To Love and to Cherish
Lauren Layne     

Genre:
Contemporary Romance
Series: Wedding Belles
Book: 3

Sex and the City meets The Wedding Planner in The Wedding Belles, a contemporary and witty romance series about three high-powered New York City women who can plan any wedding—but their own.

Alexis Morgan has spent the past eight years devoted to turning her tiny start-up into Manhattan’s premiere wedding planning company, The Wedding Belles. Now that her business is thriving, it’s time to turn towards her much neglected personal life, and Alexis approaches her relationships like she does everything else: with a plan. Not a part of that plan is Logan Harris, the silent partner in the Belles, and the one person who’s been there for her since the very beginning. But Alexis needs someone fun, and Logan’s all business, all the time—except when a late night at the office ends with an unexpected kiss that leaves the usually cool and together Alexis reeling.

Logan has lusted after Alexis since the day he walked into the tiny Harlem apartment that used to double as her office. But the ambitious wedding planner has always been untouchable...until now. Alexis has made it clear that she’s on the dating market—and equally clear that he’s not in the running. But when Alexis finds herself in need of a date for her sister’s last minute wedding in Florida, Logan knows it’s the perfect time to show Alexis that there’s more to him than numbers and spreadsheets—and beneath the pinstripes and glasses lies a hot-blooded heartthrob. As Florida’s sultry days turn into even hotter nights, Logan’s out to convince Alexis that the fling of a lifetime could just maybe turn into forever...

Other books in the series:


I’d been looking forward to Alexis and Logan’s romance for what seemed like forever. (And I’m not just saying that. See reviews of earlier books in the series.) Thankfully, To Love and to Cherish was everything I could have wished for and a bit more.

If you haven’t read the other two books in the series, I’ll catch you up real quick. Hold onto your panties ladies, our hero Logan Harris is an accountant. You’re thinking, exciting stuff, right? Well you’d be 100% correct on that. Logan has the whole Clark Kent/Superman thing going on and he has a sexy British accent to boot. He’s hot. He’s charming. He’s determined. And he’s been waiting eight years for Alexis Morgan to see him as a man. A desirable man. Her man.

Alexis has been too busy making a success of her wedding planning business, The Wedding Belles, to have time for a real relationship or even much of a social life. Now at thirty-three, she looks at her life and knows something has to change if she’s going to have the husband and family she’s always craved. Her sister’s maybe pregnancy is one of the thing that spurs her on to start dating in hopes of finding Mr. Right. Problem? She completely overlooks Mr. Obvious who is standing right in front of her. And it soon becomes clear that Logan wants her…bad.

Simple, right? He’s not only her accountant, a silent partner in her business, he’s also her friend. The fact that he’s not hard on the eyes and ears has to make him her dream guy because he’s been my book boyfriend for months now. Yeah, one would think he’s a shoo in. I certainly felt the chemistry the first time Logan appeared on the scene in book one. Alexis though, not so much. She’s a stubborn one. Actually she’s more scared than anything else. At first, afraid to acknowledge that he’s interested and then afraid to give him a chance. But Alexis has her reasons for keeping Logan at bay—men in general really—and in To Love and to Cherish we find out exactly why that is.

Yes, I felt for Alexis. The situation that helped form who she is—guarded and sort of closed off—isn’t an easy one to deal with. So she elicits both my empathy and exasperation in equal measure. I love her but sometimes I wanted to shake some sense into her. You’re going to lose him. That was my chant as Logan’s parents, tried to get him to come home to London to run the family business. To leave New York and Alexis.

There is nothing not to love about Logan. He’s that guy, Mr. So Right it hurts. At first, I thought for sure he was all beta. Okay, maybe a brooding beta. Easy going, mild-mannered if sometimes a little intense. And my God, the man has the patience of a saint, so I wasn’t thinking alpha at all. I was happy to see there was more to Logan that meets the eye. I mean when the gloves—and clothes—come off, he’s there to throw down big time. Logan isn’t playing around. The sexy times are written with Ms. Layne’s trademark sensuality, heat and sizzle. At no time did I think, okay, no one talks like that during sex (which happens to me more often than not these days). If you give me a great love scene chocked with emotion, I’m there. Lauren Layne does that and she makes Alexis and Logan’s road to their HEA well worth the wait and the journey.

Sigh. My sigh is bittersweet. I’m sad that it’s over. After spending time with our couple and their friends, Heather, Josh, Brooke and Seth, I’m not ready for the series to end. And certainly not after meeting Dr. LeeAnne, the beautiful oncologist, who definitely needs to get her own book that way I can also catch up with what’s going on with all the Belles. I’m on the look out for a couple more weddings and perhaps some babies. My wants are so very simple. :)

Looking forward to whatever Ms. Layne releases next. She’s an author very high on my insta-buy list.

~ Beverley