The Wedding Party: When Disdain Turns To Love

Book Title: The Wedding Party

Author: Jasmine Guillory

Publication Year: 2019

Genre: Romance

Social Media: Instagram @jasminepics

The Wedding Party is the third book in Jasmine Guillory’s The Wedding Date series following the romance of enemies and best friend's to Alexa, Maddie and Theo. The pairing encompasses the qualities of your typical fatal attraction. The vivacious and carefree Maddie becomes entangled with Theo, a man who is so stiff he would probably iron copy paper if he could. The two even have completely opposite careers as Maddie is a fashion stylist and Theo is in politics, so it is no surprise how these two could initially clash. Behind the backs of their entire friend group, the two begin a sexual romance with rules and regulations to avoid any chance of a serious romantic relationship. While it seems easy at first, after time is spent and connections are formed this situation becomes everything but that.

First and foremost, I want to state that as someone who consumes a lot of romance novels I have formed biases on how I like my preferred novels written. What I may shy away from in a novel, you may absolutely love so all opinions should be taken with a grain of salt.

The story starts off with Maddie and Theo essentially forming a frenemies with benefits relationship so from the get go the novel is sex heavy. Like others, I do enjoy my fair share of lust in any romance novel. But I find that the sex scenes are bland in writing and repetitive. Now, this may have been intentional and reflective of the state in which Maddie and Theo’s romance was in. I mean how could sex between two people be passionate if they do not like one another? But as a reader it came off as just plain out redundant. I wasn’t a huge fan of that and it did make it a little difficult for me to get through the first few chapters. I think there was a bit of an imbalance, it felt like for most of the book the two had a great disdain for each other and then them growing in love was rushed. 

I did however enjoy the relationship and banter between Theo and his brother, Ben, and the sneaking around between the couple in an attempt to hide their forbidden affair. It gave the book a light hearted layer to it. The story line does pick up once feelings develop between the couple. But I found that outside of knowing about the pairing’s career and the origin of their hatred for one another, the book lacked depth. Towards the end of the book there are incidents that birth a few vulnerable moments from the two that showed the extent in which they care for one another. The scenes of them opening up made me go “aw” but nothing tear jerking. 

I would have loved to know more about Theo and Maddie in regards to who they are as individuals. I also would have loved to see more of their dynamic with Alexa in a deeper sense since that was how the two originally connected. The novel was very what-you-see-is-what-you-get. It had the feel of an early 2000’s romance movie that I think people would enjoy but it just wasn’t a fit for me and that’s okay.

Favorite Quote: “I really thought you understood me, in a way so few people do.”