The Accidental Bride by Denise Hunter

From Goodreads:

Two high-school sweethearts, a wedding reenactment, and one absent-minded preacher. Is it a recipe for disaster or a chance for a new beginning?

 

From Misty:

Wow, short blurb, Goodreads.  That really puts the pressure on me.

 

Pleasantly, pleasantly surprised with this one.  I've never read Denise Hunter before, and I really liked her writing.  A  lot of romances like this just get thrown together, but this was well thought out and the characters had some depth.

 

I could see how the bride on the cover and, well, the title might just scream "cheesy" to some, but that's my favorite color of blue and, well, that was enough for me to give it a try.  Plus I thought the premise was cute.  I mean, high-school sweethearts, love gone wrong--what's not to love about that?

 

Travis and Shay went to the courthouse to get married when they were eighteen, but Travis got cold feet and left her there (yes, on the courthouse steps) to pursue his dream of rodeoing--yeehaw!  He tries to call later, but of course he never gets through.  Over the years, a lot goes wrong for Shay, and when Travis finally comes back to town, she's just about to lose her family's ranch.  When she busts her foot, Travis steps in to run the ranch and win back the heart of the only girl he has ever loved.  But come on, he left her at the alter!  And it takes a long time for Shay to forgive him, but in the end she does.  Nice, huh?

 

I did not mind the totally phony "accidental marriage."  Hunter includes an aside where she admits it's impossible, but the idea was just too cute not to run with, and I agree.  A little poetic liscence never hurt anybody.  But what I did find hard to swallow was the misunderstanding over the text message.  Shay reads one text message from someone she doesn't know on Travis's phone and calls  the whole thing off?  I know she has trust issues, but if she had learned anything she might have just squared off with him about it, and her spunky, determined, strong-willed character would have--so the whole text message thing was the really unbelievable part.

 

But notwithstanding that, it was an all around cute read.  Can't remember how clean, but I'm thinking PG.  My copy of The Accidental Bride was attained through Netgalley (thanks!) and I was not compensated in any way for my review.