The Convenient Groom by Denise Hunter

She wrote the book—literally—on finding the right mate. But does she really understand what love’s about?

        Five hours before her Nantucket beach wedding—and on the eve of her big book launch—celebrity marriage counselor Kate Lawrence has everything in place.

        Everything that is, but the groom. She might not have a career, either, when her nationwide audience finds out their marriage guru has been left at the altar.

        Enter Lucas Wright, who offers to stand in for the missing husband-to-be and marry her. Kate’s desperate enough to agree—though she’s sure this Mr. Wright is completely wrong for her. But can they pull it off? And why would Lucas marry her in the first place?

        Could it be that “Dr. Kate” doesn’t know the first thing about love?

        The Convenient Groom is the second book in Denise Hunter’s Nantucket Love Story series, coming after Surrender Bay. I am a HUGE fan of Denise’s and have loved everything of hers that I have read, the most recent being The Goodbye Bride, so I was sooooooo excited when I found out that the Hallmark Channel was making one of her novels into a movie! Since I hadn’t read the book in question (this one), I immediately made it my goal to pick it up from the library so I could read it before I watched the movie. Let me just say, I am so, so glad I decided to do that!!! This book was by far one of my favorite books Denise has written, and I couldn’t help but absolutely melting over Lucas and everything related to his side of his relationship with Kate.

        While I really enjoyed reading about Kate and did love her story and her character, I know if I met her on the street she definitely wouldn’t be my favorite person. She writes way too many lists, and likes order way too much—in an OCD kind of way—for me to think I would choose her as I friend. However, that helped to make this the absolute perfect story, so I’ll forgive her for her quirkiness. And for some of her completely wrong ideas on what love is really all about. She may make a living off of counseling people about love and marriage and how to find the right mate, but I don’t think she’s fully qualified to advise people about something she hasn’t fully experienced in her own life, and even then, no one really knows nearly as much about love as they would like to think they do. I’m not knocking Kate, she really is a very smart woman who is just trying to help people with their love lives, but I just think if she had looked more at God’s example of perfect love, she would’ve had so much better advice.

        Lucas Wright was by far my favorite character in this book. I had already pretty much pegged what I thought his real reason for marrying Kate was before I had even opened this book—and I was right—but it was still nice to actually see everything relating to his true reason and his eventual admission, to himself of course, in the first few chapters. Even though Kate is just a little bit obsessive and has to be sometimes hard to live with (I do love her I promise I just realize how much of a pain she must be!), Lucas is constantly the perfect gentleman and always takes the BEST care of Kate, clearly taking those marriage vows seriously even though Kate insists it’s simply a business arrangement. I couldn’t help but fall in love with Lucas immediately, and I know you will too, because he is by far one of the sweetest men you will ever meet (even if it’s just in the pages of a book).

        All in all, I really loved this book, and am so, so excited to see the movie! I know it won’t be absolutely perfect and completely and utterly in line with the book, but it still will be good to see, so I’m glad it’s currently waiting for me on my DVR. I can’t imagine giving this novel anything less than all five bookshelves, as it was absolutely fantastic, and it definitely has a place on my all-time favorites list. I know I’ll want to read this again—honestly I could now if I didn’t have other things to read—and I highly recommend it is a wonderfully enjoyable story!

        Happy reading!

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All credit for the italicized synopsis goes to Denise Hunter and Thomas Nelson Publishing.