Never the Bridesmaid by Janell Michaels

Complex Story Looks at More Than Just Romantic Love

This is not your garden-variety contemporary romance. It explores themes beyond those typical in romances like the intricacies of adult father-daughter and mother-daughter relationships. These are not handled in a simple, cliched, or humorous fashion (as they usually are when broached in a romance) but rather seriously. Angela, daughter of a wealthy man, is caught in a complex world. The book opens with her seeing evidence of her mother’s betrayal of her father with the pool boy. She doesn’t quite know what to do. She at first wants to tell her father but then is concerned about any ramifications for his health that such a shock might bring. The young man who broke her heart when they were teenagers visits her faith and is angling to get back in her life. The hero, Dan, is a young man from a very wealthy family that has a tradition that each heir must earn his trust fund by proving himself without the benefits that he grew up with. His father makes a deal with Angela’s father that Dan will become the handyman on his compound (fake name and slight disguise as a part of it). One of the problems is that Dan really doesn’t have a clue about how to be a handyman! Angela’s father also tasked him with reporting back to him about Angela and her potential love interests.

This book is at turns serious and quite funny. I especially loved Dan’s handyman’s notes that start each chapter that he narrates. His first attempts at being a handyman nearly made me laugh on occasion. Angela’s chapters begin with a letter to the wedding planning column that she writes, which can also be humorous as well. I loved Stacie’s snappy comebacks and observations. The book is more serious when looking at the relationships between the members of the Jackson family. The characters in this book felt three dimensional, and the dialogue seems realistic. I found this to be a delightful read.