Page Turners

December

The Wedding Secret
by Michele Dunaway
Harlequin American Romance #1144
Reviewed by Regan Loyd

The weekend before eagerly starting her new job as an assistant producer for the hottest talk-show on television, Cecile Duletsky serves as a bridesmaid in her much younger sister’s wedding.  Cecile attends the wedding alone, having just moved back to Chicago to start her new job, get closer to her family, and to forget her cheating ex-boyfriend. 

At the wedding, Cecile finds herself paired with Luke Shaw, a groomsman also tempting fate by attending the wedding alone.  Attracted to each other and both susceptible to “wedding magic”—that unpredictable desire to hook-up at weddings when one is unattached—Cecile and Luke end up spending the rest of the weekend together. 

Cecile leaves Luke’s condo without saying goodbye or writing down her number. After all, the hook-up was only supposed to be a temporary wedding-induced insanity. Moreover, she doesn’t want to seem pushy, and she knows that Luke can contact the bride and groom to get her phone number if he truly wants it. Except that when she arrives at work on Monday, she discovers Luke is her new supervisor.

 Luke, having sworn off pointless relationships, is seriously irritated that Cecile disappears while he’s sleeping. It must be her way of indicating it was just a one-night stand. But Luke realizes that he’s unintentionally committed a cardinal workplace sin—participation in a co-worker romance. Although he immediately confesses to his boss that he’s violated the no fraternization policy, he’s told that if the relationship continues, he’ll be fired. The only problem is that he feels a real connection to Cecile.

 The Wedding Secret meshes the perils and joys of moving closer to one’s family, identifying one’s true priorities, and determining what one is willing to sacrifice for even the possibility of love. This, the second installment in Dunaway’s “American Beauties” series, explores the choice between the unquestionably great job and the mere chance for a great relationship. I was compelled to go buy the first in the series, The Marriage Campaign, and am eagerly awaiting the third.