The Unexpected Wedding Guest by Aimee Carson

Title:  The Unexpected Wedding Guest

Series:  N/A

Author:  Aimee Carson

Genre:  Romance

Blurb:  “Surprised to see me?” 

Getting caught in her wedding dress by her drop-dead-gorgeous ex-husband is Reese Michael’s worst nightmare. Especially when her perfect-on-paper fiancé then cancels their wedding! 

Reese has spent years trying to forget how her marriage to Mason Hicks crashed and burned-yes, their chemistry was incredible, but a girl can’t live on lust alone! And what’s a jilted bride supposed to do when the one man she could never forget is back in her life, as irresistible as ever? Mason might be her own personal brand of Kryptonite, but surely life is meant to be lived a little dangerously…?

Thoughts:  Reese is preparing for her wedding – which is only days away – when her ex-husband barges back into her life.  Eager to get him out the door, and out of her life, she is shocked at her fiancée’s suggestion that he stay.  Unfortunately, there is no changing her fiancée’s mind on the matter – and even more unfortunately, Mason is as sexy as ever!  By the time her wedding arrives, will Reese go through with her marriage?  Or go back to the bad-boy husband she’s always loved?

I was a bit disappointed when I first started the book, because Mason does not seek out Reese because he has realized how much he still loves her and he doesn’t want her to marry anyone else.  He sought her out under the advice of his therapist – who recommended that he needed “closure” on that part of his life.  That sucked a bit of the romance out of it for me.  Not only that though, it was really hard to feel anything between the couple other than desire.  I didn’t feel any deep emotional connection…no love for one another.  At least not for me.  However, there was a sweet emotional scene when Reese stepped up to take care of Mason when he was sick that really stuck out in my mind.  I just would have liked to see a little more depth, a little more real connection between the two.  The fiancée really didn’t play much of a role in the book either.  He was really nothing but a footnote to the book.

I also thought the reasons for their divorce were rather silly.  Reese thought he was ‘distant’ and refused to talk to her about what he was experiencing after he came back from deployment – and she was furious when he signed up to go back out on deployment again.  Number one, the guy is in the military – what did she think was going to happen here?  And number two, while I can understand being upset at his reticence, it was not something that couldn’t be worked through.  The reasons just weren’t good enough, especially considering Reese’s level of sheer anger at Mason.  You would have thought he had cheated on her or something.

However, I really enjoyed the way the author portrayed Mason and his disabilities after the accident.  Not only are these types of things rarely addressed in novels, but when they are, most are miraculously cured in the end.  The fact that instead Mason must learn to adjust his life to deal with his disorder, I thought really brought the story more to life for me.

I thought the book was good, but could have been a lot better.

Rate:  B-