Sunday, April 17, 2011

Review: BED OF ROSES by Nora Roberts


The second installment of the Bridal Quartet series, revolves around Emma, the florist in a wedding business owned and operated by four best friends.  Emma is the most romantic of the four women.  Since childhood, she has dreamed of dancing in a moonlit garden with the man she loves and who loves her in return.  The problem with all of these romantic notions is that no man she has ever dated could live up to her dreams. 

Jack is like a brother to the women and has been friends with Emma for twelve years, but sometimes--against his better judgment--he feels more than friendship for her.  But Jack is a total commitment-phobe, and the last thing he wants to do is hurt Emma.  As the attraction between them grows, both must make the decision of whether it’s worth risking their friendship by taking the leap into dating. 

The major conflict in the story revolves around two questions; can two friends become lovers without destroying the friendship, and how does a hopeless romantic looking for forever reel in the eternal bachelor?  It doesn’t take a genius to figure out how it ends, but as with all romances, it’s the journey the characters take to reach “happily ever after” that matters.  Unfortunately, this novel fell too deeply into the clichéd plotlines and lacked originality.  This may have been acceptable if there had been some interesting subplots to support it, but this was not the case.  In the breaks between  Emma and Jack working on their relationship were endless stretches of overly detailed scenes showing the women working in their wedding business, and then congratulating each other for being amazing at what they do.  It got old.  And really…four women who have been best friends since childhood and now live and work together, but never fight?  Totally not realistic. 

On a scale from one to five, Bed of Roses ranks…

Plot – 2 ½ bookmarks
Character Development – 2 bookmarks
Love Story – 2 ½ bookmarks
Dream Cast (otherwise known as who I pictured while reading) – Paz Vega (Emma), Joe Manganiello (Jack), Megan Fox (Parker)

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