Review: Simply Sweet
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 20, 2013
REVIEWED BY SUNNYI love weddings! I also love how Christi Barth created a great group of friends who are all in the wedding business, sharing their talents with brides and grooms in the Chicago area. I enjoyed FRIENDS TO LOVERS and am excited to share why!I am going to kick this off with Daphne. She has been a mainstay in the Aisle Bound series, so this was not my first encounter with her. Putting her in the spotlight in FRIENDS TO LOVERS gave me a much clearer picture of what makes Daphne tick. I remembered that she doesn't like the limelight and that she is an accomplished florist. What I didn't realize was her very deep desire to jump Gibson's (Gib's) bones! I loved how Daphne sets her family and friends as priorities in her life. Her relationship with her father provided very special moments throughout the book, as well as the memories they share regarding her deceased mother. I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about flowers, their meaning, and how they became so important to Daphne. But what I enjoyed most with her character was her growth. She has a low self-esteem and through the help of Gib, her family, and other friends, she starts to see her strengths more and more, which helped her achieve a lot during this story.Gib is a sexy Brit. He, like Daphne, has kept the romantic feelings he has for his best friend a secret for years. Instead of putting himself and their friendship on the line, he hides it by involving himself with every other woman in the city of Chicago. He has a reputation as a playboy and although this bothered me at times, I got over it quickly because I really did like his character. Gib is dealing with a lot of issues professionally and personally in FRIENDS TO LOVERS, and I appreciated the realness these struggles brought to his character. He finds himself confiding in his friends, especially with Daphne. I liked how this leads to his maturing throughout the book. With his experience with women, he knows how to show them a good time and wow them with his romantic ideas. Some of my favorite moments in the book were the special romantic gestures Gib does on his dates with Daphne.This could probably be read as a standalone, but I certainly enjoyed getting back to the characters I have gotten to know in the Aisle Bound series, and the whole gang was instrumental throughout this entire story. I loved how these friends help each other, bringing a realness to the story as well as some great laugh-out-loud moments. On the other hand, I felt that sometimes there were a lot of things going on, maybe too many. With so many subplots, there were times it seemed to detract from Gib and Daphne's story. I also didn't like the abruptness of the ending. Building out the ending a bit more and lessening some of the subplots to give room to do this would have made this book even better for me.BOTTOM LINEFRIENDS TO LOVERS has a lot going on, but I thought it was a great contemporary romance, especially as a fan of the series. The strong friendships portrayed provide a beautiful quality to the book, as do the romantic gestures demonstrated throughout.RATING: B+Note: I received a review copy of this title courtesy of the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review