Adult Review - An Unexpected Gift - contemporary romance

Guide to categories: Adult Review – review of books for adults – may or may not be appropriate for a school library

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About the Book

Book: An Unexpected Gift

Author: Melissa Wardwell

Genre: Christian Contemporary Romance

Release Date: August 29, 2023

Something’s up in Suamalie, and it’s looking like love!

When Kiana, Lulu, and Meilani decide it’s time for the islands to have affordable wedding options, Something Suamalie becomes the marriage of skills, friendship, and wedding splendor on the islands.

Cruising around the island on a Moped in a business suit may seem incongruous, but Kiana knows how to blend practicality and professionalism, a strong work ethic and relaxation. With no time for mistakes or changes in plans, she’s also decided to forgo romance (for herself). There just isn’t enough time in the day. That is until the early arrival of one of the groomsmen of Something Suamalie’s first booking throws everything off balance, including her thoughts on long distance dating.

Beau was perfectly content with his job and the growing attraction to a girl back home; however, he hadn’t figured in the sassy and sometimes unprofessional wedding planner. Seeing her world begin to unravel while she and her partners fumble with their first weddings tugs at his heart strings and leaves him second guessing his choices in the romance department.

She’s a study in opposites. He’s attracted. So now what do they do?

Take a trip to the Suamalie Islands where palm trees sway, the sand and sea pulse with life, and the people will steal your heart.

Click here to get your copy!

My Adult Review
Wardell, Melissa. An Unexpected Gift. 2023.

Suamalie Island series Year One Book Seven
Kiana is a bridal consultant by day and a gamer by night. She also has older parents and her dad has some health issues. She and her two friends, Lulu and Meilani, make the decision to start their own business because their boss is very difficult to work for.
The first wedding client in their business is a bride from the U.S. whom they met while working for someone else. They also agree to do a wedding for a local couple - and the dates are just 1 week apart. Meanwhile Kiana “meets” another gamer (from the U.S.) with whom she gradually develops a relationship. The gals feel like there might be a problem when the U.S. client tells them her future brother-in-law will be arriving early to “help” them.
Wardell includes some twists, turns and mystery in this contemporary romance. There are some details that the readers will figure out before the characters in the story. Wardell also left quite a few loose ends - how do things work out for Kiana’s relationship, what happens with the medical situation at the end of the story? I hope that these three gals will be included in a future book - I can see potential for several more stories using these characters.
An Unexpected Gift is an adult novel but it could find a place in a K-12 Christian school library. It is appropriate for high schoolers.
I received a complimentary copy of An Unexpected Gift. This is my honest review.

About the Author – Melissa Wardwell

Melissa Wardwell resides in Owosso, Michigan with her husband and three teen-aged children.

She doesn’t mind alternating between the world of writing and the reality of being a mother, but she would rather sit with a good book or a good friend and a cup of coffee.

When she isn’t penning works of fiction, she is busy reviewing books for her blog, Back Porch Reads.

More from Melissa Wardwell

Weddings—some love them, some hate them, some love them but try to avoid them. Whatever the reasoning, we all have a strong feeling toward this life passage that so many have taken part in. We have our favorite moments, and we have our pet peeves, and like the snow flack that falls in the winter, none of them are ever the same. There might be similarities, but they are still not the same.

As for me, I LOVE WEDDINGS. They have been part of my life in a way that some find exciting, which they can be, but not from this angle. My mom was a consultant and seamstress in the bridal industry for most of my childhood until shortly before I graduated high school. In fact, that is how I also met my husband because his mother was a bridal seamstress alongside my mother. Not long after my wedding, I naturally obtained a job at a local bridal salon and worked there for almost ten years.

When I left the industry in 2010, it was one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done. I loved helping couples plan their big day. I have several fond memories of various brides whose stories stay with me to this day. And yes, a bridezilla is a thing, but she is not anyone you want to mess with because all the stereotypes are true. Thankfully, they’ve only been a couple that has ever crossed my path.

One of my favorite stories is about a bride who is anxious and overwhelmed with everything that needed to be done to plan the wedding. During one of her fittings, I noticed that she had some pretty severe acne breakout. She knew it was there, and it drove her crazy. “Not only am I stressed, I am now ugly,” she said, near tears. Before I let her leave the dressing room, I just talked to her about what she wanted for her wedding day and how it was different from what she was getting. She told me that she and her groom had initially planned to get married at their cabin in northern Michigan by the lake. Just them in a couple of friends. Instead, she was eyebrow deep in a wedding that was not hers. See, the groom was one of several sons with zero sisters. The mother-in-law had insisted on certain things happening that the wedding had taken on a life of its own, based on the mother of the groom’s vision.

I’m not one to stick her nose in a stranger’s business, but I did in this situation. My heart ached for this bride; she felt like she had no way out.

Looking at her in the mirror as I zipped up her gown, I said, “You know, all you need is a marriage license and a minister or a justice of the peace, and you can have the wedding you want.”

She laughed it off, and I laughed with her. I figured that was the end because it seemed to give her something else to think about as we laughed at the idea. Three weeks later, she came in for her final fitting. Remember, final fittings are done on the week of the wedding. The woman strolls in through the door of the bridal salon in marches back to the dressing rooms, where I am waiting with her go. Her smile lit up her face like a Christmas tree, she’d walked in confidently, and her acne had cleared up completely. Show her to the room, and before I close the door to let her slip into the dress before I come in and zip it up, I comment on how beautiful she looked. The bride put her purse down in the corner of the dressing room and turned to me, “we got married,” she said to me. I told her to get in her gown, and she could tell me the story in a minute.

Never in 1 million years would I have thought she would take my suggestion seriously. She informed me that the weekend after her last fitting, she and the groom went north to get away and pick up the marriage license from that county clerk’s office. They then decided to invite the local magistrate to their cabin, where he performed the wedding on their dock as the sunset over the lake. When I asked her about witnesses, she said they were good friends with the cabin next door, and those neighbors had just arrived at the same time as the magistrate. They agreed to sign as witnesses and watch the wedding from their dock. The couple had chosen not to tell anyone else what had happened, and I promised her that my lips were sealed as the rest of her bridal party came in to get their final fitting.

We sometimes make a big deal of the wedding day without considering what a couple wants. Sure, some things are almost a must if you’re having a large party. But for the most part, a wedding is about the couple and nobody else. If all the couple wants is to be married and spend their lives together, who can tell them what that should look like? I was proud of my bride for doing precisely what she and her groom wanted for their big day—small and simple. But I’m also glad they didn’t cancel everything to honor their friends and loved ones who planned to participate in their big day.