Never The Bride (Dilbury Village #1) ~ Charlotte Fallowfield

Amazon US/Amazon UK 


 

Abbie Carter felt doomed as she clutched her bouquet and started walking up the aisle. Again. She felt like she was stuck in some kind of Groundhog Day wedding nightmare. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. Eight dresses, most of them hideous, were already stuffed in her attic space. She had more bridesmaid dresses than relationships. Was she really that unlucky in love? She despaired of ever finding her soul mate and was convinced that if she packed away dress thirteen in her attic, she’d never get to wear the coveted white one and have her happy ever after.

That was until she locked eyes with one of the handsome ushers, whose wink turned her elegant and well-practiced glide up the aisle into a flailing Bambi-on-ice spectacle. Miller Davis was the first man in forever to make her heart skip a beat, as well as her legs turn to jelly. And, for once, her interest in a man didn’t seem to be one-sided. It was just a shame that the Atlantic Ocean separated them. Abbie couldn’t even make a relationship with her elderly fat pooch, Sumo, work, so what chance did she have with a permanent New Yorker? Her best friend, Georgie, told her to ignore the miles that separated her from Miller and to go for it, saying that true love knew no bounds.

Was Abbie fated to always be the bridesmaid, or would her wish for the perfect day with the man of her dreams ever come true?

While Never The Bride is a standalone story, it's the first in the Dilbury Village series of romantic comedy novels. All of them will be set in the quaint ficticious English hamlet in the Shropshire countryside, but feature a different village couples' story.

Abbie and Miller’s story was hilarious. I was giggling and laughing out loud from the first chapter on. While versions of the plot have been told before, I loved Charlotte’s take. Her writing is so much fun and the story is uplifting with a bunch of feels.

There are some great characters in this book.  Abbie and Miller are definitely the main ones, who I absolutely love, but we are also introduced to some crazy, catty, annoying, charming and lovable people. There were spots where I would want to punch certain characters in the face and others that I just wanted to cry for. Not that there is a lot of crying, but Abbie and Miller’s story, along with their friends, hits you right in the feels.

Some of the situation that Abbie gets herself in, I can’t even imagine how the author came up with those. All I can say is #turdgate. Read the book and your cackle out loud like I did. Mr. Sumo is another character in Abbie’s life that I just wanted to squeeze, but also caused Abbie some of her quirky moments. I know I’ve gotten in to some silly situations with my girlfriends, but Abbie’s blunders, falls, and disasters are a riot.

I knew there was more to Miller than meets the eye and his connection with Abbie could be felt through the pages.  While he kept quiet about who he really is, once we find out, I can understand why. The love Abbie and Millie share is what all couples wish for, but the ocean separating them definitely takes its toll. I was rooting for them the whole time, while wanting to reach through my kindle and slap the haters in the face.

I cannot wait for the next books in the series to see what happens with the other characters in Dillbury Village. This series looks to be a lot of fun with tons of laughs and lots of feels.