I’m not going to lie. Part of the reason that I loved this book so much was because it was set in Canada, and referenced a lot of Canadian things and used Canadian ways of speaking. It was like going home to a place you love after a long time away. (Literally, in my case.)
Jane is in the wedding party of her dear friend Elise, who is driving them all a little insane with her Pinterest-perfect wedding plans. So of course, it’s defcon-1 when Elise realizes that her future brother-in-law is unexpectedly coming home after abruptly being discharged from the Canadian military, she decides he needs a babysitter to make sure that he doesn’t cause drama. And who else to do it but Reliable Jane?
Jane is resigned to it, and mostly agreed to get out of spray painting tea pots or some other banal activity. Jane has to admit that Cameron is an attractive dude, but she’s mostly annoyed by his machismo and apparent insistence on hooking up with any female that’s willing. (This makes Cameron sound like a horrible guy, but really, he’s just wanting to forget the horrible betrayal he just dealt with, walking in on his live-in girlfriend and her new lover, in the home he was supposed to be sharing with her.) At the end of the night, Jane leaves him and Elise is upset that Cameron is out there, doing God knows what with God knows who. And Jane has a momentary panic, thinking that maybe he might hook up with someone in the wedding party and cause a fiasco.
“I’m going to find that mofo and have him microchipped.” [Jane]
So, Jane decides to stick to Cameron like glue, and they end up going up the CN Tower, exploring Niagara Falls, and then to the amusement park, Canada’s Wonderland. Jane really gets to shine, stepping out of her comfortable bubble, and the shaky connection that she and Cameron began with gets stronger. Jane is really loving how it feels to let loose and be less responsible, and so they share an incredibly heated kiss.
The rest of the novel really fleshes out their past and present baggage, intertwined with fun wedding hijinks. Elise has them make lavender crowns and buy sunglasses and straw hats, and all around has random flashes of brilliance that cause all of her wedding party to collectively groan.
“And despite the bad-boy image that Cam projected, and seemed to believe in so fervently himself, he had a definite white knight thing going on.”
I really enjoyed this book. The conflict/misunderstanding near the end of the novel that is such a staple of romance was a little hackneyed. I think we could have come to a satisfying conclusion without it, but the scenes were cute if a little on the corny side. However, it doesn’t diminish at all how much I thoroughly enjoyed reading this.