You Say It First

You Say It First

Happily Inc

Susan Mallery

HQN Books, Sep 2017

384 pages

Contemporary Romance

KU for Kindle app

⭐⭐⭐⭐🌙

The cover is cute and absolutely perfect for the book. It is certainly eye-catching and I’m sure it’ll sell books!

The story concept is really cute too. This is a town that’s big business is weddings. Our female lead, Pallas has been left a wedding planning business called Weddings in the Box. It’s all about themed weddings. Her straight-laced mother is after her to join the family bank now that she has finished her degree. But Pallas loves this business she has been left and if she can find a way to make it more successful, she’d love to keep it. She’s torn between doing what her mother expects of her and what she wants.

Our male lead, Nick, is a famous artist from a family of famous artists. He shows up for an interview for an art project and gets roped into filling in for a missing employee at a Roman-themed wedding, pleated skirts and sandals are the outfit of the day. Once he and Pallas get to talk after the wedding, she’s totally embarrassed to find out who he really is and wants to hide. But the chance to do a really imaginative wedding for a couple gets the creative juices of the two working and before they know it the business is back in business and taking off. Business isn’t the only thing taking off. But getting personal feelings aligned is harder than recreating a business. It takes all their friends and family members to help these two get it all back in the box!

The characters were written as people you could get to know. The story was really sweet and the various family difficulties were really good and totally believable. That’s just the way families are. The pace was brisk and kept you moving along from happy moments to crisis to wedding to crisis! It was really fun. I liked this one so much, that I read a couple more in this series! There also appears to be a connection with the author’s Fool’s Gold series. Recommended.

Meant to be Yours

Happily Inc #5

Susan Mallery

HQN Books, Oct 2019

464 pages

Contemporary Romance

Purchased for Kindle app

⭐⭐⭐⭐🌙

This cover is so pretty and is really perfect for this story. It’s the bouquet he gets for her.

The story is so sweet just like this whole series is sweet. Our female lead is Renee. She works at Weddings Out of the Box as the business is now called. She’s the head wedding planner and has been running the business while Pallas has been home having a baby. Renee is convinced she’s not meant for marriage and completely avoids the topic. Those who can’t, plan weddings for others, which she is top-notch at. But she has nothing against friends with benefits as long as they understand that that’s all it is and she can call it quits at any time.

Our male lead in this one is Jasper. He’s a damaged war veteran who’s been getting better and better since he’s been back and is more normal than he realizes. He’s all for friends with benefits with this sexy wedding planner. But it seems to get like a relationship more and more. And he seems to want more and more. And the more time passes, the more he wants. Then Renee puts on the brakes and calls a halt to the whole thing in a panic.

Can these two find their way back to each other and see that they are perfect for each other? Can their friends and family help them realize that neither of them is as damaged as they seem to think? Recommended.

A Very Merry Princess

Happily Inc #2.5

Susan Mallery

HQN Nov 2017

116 pages

Contemporary Romance

Purchased for Kindle app

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Our male lead is Cade. His sister is Pallas who owns Weddings out of the Box in Happily Inc. Cade has just bought a stallion for his horse ranch from the king of an eastern country and it is being delivered by a female stable hand who will be staying a while to settle the horse in on the ranch. He’s very impressed by this extremely competent woman who handles this very large horse like he’s nothing at all.

Beth has worked with the stallion since he was born and is very used to his ways. In fact, the horse will do things for her that he won’t do for anyone else except her father. She’s impressed with the ranch and is having no trouble getting the stallion settled in. She’s more than impressed with Cade, and they seem to be finding holiday kisses far too tempting.

But Beth sees disaster ahead. Cade hates to be lied to and he hates rich women. What will he do when he finds out the truth about her? Which he does when her father, the king, drops by the stables in his helicopter to check on the horse and to say hi? Recommended.