Review: My review from MustReadBooksOrDie
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 14, 2013
Shel: So many of you probably don't know this but Courtney is like the fastest reader...ever. She can be 4 books behind me on our schedule and then before I know it, she's 2 books ahead. GAH! When she started reading The Wager I was reading something not nearly as fun or funny. Actually it wasn't fun or funny at all...so you can imagine my envy and longing to get to this book. Her funny texts were my motivation to finish what I was reading and get to this book.Court: Hahaha, I'm sorry I'm such a slave to my ADD. I know it must make you absolutely insane! xoxo...but it was so freaking funny I couldn't help but text her...OMG I cannot wait until you get to this book! I love it even more than The Bet I think...and it was amazingly sweet as well! I also told ya Shel, and I'll tell these fine people...these books are a necessary love to Rachel Van Dyken's library...because her other series have ripped my heart to shreds in the past! In the best way possible...because we're masochistic freaks when it comes to the feels apparently.Shel: Within the first pages I was laughing out loud ...shaking with laughter so hard that I woke up my poor husband out of a sound sleep (I bet he rues the day he bought me this Kindle!). Grandma Nadine is the star of this show. She's so funny...the airplane scene, the drugstore scene, the bedroom scenes...I'll never think of Charades the same way...ever again. Grandma is a master manipulator, tell it like it is, fun-loving, crass, young at heart woman and I can only hope that I have some of her spunk and fun when I'm a grandmother. I just love this woman!Court: That is so funny! Poor J. and really both of our hubs...they never get a break from us reading, but Grandma Nadine is seriously the most awesome 86 year old woman, ever! Don't forget her fine use of ice water...*ahem* She loves her grandsons and the women that they can't get enough of as her own granddaughters, and the family dynamics in this one were so awesome. Even Char's family, as selfish and irritating as they were, were real and gave her life even more substance.Shel: While Grandma Nadine is the star of the show, Char and Jake are what this show is all about. These two have been childhood friends and antagonists for most of their lives. As they grew up from children to teenagers some wires got crossed, mean girls struck, and Jake became a manwhore. So Char wrote him off and he wrote her off but despite their best intentions and constant denials, they end up attracted to each other and unable to stay away. It doesn't hurt that they are the best man and maid of honor  in Kacey and Travis's wedding (see The Bet for their story--and BONUS! we get some great scenes with them) or that Grandma has found all sorts of ways to get them together...all of this just amps up the heat and feelings between these two. Working together to help out with the wedding gives them many opportunities to get to know each other again, have some sweet moments, annoy and frustrate each other, and have some seriously hot kisses. The closer they get to the wedding, the more chaos reigns in their fragile friendship.Court: After all Jake's shenanigans and douchebaggery in The Bet I am genuinely surprised by how much I loved him. He has lots of secrets that unfold through this journey that made my heart hurt, though in this one the pain that Rach can inflict with her words was minimal. He had a journey to forgive himself for his years of wrongdoing that brought him back down to earth from the rich, beautiful playboy that he knows he is. Between Char and Grandma Nadine though, he really really has his work cut out for him in this family!Shel: Can Jake forgive himself and allow Char into his heart? Can Char forgive Jake and trust him enough to allow him into her heart? Can Grandma Nadine work her magic one more time? Only time will tell in this super funny companion to The Bet. Fingers crossed that Char's sister gets the next *star* treatment from Grandma!Court: Oh yes. The shenanigans of this Grandma are Epic and I can't wait to see what else she gets to meddling in!Shelley: 4 1/2 Stars Courtney: 5 Stars