The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory

"A groomsman and his last-minute guest are about to discover if a fake date can go the distance in a fun and flirty debut novel. Agreeing to go to a wedding with a guy she gets stuck with in an elevator is something Alexa Monroe wouldn't normally do. But there's something about Drew Nichols that's too hard to resist. On the eve of his ex's wedding festivities, Drew is minus a plus one. Until a power outage strands him with the perfect candidate for a fake girlfriend. From the best man's toast to the bouquet toss, Alexa and Drew have more fun than they ever thought possible. But before they know it, Drew has to fly back to Los Angeles and his job as a pediatric surgeon, and Alexa heads home to Berkeley, where she's the mayor's chief of staff. Too bad they can't stop thinking about the other. They're just two high-powered professionals on a collision course toward the long distance dating disaster of the century--or closing the gap between what they think they need and what they truly want.."--

The Wedding Date started the trend for amazing, diverse romances, and there's a good reason. It takes a funny romantic trope - forced proximity - and adds in really smart, strong characters with pre-established careers, realistic conflict/tensions, and a whole lot of heat to create an incredible read. I'm very thankful for the opportunity to have read this (even if my review is VERY late) and have recommended it often in the last few years.

An easy, quick read...pretty much just fine. I have trouble with romance novels because I don't really enjoy when the main focus of a book is romance. I prefer a larger story with some romance in it as a secondary thing. So why do I read books like this, you ask? I have no idea. Probably to escape reality. So yeah.. wouldn't read again but didn't absolutely hate it.

I had heard a lot about this book across Booktube and the Twitterverse before it's release, so it definitely went on my TBR. But I also lowered my expectations because I had a feeling it wouldn't be very “earth-shattering”. I am happy that it didn't disappoint. The Wedding Date is based on the all familiar trope of fake relationship to falling in love and it is sweet, charming, flirty and enjoyable. It also has smart MCs who have their own loves with friends apart from their romantic life and I liked getting to know them on thie own turf.

There are some elements though that definitely stand out in the story which really made the reading experience wonderful. It's an interracial romance, which is probably my first ever such contemporary read. It allows for a couple of interesting discussions about race between Alexa and Drew and it was great to see him acknowledge his white privilege and also realising that he had never thought about how things could be different from her perspective. Alexa does get a little insecure about her weight but for most of the book, I loved that she was confident, owned her body and really enjoyed her food. Ohhh God..... all the fast food they consumed definitely made me very very hungry 🙂 🙂 However, the best part of the book for me was that both of them had busy ambitious careers in different parts of the state and try to meet when they can on weekends, but never even consider that one of them may have to compromise professionally to make a life together.

This is a happy, feel good romance with wonderful characters that can be enjoyed in a single sitting, just don't go in with a lot of expectations.

(Full disclosure: the author is a friend.) This book is so much fun, like a perfect Netflix rom-com in written form (the best recent rom-coms I've seen were on Netflix, that is completely a compliment). I loved how Alexa had a job that mattered to her just as much as Drew's and I loved that the climactic scene took all that into account. So good, so satisfying, fizzy and fun.