Guest Blog: Joan Reeves: Are All Brides Beautiful?

When I was a little girl, I went to a wedding for the daughter of one of my parents' friends. I wore a pretty blue party dress, a little black velvet hat, and carried a cute little purse. That wedding was the biggest social event I had ever attended because I grew up in the era of "children should be seen and not heard."

I loved everything about that wedding: dressing up, the music, the beautiful satin dresses the bridesmaids wore, and the wonderful scent of white roses floating through the air. My favorite part of the wedding though was the bride.

Of course I knew her and had seen her often. She was just an average looking young woman. At least that's what I'd thought up until the moment she entered the church. As I watched her float down the aisle to the strains of the traditional wedding march, I stared open-mouthed.

She had transformed into an ethereal beauty in a gossamer ball gown of white silk, encrusted with pearls. A veil of lace and tulle fell from the pearl headpiece all the way to the floor and trailed behind her.

Lasting Impression

I've never forgotten that first wedding and that sense of wonder I felt at seeing the bride in all her glory. When I decided to start a novella series, I knew instinctively that I wanted to write stories about brides because a woman's wedding is usually the grandest event in her life.

Because I've been the guest at many other weddings as well as the "mother" four times as our children have married, I also know how important it is to maintain a sense of humor. Sometimes things go comically wrong on a day when the bride wants it to be absolutely perfect.

As a guest, I've laughed until I cried at the ring bearer who decided he wanted to keep the rings and ran with them while his parents and the bride's parents chased him.

At one evening reception, the parents of the bride, in their excitement about all the reception events, forgot about all the food in coolers set outside the reception hall. Even the wedding toasts were made with guests raising empty glasses because someone forgot to bring in the champagne! But all the guests obliged by lifting empty glasses and pantomiming drinking from them.

Laughter Enriches Love

Weddings can be so comical that I've played with that premise through a few of my books. In Still The One, Burke Winslow is at the altar with his business partner and about to embark on a marriage of convenience when the minister asks: "Does anyone know why this man and woman shouldn't be joined in holy matrimony?" Burke's ex, who it turns out isn't as ex as he thought, shouts, "Stop the wedding."

In Cinderella Blue, released in March, police detective Andie Luft, dressed as a bride, is chasing a "slime-ball photographer who ruined her day" in the opening scene of the book.

I love romantic comedy so I knew I wanted to write romantic comedy for my brides novella series. The title for the series was a no-brainer: All Brides Are Beautiful.

Are All Brides Beautiful? Yes!

April Fool Bride was published last summer. This summer I'll publish White Rose Confession. In case you think roses are my favorite wedding flower, you're correct. I love roses. My back yard is a rose garden--15 red knockout rose bushes span the width of my yard.

White roses were the perfect choice for the second novella in my series because one meaning for this elegant rose is new beginnings. That's just what Constance Quinn, the stepmother of Maddie from April Fool Bride, gets when she meets Alejandro, the absolutely last man on earth she should have fallen for. When a meeting begins with a lie, can there be a future?

Well, of course there can if you're reading a romance novel!

BIO:

NY Times and USA Today bestselling author Joan Reeves makes her home in the Lone Star State with her hero, her husband. She lives the philosophy that is the premise of her romance novels: "It's never too late to live happily ever after."

Visit Joan online at her Blog, http://SlingWords.blogspot.com or her Website, www.JoanReeves.com. Readers, sign up for her email list/newsletter: http://eepurl.com/Yk61n. Writers, sign up for her free NL Writing Hacks, http://eepurl.com/fX7JT.

BLURB:

Is it a marriage of convenience or something more? Something that sizzles like steam heat between Maddie and Jake that neither can resist!

Oil heiress Madeline Quinn needs a husband by the time she turns twenty-five in order to claim her full inheritance. Mad Maddie, as the tabloids christened her, has learned the hard way that men only see dollar signs when they look at her.

Maddie decides a marriage of convenience is the only answer. She turns to the one man in the world she can trust, her housekeeper’s son who always treated her like a little sister when they were kids growing up together.

Jake Becker hasn’t seen Maddie since the night she tried to seduce him. Why should he help the woman who changed the course of his life? Simple. Revenge.

Or is it something else? Something hot and smouldering that will not be denied?