Thank you so, so, so much to Harlequin Trade Publishing for considering me for their Romance & Women’s Fiction Blog Tour for Winter 2020! This should be the first book that I’m doing a blog tour for, and I’m pretty sure I signed up for another two on this list, so stay tuned! The cover is giving me so much life, fam! I’m getting giddy vibes, it’s not even funny.

In Happily Inc, love means never having to say “I do”…

Wedding coordinator Renee Grothen isn’t meant for marriage. Those who can, do. Those who can’t, plan. But she never could have planned on gorgeous, talented thriller writer Jasper Dembenski proposing—a fling, that is. Fun without a future. And the attraction between them is too strong for Renee to resist. Now she can have her no-wedding cake…and eat it, too.

After years in the military, Jasper is convinced he’s too damaged for relationships. So a flirtation—and more—with fiery, determined Renee is way too good to pass up…until his flame becomes his muse.

Renee is an expert at averting every crisis. But is she finally ready to leap into the one thing that can never be controlled: love?

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SUSAN MALLERY is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of novels about the relationships that define women’s lives—family, friendship, romance. Library Journal says, “Mallery is the master of blending emotionally believable characters in realistic situations,” and readers seem to agree—40 million copies of her books have sold worldwide. Her warm, humorous stories make the world a happier place to live.

Susan grew up in California and now lives in Seattle with her husband. She’s passionate about animal welfare, especially that of the two ragdoll cats and adorable poodle who think of her as mom.

Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Netgalley, HQN Books, and Harlequin Presents for this free copy.

So technically, this is Book 5 of a series, but when I was reading it, I totally feel like this could work as a standalone. So I wasn’t confused or anything too much when I was reading it. Yay, Harlequin for helping me understand this without having to binge read four books in a short amount of time!

Second, I don’t know what it is, but I always chuckle when I have a main character that works in the realm of love that somehow believes that it wouldn’t apply to them at all. So imagine my surprise and inner giggle to myself when I rad the synopsis and found out that… low and behold! One of our main characters is a wedding coordinator, but somehow feels like she’s not meant to have a wedding of her own.

Honestly, that sounds really tragic, but I get it. I got married and never had an extravagant wedding, or even a wedding at all. Does a courthouse wedding count? I wore a tie die dress specifically because I refused to wear white. Do I count as a rebel?

I personally liked that this gave some of the spotlight to supporting characters from the previous books – from at least some of the other reviews that I read before reading this book – so that was cool! I like when authors do that, especially when some of the supporting characters are apparently cooler than the original MCs. I feel like this may have been the case, but I’ll have to read the other books prior to making that full determination.

Since I’m not usually a romance person – but I’m doing my best to get more out there – I thought that this was a pretty nice example of a romance for not-romance people. If that makes sense. I didn’t feel like it was too sappy, and even though I may not know about everything that a wedding coordinator or an ex-military turned suspense author go through on a daily basis, I still felt like I was able to relate to some of their “regular” human habits and make it enjoyable for me.

This also kind of made me want to have an actual wedding one day, or at least see if there’s a company that does “Weddings Out of the Box” like Renee does. I’m kind of intrigued now. But yes, definitely give this one a try, or even the whole series! I think it’s pretty cool. I like flings that turn into serious relationships. It brings back memories.

**Thank you to Harlequin Presents for the photos as well!