My 1st Mary Kay Andrews Book (out of 12), Save the Date - And a Giveaway (see the bottom of the review)

You all know that I read, and enjoy, romances - erotic, suspense, and plain-old.  We have a number of romance authors in our area that I read and like a lot - Jasmine Haynes/Jennifer Skully (erotic/non-erotic), Joan Swan, Virna DePaul, Elisabeth Barrett, Marina Adair, Jennifer Ryan.  But, I have to admit, that I typically don't go looking for romances outside my scope of local authors.  In this case, Save the Date, Mary Kay Andrews' 12th novel, and my 1st, was sent to me unsolicited.  I figured, what the heck. Did I like it?  I did.  Did I like it as well as the other 6 authors I mentioned, I didn't.  But, so what?  That doesn't mean I wouldn't recommend it.  Because I would.  In fact, I gave it a 2.5/4.  Not too shabby.  Here's a rundown on what it's about.

A wedding florist finds love and trouble in this delightful new novel by the New York Times bestselling author of Ladies' Night

A savannah florist is about to score the wedding of a lifetime—one that will solidify her career as the go-to-girl for society nuptials. Ironically, Cara Kryzik doesn't believe in love, even though she creates beautiful flower arrangements to celebrate them. But when the bride goes missing and the wedding is in jeopardy, Cara must find the bride and figure out what she believes in. Maybe love really does exist outside of fairy tales after all. 


This is a particularly light read.  It almost makes me reconsider my staunch and intransigent (some might even call it stubborn) opinion about there being no such thing as a beach read.  This one is darn close.  (In fact, Writer's Digest says - "Mary Kay Andrews is the belle of the beach reads.")  Be that as it may, she was still able to make me care about the characters.  And you all know, blah, blah, blah, that this little issue is the deal breaker for me.  I'm sure Ms. Andrews is breathing much easier now knowing that I cared about her characters.  Wouldn't you agree?

There are a couple of similarities with other books that I want to mention:
1.  The story takes place in Savannah, like Beth Hoffman's Saving CeeCee Honeycutt and JD Horn's The Line (from his Witching Savannah series).
2.  Even though there's no talk about what the flowers mean, it's hard not to think of The Language of Flowers when reading Save the Date.  After all, Cara is a florist.  And much of the book centers around which flowers she picks for an occasion.

Do I need to tell you if Cara finds romance?  I think not.  It doesn't matter.  I liked Cara, and I liked her love interest.  Isn't that all a romance needs to accomplish?

ANOTHER PERSONAL NOTE:
This book takes place in Savannah.  I am a lifetime West Coaster (Coastener?)  On this coast, we have purses.  On that other coast, they have pocketbooks.  Andrews, being an East Coast person, calls them pocketbooks.  I smiled every time I read that.  In fact, Diane and Steve, close friends of ours who were born on the East Coast, say "pockabook." Andrews didn't go quite that far.

AND A MEA CULPA:
Originally, I had the "pocketbook" story in my review of This Is Where I Leave You.  I messed up.  It belongs in this book, not that one.

GIVEAWAY:
All you have to do is state on this post that you like romances, and you will be in the drawing for a free copy of Save the Date, provided by Mary Kay Andrews' public relations company, Tandem Literary.  You've got 1 week from today to make your comment.