when reading a book for review… I looked up other reviews. I hoped that by reading what others found so enjoyable I would pick up on things I did like. Here’s what I’ve found… Planning for Love does have some redeeming qualities. As aforementioned, the secondary characters were to die for. I would love to see a couple of them get their own stories in the near future. They added a humor and dimension to the story that may have otherwise fallen flat. The book was very well written and concise. The characters, no matter how annoying, stayed true to form throughout up until the very end. On character development and entertainment value alone, I’d have to give it a higher rating that I had first thought to. However, there are many who have enjoyed this book and I hope will continue to do so, regardless of my opinion on it.

Reviewed for Cocktails and Books by Iris. Review copy received from Publisher via NetGalley.