The Unexpected Bride by Joanne Walsh

Wanted: nanny. Needed: wife.

 

Laurent Fletcher has to admit his life would be a whole heap better if there was woman in it. His kids are running wild, and his dog is acting crazy; he’s been finding it tough to juggle everything since his wife died, and run his successful custom-built furniture business. But maybe there is a solution that won’t demand any emotional input from him: hire a female to whip his turbulent household back into shape.

 

Emma Peabody is a British nanny, looking for a new life in the New World. When she arrives at River Bend and finds two small motherless children, a miserable pet and a man who’s placed his emotions in the deep-freeze, she realizes she’s joined a broken family and it will be down to her to put it back together again.

 

The kids and the dog are easy—all they need are routines and love. Their father is something else. Laurent isn’t about to drop his guard and let Emma work her magic—and it doesn’t help that she finds this dark, brooding man incredibly attractive…

This was a cute little nanny-turned-bride romance that I picked up back in November after reading devouring Christmas inVenice.

 

Laurent is a widower whose children are out of control. When his father takes it upon himself to hire a British nanny, Laurent isn’t please and even less so when he discovers that Emma is younger—and more attractive—than he expected.

 

Emma knows that she can handle the children but it’s Laurent she’s not sure about. When he decides to spend time when his children he chooses to question all of Emma’s techniques. Although there is no denying that Laurent is attractive but Emma isn’t sure she can allow herself to fall in love with a man who is still in love with his deceased wife.

 

Okay. So, I liked the book. I liked the nanny-turned-bride-of-brooding-hero premise. But I didn’t love the book like I thought I would.

 

The characters were grand. Both Emma and Laurent have their own baggage that comes into play making their characters feel realistically flawed and likable. And I loved the push and pull of Emma and Laurent’s relationship at the start of the book. He was determined to rebel and she was determined to make him see things her way.

 

What drove me mad was the lack of external dialogue. The internal dialogue rambled on for what seemed like an eternity and right when Emma and Laurent were starting to come together and actually talk about major issues it switched right back to an internal monologue.

 

Overall, I really liked the characters as well as the premise. This would have been an amazing book if only there had been more external dialogue.

 

Book Details

Title: The Unexpected Bride
Great Wedding Giveaway Book 4

Author: Joanne Walsh

Publisher: Montana Born an Imprint of Tule Publishing

ISBN: 978-1-940296-35-7

Format I Read: E-book only

$2.99

Source: Purchased

Rating: Teetering between 3 and 3.5 Cups

Tweet