Aimee Brown (1)Besprekingen

Dax Hartley has made flowers his entire life, just like his late father did. When his dad's shop is up for sale, he has to have it. The only problem is he can't afford it. The reality show Battle of the Blossoms is the perfect chance to win the money he needs, but with the arrival of his childhood crush back in his life, distractions risk taking his eyes off the prize. Hollyn Matthews has made some colossal mistakes in life. When she is dumped just as she's expecting an engagement ring, she knows she's put her heart into the wrong man. Hoping for another chance at being a grown up, she moves home to stay with her brother and his best friend Dax. Facing the hurt she left behind means facing some truths about herself, but there's only one boy who has always loved her, if she'd only take the time to notice him.
Dax has been in love with Hollyn since they were teens. However, she only ever saw him as her younger brother's best friend. In an attempt to escape a life where she saw herself as a disappointment to her parents, she moved away and cut off all those back home. After a comedic and devastating break up, she has no choice but to return home and is quickly confronted with just how terrible she has been to people who love her. Hollyn soon discovers Dax isn't the kid she remembers and when the two are forced to spend a lot of time together it's inevitable that a bond develops between them.
The book was full of some good characters and you could see a huge development in Hollyn's character, but it felt rushed and artificial to me. The book was full of lots of super convenient elements, which had the sole purpose of working to force Dax and Hollyn to spend more time together. However, it also had hilarious moments like the time Hollyn tried to attack someone with a lightsaber. I think the story was cute, but for me Dax and Hollyn didn't really know anything about one another as adults, it was all about the bond they had as teens. I did enjoy that the novel wasn't just a second chance at romance but a second chance at basically everything for Hollyn.
It is definitely a cute and fun read if you want a few laughs and a HEA. If you are a fan of closed door romances then you will love this one for sure. I just felt like the ending was a bit rushed and that the story was incredibly predictable. However, it was a fun take on the brother's best friend romance for sure.

Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3/5 Stars)
Title: The Last Dance
Author(s): Aimee Brown
Character(s):
― Ambri Jennings: 27 years old, Brunette
― Henry Decker: 29 years old, Blonde, Blue Eyed
Setting: Portland, Oregon
Tag(s): Romance, Contemporary
Content Rating: PG-13
POV: Alternates between Heroine/Hero
Smexy Level: Subtle
Favorite Quote(s):
― “You are my person, Ambri.”
― “You’re human, Ambri. You don’t always choose who you fall in love with. The heart wants what it wants sometimes . More often than not it doesn’t go in the direction you expected. I think it’s worth the time it takes to figure it out though. You don’t want to look back and realize you did the wrong thing because you made a decision too soon.”
Overall Opinion:
Henry stepping out of his best friend life, two years has come and gone. Through all the highs and all the lows, including the death of Henry late wife and Ambri sister Rory, one night changes everything and they are left estranged. When he walks back into her life, old habits die hard but would they be able to forgive and forget?

What I liked the most about this read was the realism of life and death, peoples struggles with depression and learning to forgive. It was easy to see how Henry and Ambri were able to fall in love with each other. It was years in the making and even though misunderstandings happen, they were able to persevere and learn to forgive. it was known from the get-go that they were made for each other and you couldn't wait to see their happily ever after. Unlike some other heroines in romance novels, Ambri didn’t shy away fron how much Henry has hurt her. She screamed, she yelled, she cried and it’s hard not to feel the gut-wretching raw emotions she was able expressed to him. Additional, a few negatives I will mention is how unappealing the side relationships were when added into the mix with the leads. It was redundant and I felt bad with how Ambri romance with Noah ended. It was just a little too convenient how the leads partners were also still in love with their exes, etc. What was the point of them even being included? Overall, I understand Henry's reason behind his actions but how quickly they were able to fall back together and leave everyone in the dust left a bad taste in my mouth. Let alone how supportive their friends were about it. Didn't they spend a year getting to know Noah, built a friendship and was able to witnessed how great he treated her? It would have been better if Ambri and Henry were both single in the first place while trying to fix their relationship. Overall not exactly Nicholas Sparks, but I guess it could be considered close enough.

