The Wedding Dress by Kimberly Cates
The Wedding Dress is the third book in a series about the McDaniel Family by Kimberly Cates. The heroine, Emma McDaniel, appeared in the other two about Emma’s uncle, Cade, and her mother. Emma is a famous actress, star of a movie series about a character named Jade Star. Think Lara Croft in space, or at least that’s the idea that I got.
Emma wants to prove that she’s a real dramatic actress and doesn’t need the special effects of the Jade movies and campaigns for the role of Lady Aisleen, a medieval Scottish lady whose legend is still told around Scotland. Emma knows that if she can make the movie, she’ll be seen as the great actress she knows she can be.
The first person she has to prove this idea to is Dr. Jared Butler, the archaeologist in charge of the dig Lady Aisleen’s castle home. He thinks Emma is no more than a flighty Hollywood starlet and aims to scare her off as quickly as possible. After a few days Jared realizes he’s been completely wrong about Emma and knows she’s more than perfect for the role of Lady Aisleen.
As time goes on, Emma gains the trust of not only Jared, but his students and those in the nearby village. Being an actress though, paparazzi and tabloids come into Emma’s life, especially since they want to paint her as someone other than she is. Which is probably why Jared gets the wrong idea about Emma in the first place.
There’s lots of snappy dialogue, and some general steaminess between Jared and Emma. There are times, especially at the beginning, the pacing is rather slow, but it doesn’t make things unreadable. The cast of secondary characters is a great addition, but doesn’t take away from the main romance of the story. There could have been a little more steam though, but it’s nice to have a novel that concentrates on the characters getting to know each other rather than jump in the sack at every opportunity.
Though the book at times seemed longer than necessary, the characters are vivid and the relationships believable. A worthy read for the summer.
Grade: B-
