Friday, January 17, 2014

Review | A Beautiful Wedding

A Beautiful Wedding (Beautiful #2.5) by Jamie McGuire
Review by Alyssa
December 2013 by Simon & Schuster Audio
Amazon + Good Reads

"You know that Abby Abernathy unexpectedly became Mrs. Maddox. But what do you really know?

Why did Abby pop the question?
What secrets were shared before the ceremony?
Where did they spend their wedding night?
Who else knew about it . . . and didn’t tell?

Everything about Abby and Travis’s elopement was top-secret . . . until now. Fans of Beautiful Disaster and Walking Disaster will get all of their questions answered in this whirlwind tale of the wedding day (and night!)—and as with all good stories, this one will definitely have been worth the wait."

-Good Reads

*This audio book was sent to Alyssa for review from the publisher.


I feel as though I can't talk about the plot at all.  I suppose that the entire point of this novella is to answer questions about what exactly went down in Vegas after Abby and Travis survived the Keith Hall fire and to talk about anything that went on would be a huge spoiler. So, I'm sorry - I'm going to be a bit tight lipped. 

That being said, this book was just okay for me. I adored Beautiful Disaster but was reasonably disappointed by Walking Disaster, and so I walked into this reading experience with a pretty cynical mindset. I am not personally a fan of novellas for stories... I don't think that they really add anything valuable to the story arc and it just seems that authors are simply unable to let their characters/universes go. Do I really need to know what exactly went on in Vegas between Travis and Abby? No. But I'll be damned if I don't read it. 

If anything, I walked away feeling frustrated with the story. I was perfectly happy with what Beautiful Disaster gave readers about Abby and Travis' wedding - happy they both were alive and not wanting to live another day with out being legally bonded to one another. Unfortunately, apparently that wasn't the case. Perhaps some avid fans would be happy with the details McGuire shared about the nuptials but I think that they tainted my opinion of Abby. 

As far as the audio book goes - I have yet to listen to an audio book from Simon & Schuster that isn't wonderful. The voice actors made the story much more enjoyable than if I had read it in a traditional book. And I need to take a moment to say how freaking sexy Zachary Webber's voice is. 

I would recommend A Beautiful Wedding to readers who were big fans of the original books in the series. But, if like me, you were seriously disappointed by Walking Disaster and walked away feeling disenchanted with the story, I'd steer clear. The problems I had with this novella were repeats of the problems I had with Walking Disaster.

-Alyssa

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