Award-winning author Kat Bastion teams with her husband, Stone Bastion, in this first book in the No Weddings Series about Cade Michaelson, a successful man with his sights set on a new venture in business, and Hannah Martin, the woman who makes it personal.
I think I have my act together as a successful bar owner, my master’s degree within reach, and a list of no-strings-attached women warming my bed. Turns out, I don’t.
Hannah believes she has safeguarded her wounded heart by shunning men and focusing on her new baking business. The thing is, she hasn’t.
When my three sisters and I form an event-planning business with Hannah as our baker, I have no idea how my life is about to change. As Hannah and I work closely together, the attraction between us becomes irresistible. And complicated. I’ve promised my sisters I wouldn’t mix business with pleasure. But I’ve never been one to follow the rules.
Love is a complete and utter disaster. But even with all the heartache, we have to believe there is joy. I need to believe there is one person somewhere out there, meant for us, who will bring us some kind of happiness.
My mind is kind of in turmoil right now because I don’t know how to write a review about this book. There were so many ideas popping in my head that I don’t know where to start first. Hmmm. Might as well start with how the book got its name.
Cade, along with his three sisters, decided to create an event planning business, when a party they organized together became an instant hit among the people who attended it. They named their business Invitation Only which will target the elite who has the means to pay for an all-out party. Cade had a bad experience when it comes to wedding but he made it seem like he can’t stop gallivanting with the members of the entourage every time he attends a wedding. His sisters knew that so they agreed on one rule. They’ll accept any events they want to plan but there will be no weddings. Hmm. Something’s not adding up, right? Cade is so adamant as to not accept that kind of event. And oh, he also included on the no dallying with the help.
Cade is the youngest among the four siblings and he had been a victim of all the ministrations that his sisters did when they were young. He once thought he had already found his the one. He even proposed to her, unfortunately, he and the girl doesn’t see eye to eye. He even found out he wasn’t the only one she was dallying with during their time. From then on, he had built a wall to protect himself from the hurt and betrayal he felt. He had hidden it so well that even his sisters weren’t able to witness.
Hannah Martin is an up-and-coming baker who is also starting her own business. She met Kiki, Cade’s youngest sister, in an art class while they were studying in the university. She’s a one of a kind baker who can create any cake design from scratch. She was also hurt before by someone when he abandoned her at the altar the day they were supposed to wed. Cade had even called her the “Ice Queen”. In an effort to get her to agree in being a partner at their newly established business, he had to strategized and offer her something that she won’t have the ability to say no.
As Cade got to know her, he got to see her smiles, got to hear her laughter, got used to her wicked sense of humor, and her culinary skills, his armor starts to chip off. He started to look forward to their secret meetings in her bakery. He found calmness in her world. He even begun to volunteer his services to help cultivate her business in exchange for a few of her hours each week in which she had to volunteer her culinary skills for him and his friends.
Reading this book is like reading another version of Tangled and instead of Drew talking, it’s Cade this time. Readers might find this book wordy, but I think I liked the wordiness. I’m a reader who wants dialogues. But I think the wordiness added to the charm of this book. God knows, the witty banters among the characters made up for it.
The author certainly gave me an insight on how the man’s brain works. I liked Cade a lot. Aside from the fact that he seems to have figured out how a woman’s mind works, I can’t help but be charmed with how he treats his sisters and I can’t help but sympathize over the things he kept inside and all the hurt and betrayal he felt that made him who he is today. He was reduced to a shell of the person he once was.
I really liked how Hannah and Cade gradually developed their relationship into something more. They know how messed up their brains were from both of their past relationships and they struggled to cope up with it by helping each other. It was never an insta-love. I loved how they handled it together. It shows how much they have matured. It was necessary for them to wait. Honestly, some readers would be disappointed that there weren’t any explicit love scenes in this book compared to Tangled. But I think, it was something both of them needed in order to move and I think, they both know that what they had was a permanent. So the slow dance between Cade and Hannah was in some ways, their much-needed therapy which was a necessity in the growth of their budding romance.
It’s not all pretty ponies and fairy tales. Real love is messy. It’s fights, but more about the making up. It’s pulling apart to find our own paths, but running together and holding on tight, refusing to let go. Love is the calm in the middle of the storm.”
Life didn’t have to be good or bad. We didn’t have only one predestined road to follow. Life existed not in the black and white, but in the gray.
Nothing worthwhile in life comes without a fight.
Award-winning and bestselling romance author Kat Bastion has teamed up with her husband Stone Bastion to create the new contemporary romance series No Weddings.
A few factoids about the writing team…
Kat enjoys her chocolate rich and dark, her music edgy and soul-filling, and her vacations exotic with toes dug into the sand. And she’s wildly, madly, deeply in love with Stone.
Stone likes pounding the trails on a mountain bike, vibrating the sound system with rock music, and down time spent on a stand up paddleboard. And he loves Kat wildly, madly, deeply…and then some.
Together, they’re having a blast bringing fun-filled romantic stories to life and hope you’ll join them in the exciting adventure.
Kat’s first published work, Utterly Loved, was a twentieth anniversary gift of love poems to Stone that they decided to share with the world to benefit charity. Net proceeds from Utterly Loved, and a portion of net proceeds from all their books, go toward charities involved in the fight against human trafficking.
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Labels: ARC, Blog Tour, Book Review, Giveaway, InkSlinger PR, Kat Bastion, Stone Bastion