This novel reminds me of a Sofia Kinella or Marian Keyes with the various hilious antics that arise from Emi. Emi ran away from Oregan after her fiance Jack had his half nake receptionist on his lap. Emi also had a mean girl moment with Greta--her former boss's daughter. Greta wasted no time when she found out that Emi broke up with Jack. Now Emi has to return to Oregan for her twin brother Evan's wedding to Hannah--Jack's younger sister. To make matters worse for Emi, she is in the wedding party with Jack. During a dinner at her brother's house, Emi finds out that Jack is dating, not not dating just anyone--her arch-nemisis Greta. Greta has always gotten what she wanted. Greta set her sights on Jack and she is going to do everything she can to ensure that she gets him even if Jack's heart belongs to another. The more the wedding party spends together the more hurt Jack is for what happened between himself and Emi. He can't forgive himself for what happened--how can he expect Emi to forgive him and take him back. Emi ran away over a thousand miles away to forget him.

The big wedding day holds numerous surprises for the entire wedding party from an unexpected dye job to an orange spray tan to past secrets being revealed. Brown had me laughing and crying for Emi. This novel will be added to my repeat reading list!

weddings, meet cutes, beautiful people falling in and out of love, other beautiful people helping/getting in the way, tragedy of errors, malicious pettiness all around...tropes we all know too well, but oh do i eat it up!! my feminism card takes a hit every time i read one of this puff pieces, but i cannot stop reading!! i got teary eyed, starry eyed, and hungry for bacon-cheeseburgers.

A cute but somewhat flawed story of friends to lovers to enemies to lovers again. I found myself getting annoyed with the story at times. I honestly didn't like Ambri very much. She was very judgmental about a lot of really minor, stupid stuff (really, using "epic" was a point against someone?), and as most of that judgment was directed at Henry's girlfriend, I ended up actually rooting for her. And then she was proven to be a bad person - which came out of left field as everything up to that point was generally positive. (The one scene that I can think of that was meant to show that Karmen wasn't nice was her being critical of Henry's hair, which was relatively minor compared to her real transgressions later on.) Why did there have to be a bad guy? And the big reveal about Noah was also out of nowhere.

Also, it was pointed out numerous times that Henry was blonde. So what's up with the dude on the cover?

Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley½

This book was so bad. I don't even know what to say. Brown jumps around between present day and past timelines and all it did was make me hate the main character (Emi) even more. At one point something happens that had me wondering if the author had just watched a lot of Hallmark movies and said, yes, I will try to replicate that. And honestly, even Hallmark wouldn't make this movie. The motivations of all people was out of whack. We got an antagonist that made zero sense. You had Emi and her former fiancee Jack not acting like real life people at all. And you have a cast of characters too dumb to tell Emi and Jack to work their shit out like adults. Instead there are schemes on top of schemes that even The Party Trap wouldn't have tried to pull. Do not recommend.

So "The Lucky Dress" follows Emi as she struggles with going to her brother's wedding. It wouldn't be such a big deal except she is going to see her former fiancee Jack for the first time in a year. And Jack is in the wedding (he's her brother's best man) and she has never told everyone all of the things that happened that had Emi call off their wedding two days before they were to be married and to follow her best friend to Dallas to set up a coffee shop. Yeah that's a lot. So the whole book is Emi getting into mess after mess after seeing Jack and his family. And she's face to face with his new girlfriend who she also knows. And Brown jumps back and forth between their romantic history which doesn't paint Emi or Jack in a good light.

I think my biggest problem is Emi is an idiot. She sees two things and she doesn't discuss it with Jack. Instead she packs up and moves across the country. She leaves him with explaining to people what happened and she's then angry when she sees who he is now dating. Frankly, if you ignore someone for a year, you get what you get. I was just done in beyond the stupidity of all involved. 99 percent of this book would have been taken care of if everyone talked instead of trying to "hide things." Emi meets a new love interest who I called Red Herring who I didn't even care about, since it was pretty obvious how this one was going to go.

