Review: Impromptu marriage in Vegas with a chiseled male stripper?  Yes, please!
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 18, 2013
Valerie Wilder is on a business trip with some colleagues when a night of drinking gets out of hand.  One minute she’s knocking back shots with her friends and judging a hottest abs contest at a male revue, and the next minute she’s waking up with a hangover and a husband."God. This couldn’t be happening. This kind of stuff only happened in stupid movies."Wild Wes is a visual dream with a sexy Southern accent and very healthy libido.  For him, Vegas is just a stopover on his way to L.A., and stripping is just a means to an end.  Unlike Valerie, though, he’s not panicked over their hasty marriage, and while he agrees to a divorce, he doesn’t seem like he’s in any hurry to go through with it.Sure, the whole instantly married in Vegas thing has been done, but that doesn’t mean this book is old news.  Valerie is refreshingly realistic in her view of relationships, not thinking they’re the worst thing in the world, but also not convinced she has to have one right this second.  She knows she’s a little overweight, and she hasn’t had the best luck with men, but she’s not above the occasional sexual distraction.  And Wes was a complete surprise!  More than just the requisite charmer, he seems to have his own ulterior motive, and he’s not really inclined to hide it.  He’s more than just a little down on his luck, and while he’s a nice enough guy, he’s no knight in shining armor.But...The editing… Well, I’m not exactly sure it actually took place.  There are two main rules for commas, one of which was mostly ignored throughout the book.  And “you can come back to my apartment in Chicago which I share it with a roommate,” and “she would love for me to bring a guy home who I don’t even know his last name” don’t even come close to being proper English. I don’t expect authors to write perfectly; I expect them to come up with great stories, tell them in a way that reels me in, and leave the grammar and syntax to an editor.  Magan Vernon did exactly that, and I certainly enjoyed the story.  I’m just kind of pissed off that she got a raw deal on the editing side of things.The Verdict...Since this is the first part of a serialized novel (a bunch of short stories published separately that make up the full tale), it was very short, leaving much more of the story to be told.  That’s disappointing from the perspective of a reader who wants more now, but I think it’s worth waiting for.  I’m giving it a tentative 3.5 stars only because I have no idea which direction it will go next — it might be awesome, or it might go horribly wrong — or what I’ll feel for the characters once we get to know them better as their story continues.  But until then, I’ll definitely be watching for the next in the series (which should be out in just a few weeks), and I hope to have the chance to keep reviewing as I go.  If you’re looking for a quick read with lots more to come, you should definitely check it out.