A Wedding Tail

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A Wedding Tail is the conclusion to Casey Griffin’s series surrounding three friends all connected to a dachshund rescue shelter in San Francisco. This book, which tells the story of A-type wedding planner Zoe Plum and definitely-not-A-type wedding singer, Levi Dolson – is best read as a conclusion to the series; it includes just a little bit too much insider information for a stranger to understand what’s happening. However, laying all my cards on the table, I’m not sure who exactly to whom – if anyone – I’d recommend this series.

Before I explain more about my overall feelings about this series and how all the books tie together, allow me to outline the plot of this installment. Zoe is a wedding planner at the top of her game, except that everything is crumbling around her. After a disastrous wedding where everything went wrong through no fault of Zoe’s, someone is out to sabotage her business completely! Her van gets broken into, her reputation gets dragged through the mud by a crazed and unhappy bride, and all of the plans for her best friend’s wedding are being thwarted. In addition, her Japanese mother has decided it’s time for Zoe to get married, and puts pressure on Zoe to enter an arranged marriage. There is one constant in her living nightmare, however, and that’s Levi Dolson, lead singer of a band happy to do weddings while waiting on their big break.

As Zoe feels like she is losing her mind, Levi seems to always be around to set things right. As they try to find the saboteur and make sure the BFF’s wedding goes off without a hitch, they also find their personal happily-ever-after.

The problems I had with this book are the same problems I had with the whole series, to be honest. I read the first (Must Love Wieners) because the double-entendre in the title was too good to pass up. I found it quirky and a little over dramatic, but okay overall. There was one character, a news reporter, that didn’t seem human and instead just felt like a bag of tropes. When I decided to read the second book, I thought for sure we’d be rid of the reporter. Nope. She is a main part of the plot in Beauty and the Wiener as well. That book’s heroine stressed me out and I couldn’t connect with her at all; and the things I didn’t love about the first book now seemed to be the bulk of the story! I ended up being unable to finish that one, but I picked up A Wedding Tail hoping for a return to the balance of  Must Love Wieners.

I’m sorry to report that, instead A Wedding Tail, leaned into the curve of unrealistic drama. That news reporter I couldn’t stand the first two times? Back again, with an even bigger role. The bride I mentioned as frustrated in the summary paragraph? Her antics were so over the top and unbelievable that I hoped a) that Zoe would acquire a restraining order, and b) that the bride would get the mental health support she so clearly needed. The mystery of the sabotages takes the focus away from the romance, especially because neither Zoe or Levi feel like real people. I have no idea, even after several hundred pages with them, what Levi saw in Zoe at the beginning to make him rearrange entire sections of his life to be with a woman who was so openly hostile to him, nor did I understand what Zoe saw in Levi to finally be okay with having him around, and then falling in love with him.

I love books about friends, and I have a special affection for books about wedding planners. I’m sad to report that my love of those elements didn’t carry me into loving A Wedding Tail, an even the presence of adorable rescue dogs weren’t able to save it. As I said at the beginning, I’m not sure who the audience for this book is, but if you like slapstick rom-coms and over-the-top characters, you may find things to enjoy here.

Buy Now: A/BN/iB/K

Reviewed by Kristen Donnelly

Grade: D

Sensuality: Warm

Review Date: 08/08/17

Publication Date: 08/2017

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Recent Comments …

  1. excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.

Voracious reader, with a preference for sassy romances and happily ever afters. In a relationship with coffee, seeing whiskey on the side.

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