So Funny

Its rare that I actually LOL when reading to myself but while devouring this sweet and charming story I found myself full-on belly laughing. The dialogue is so witty and often punny that I couldn't help myself. I was thoroughly impressed with the story and while the climax and eventual resolution was easy to predict, I still loved it for its sweetness. ( )

This was my Amazon First Reads pick for February 2021. I find my First Reads picks to be hit or miss. For most of this book, I was glad I chose it, but there were some areas that I struggled with.

The premise is that there is a show called "The Wedding Game" that has decided to do a New York series with the grand prize being a penthouse in Manhattan. There are three teams: one man-woman couple, one man-man couple, and one woman-woman couple. Each team has to have one family member on it.

The man-woman couple is Thad Baxter and his pregnant fiancee Naomi. Thad ropes his somewhat-estranged, divorce lawyer brother, Alec, into the team. Thad wants the penthouse to have a bigger space in which to raise his child.

The man-man couple is Cohen Rossi and Declan (a Chinese American despite the Irish sounding name). Cohen's sister Luna is the one who signs them up for the show. She has a successful craft business and idolizes the show's host Mary DIY. She's hoping to give Cohen and Declan the wedding they deserve plus win them the penthouse because it means they'll live closer to her. She's also a bit gaga over meeting Mary DIY, one of her idols.

The woman-woman couple is Amanda and Luciana. Their family member is Amanda's mother, Helen.

The Chapters are told from the points of view of Luna and Alec, so we don't really get to know the third team as well as the other two.

Likes:
*the crafting aspects of the book
*there are some humorous moments
*there are some touching moments that had me tearing up
*there are some teaching and learning moments about family relationships

Dislikes:
*the ending seems a bit too pat. Everyone gets what he/she wants in some form. It might not be the form they were hoping to get, but ... everyone is in love, everyone in the Baxter and Rossi families has a place to stay that suits their needs and brings them closer together geographically, Luna gets more publicity for her crafts, etc.
*there was a lot more lust and graphic descriptions of intimate relations than I expected from the way the beginning was written. (I would have rated the book higher if this hadn't been part of it.)
*Luna applies for the show behind her brother's back after Cohen has already expressed that he has no interest in being on it. She apparently doesn't learn anything about deceiving her brother from that because she hides something else from him later in the book.
*the romance plot was a bit predictable. I knew that the two adversaries were going to end up in love with each other long before it happened in the book. ( )