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3 stars for BRIDES GONE WILD by Cathie Linz.
This was ok, nothing special. Some parts were a little too slapstick for me. Pam and Michael dated in high school. Michael left for the big city, is doing well, but not ready for marriage. At their ten-year high school reunion, he and Pam had sex. He left with no further contact. Now he comes to town for a wedding. Pam doesn't want to connect with him and be rejected again. But they still desire each other.

Data:
Story length: 94 pages. Swearing language: strong. Sexual language: moderate. Number of sex scenes: 2. Setting: current day Serenity Falls, Pennsylvania. Copyright: 2006. Genre: contemporary romance.

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2 stars for HEAVEN CAN'T WAIT by Pamela Clare.
Lissy and Will are madly in love with a great sex life. Their wedding is two weeks away. Lissy's mother Christa married for money and Lissy's dad cheated on her. Now Christa is causing Lissy to have doubts about Will, saying he only wants her for her money and sex. So Lissy asks Will to abstain from sex for the next two weeks to see how they get along. Most of the story is those two weeks. They are frustrated and on edge. They become remote and silent to each other. There is a happy ending, but the plot was not entertaining.

Data:
Story length: 90 pages. Swearing language: mild, including religious swear words. Sexual language: strong. Number of sex scenes: 2. Setting: current day Denver, Colorado. Copyright: 2006. Genre: contemporary romance.

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3 ½ stars for SO CAUGHT UP IN YOU by Beverly Brandt.
Quinn runs a hotel for tourists wanting extreme vacations in a jungle area. The location is a central American country with a bad dictator and secret police. Celie is having her wedding there. Celie's sister Tasha is an investigative reporter from southern Florida. Tasha is worried about Celie's safety and plans to protect Celie from everything bad. Tasha thinks Quinn is in the white slavery business.

This was good. It's romantic suspense with Tasha and Quinn attracted to each other while trying to outsmart and survive some bad guys. It's a complete story which surprised me for a short story. There is one sex scene I thought was cute. That's a strange word for sex, but I liked the scene. The story was formulaic with typical characters, but I'm interested enough to try another of her books. I'm curious why she hasn't published anything since 2006. She also writes under the name Jacey Ford.

Data:
Story length: 89 pages. Swearing language: moderate to strong. Sexual language: moderate. Number of sex scenes: 1. Setting: current day southern Florida and Costa Playa. Copyright: 2006. Genre: romantic suspense.

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3 stars for THE WEDDING PARTY by Whitney Lyles.
This is more chick lit than romance, but there is a romantic element. I don't want to say more because it would give away something good. It was ok as a story. There are two main parts.

Meg broke up with Mason 16 months ago. Now they see each on three weekends for a friend's wedding. The engagement party, the bachelor/bachelorette parties, and the wedding. Meg had bad luck dating and is now thinking Mason wasn't so bad after all. She'd like to give it another try. This part of the story was thoughtful - how we talk ourselves into something that may or may not be a good answer.

The second part was Meg interacting with the unpleasant group of bridesmaids and unfortunate events during the three weekends.

CAUTION SPOILER:
I wanted more relationship development with a certain person. That might have taken it to 4 stars for me.

Data:
Story length: 95 pages. Swearing language: strong. Sexual language: mild. Number of sex scenes: 2. Setting: current day Southern California and Mexico. Copyright: 2006. Genre: chick lit with some romance.

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Narrative mode for all four stories: third person.

I usually dislike buying Anthologies. There's usually only 1 good story out of the group and not enough substance to thoroughly entertain, as was the case in this book. I bought it because I love Pamela Clare. This was another addition to her I-Team series, a novella about Lissa and Will. If you've read her series this novella fits in just after her first book about Reece and Kara. LOVE THIS SERIES. Her contribution was a solid 4.5 stars. So for me this story was worth the buy, can't say the same for the other stories. Found myself skimming just to get to the end. Have never read any of the other authors here, but can say nothing stirred me enough to want to investigate further. Even though I classified this series as romance, the I-Team Series is definitely falls into the romantic suspense category.

***½ "Brides Gone Wild" by Cathie Linz.

This is a cute story, set in the same town as Good Girls Do. The heroine is a wedding floral designer in a small town, and her ex returns to town for one of the five weddings on one weekend, and everything's going wrong. I had trouble believing a small town could support a florist that only does weddings, and it didn't have the depth of her full-length book, but it was still fun to read.

***½ "Heaven Can't Wait" by Pamela Clare.

Whew. This one starts in the middle of a sex scene. It actually fits, since the fact that sex is good and easy (too good? too easy?) between them is what prompts the heroine to proclaim a moratorium on sex for the two weeks before the wedding. Which is what made this a less-than-4-star read for me. I've never understood the concept of not having sex when you both want to and there's no legal or moral reason not to. (I realize this makes me sound like a slut. But hey, it worked for me--nearly 25 years of wedded bliss here.) By the end, they do work through some real issues, though, and it was entertaining watching them try to seduce the other into giving in first, even if I didn't like the reason why.

****½ "So Caught up in You" by Beverly Brandt.

I had to double-check the name of the author on this. (Beverly Brandt = Jacey Ford) The story is w/a Beverly Brandt, but it has the adventure and excitement of a Jacey Ford story, not to mention the Rules of Engagement company from Dead Heat. Which is perfectly fine with me. I enjoy this author's writing whichever name she's using. Tasha's sister is getting married in the jungle and she finds out some disturbing information about the wedding coordinator, so she decides to investigate... and finds herself in the middle of human traficking and trying to conceal a dead body. It's fast-paced, fun, and sexy. A lot of story packed into a short novella.

**** "The Wedding Party" by Whitney Lyles.

Call this chick lit instead of romance, and change the last line, and I'll give it an extra half a star. This is a very ambitious story for a novella: Meg's looking forward to her friend's wedding because her ex will be there, and she's decided she made a big mistake in breaking up with him, and he's The One. So she has to deal with her feelings for him, and the difference between her fantasies and reality, as well as dealing with not fitting in with the other bridesmaids and falling in love with someone else. Alternatively, it would be nice to see it expanded into a full-length novel. There's enough material here for it.