Jack doesn't act like a normal man at all. That's all I got.

Jack's mother....woo boy. There is some stuff that happens that made me go did everyone in this book never meet a human being that they actually talked to?

The main antagonist in this one went to the Disney school for movie villains. She didn't act like a real person and her motivation behind all of this was flimsy at best.

I thought the writing was painful. Emi was a brat. I wanted someone to call her out on her acting like an ass during her brother's wedding festivities along with the bride. The flow was awful due to the jumping back and forth between the present day and previous milestones in Jack and Emi's story.

That ending had me once again wondering do the secondary characters in this story have any type of life at all or what?

A wonderful, cute, romantic story.

Loved it!

This was an entertaining, fun chick lit book! I enjoyed the twists and emotions I had. I loved the characters and how I felt connected to all of them.

The Lucky Dress by Aimee Brown
Source: Netgalley
My Rating: 4/5 stars

For the past year, Emi Harrison has been living a lie! Oh, she tells everyone who asks, especially her best friend, that she’s crazy happy with her new life, her new business, and the extra twentyish pounds she’s packed on. She also tells everyone who asks, especially herself that she is completely over the lying, cheating bastard known as Jack Cabot, ex-fiancé. With the coming over her twin brother’s wedding, Emi Harrison is going to have ample opportunity to prove to everyone, including herself just how over Jack Cabot she is!

One plane ride later . . . .

Stepping back into her old stomping grounds is just as nerve-wracking as Emi thought it would be! Everywhere she turns, there is a reminder of her five-year life with Jack, the places they frequented, the people they liked and loved, and the promise of a happy future together. Unfortunately, that happiness was stripped away in one horrifying afternoon and evening a year ago when Emi walked in on Jack with another woman sprawled across his body; just a few hours later, she watched in horror as he left another woman into the home they once so happily shared.

Yeah, there may be some unresolved issues on both sides . . . .

Emi walks into her old life with every intention of supporting her twin brother, his ridiculous bride to be, and their wedding events! Emi wants happiness for her brother, but she is a member of the bridal party and so is her ex. With every intention of behaving herself and not causing a scene, Emi promises everyone she’ll be on her best behavior. All she must do is follow through on that promise and that quickly proves far, far easier said than done. The moment Jack walks in to the first event with another woman on his arm, Emi loses her damn fool mind and the shenanigans don’t stop until the very last page!

The Bottom Line: I read The Lucky Dress in a single sitting and laughed my way through most of this book! Emi is utterly ridiculous and the recipient of some most unfortunate luck! As it happens, that run of bad luck has been with her far longer than even she’s aware. Which leads to my favorite part of this book, the way the story is broken down and told. The chapters alternate between the present and the past with the chapters dedicated to the present moving forward and revealing a great number of truths and secrets, while the chapters dedicated to the past move backward in time tracing Jack and Emi’s relationship from the moment they broke up to their first meeting. I found this type of storytelling to be most conducive to plot, and it totally fed into my love of past meets present and loads of backstory/history! Overall, this is a delightful little rom/com that has some moving moments, some sad moments, but mostly a lot of funny/ridiculous moments that play perfectly with the characters and their respective personalities!

P.S. If you’re like me and turn every available page, then you also know the hot bar owner/fake date is getting his own story sometime next year 😊

Rcvd an ARC at no cost to author..(netgalley) What the hell was lucky about this. I couldn't read anymore, it was ridiculous that it would take so long for them to get a resolution. What? So they are in love, thru a misunderstanding (supposedly) they break up she moves, and what they don't have phones? airlines? is there no way that Jack who supposedly was heartbroken couldn't get to her and tell her the truth? Yeah that killed it for me, he should have manned up and then we have him getting together with this mean girl that I know he had to have known Emi wasn't crazy about. All these people sucked and I dont care what they do

This book was so fun. I enjoyed the two different time lines and how they worked together to bring the story full circle. I love Emi and Jack. All the characters were great, even the ones that made me angry. This was the lighthearted feel good book I needed right now. Great debut novel. 🌟🌟🌟🌟