I must firstly apologise for the amount of time it has taken me to provide a review of this book, my health was rather bad for quite some time, something that had me in hospital on numerous occasions and simply didnt leave me with the time I once had to do what I love most.

Unfortunately that does mean I have missed the archive date for many of these books, so It would feel unjust throwing any review together without being able to pay attention to each novel properly.

However, I am now back to reading as before and look forward to sharing my honest reviews as always going forward. I thank you f0r the patience and understanding throughout x

An entertaining and well-written book which thoroughly enjoyed. The characters are so likeable and the plot was nice, on the whole a great read.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Great read, flows perfectly. Well-written and completely engaging. I have devoured this book in one sitting with no regrets. I NEED more. This has left me smiling and definitely improved my mood

Brenna Bellini is never going to get married again.

She's thrilled to be her friend's bridesmaid though - that is, until she realizes who else is in the wedding party. Brenna's going to have to spend four days in the company of not only her ex-husband, but also her high school nemesis. There's no way she'll let the fact she's single be rubbed in her face all weekend. She's going to find herself a fake fiancé.

Finn Nolan has had it bad for Brenna ever since he came from Ireland to work at the Bellini family vineyard. After falling for Brenna from afar, this Irish cowboy is determined to take the chance to show the woman of his dreams that he is her Mr Right.

So what does a confirmed never-getting-married-again woman do when the man of her dreams unexpectedly lands right in front of her? Because for the first time, she might not be able to walk away. This time it might be forever.
Love romance then this one is for you

A nice light read following Brenna and Finns story but I felt it was nothing special. I’m sorry but this book was not for me, no depth to the characters or story .
Thank you for letting me read this book

Brenna Bellini's family own a vineyard and wedding event business. She and her father run the vineyard while one of her sisters is a wedding planner and the other manages the finances. When one of Brenna's friends organises her wedding at the vineyard and asks Brenna to be a bridesmaid, she is thrilled, until that is she discovers that her ex-husband Mitchell with his new wife and Brenna's arch-nemesis Allison are not only attending the wedding, but Allison is the matron of honour.

In order to head off Allison's insults and pity at still being single (and living with her parents), Brenna persuades Finn Nolan, a cowboy who works for her father, to be her pretend fiance for the long weekend of the wedding.

Finn has been in love with Brenna for ever, so he jumps at the chance to show Brenna how could they could be together, and he'd do anything to protect her from Allison's spiteful barbs.

So the book I requested from NetGalley had a modern, pastel-coloured, drawing on the front. It gave off a modern, humorous, kooky vibe. However, the cover of the book on Goodreads reveals its true personality much better, and, TBH, I would not have requested a book with such an old-fashioned vibe from the cover.

I must confess I have no idea what an Irish cowboy could possibly do in a vineyard but I let that slide. Finn and Brenna gave off a very old-fashioned vibe and I didn't really feel a connection to either character. I persevered with reading this but TBH I could easily and happily have given up after 20%.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

This is my first book by Jaci Burton and it was an ok read. It’s a fake dating to lovers story which I usually love but this was a bit meh to me. It’s a good summer quick read.

It's a well-written book, I thoroughly enjoyed the story. Where Finn, a character I instantly liked, Brenna took her sweet time to grow on me. Although the lack of Finn's past and his personal character development kept me wondering about the interest in him, their plot as a whole was a great read.

Would recommend it to those looking for a quick, fun read.

Brenna has spent the last few years putting her life back together and finding her own path. Her divorce to Mitchell had left her feeling like a failure. Thankfully her job running the family's winery gives her great satisfaction, unlike the dead-end dates she keeps going on. During a weekly meeting with her sisters who manage the wedding side of the estate, she finds out that the wedding she is to be a bridesmaid in also features Mitchell's new wife, Allison. Having gone to high school together they are not on friendly terms, with Allison taking any opportunity to swipe a dig at Brenna.

Finn moved in with Brenna's family when he was eighteen years old following the death of his mum. Coming to the US from Ireland and throwing himself into helping around the estate. Falling in love with Brenna almost from the first time he laid eyes on her. Being there for her over the years, so when she asks him to pretend to be her fake fiancée for four days over the wedding weekend he hopes that this will be his chance to show Brenna what has been in front of her eyes all this time.

They push and pull each other along the way, dealing with misunderstandings. However, Brenna is still holding on to things from the past which is affecting her decision-making abilities between her and Finn. Can Brenna let go of the past and embrace the love that is standing in front of her?

Brenna and Finn are two of the most infuriating characters I have ever come across, but almost in the best way possible. I not only loved these two characters but also the way Brenna’s family were written, it was a joy to read!

Unfortunately, this book was not for me.

Despite how much I wanted to like Brenna, I couldn’t warm up to her. You’d think someone who’s dated and has been married would have a bit maturity and experience at life and relationships, but she behaved like a crazy, dramatic teen all the time, acting moody and childish around everyone, especially her love interest.

Finn, on the other hand, was way too mellow and never really even argued with Brenna, so I didn’t really feel the chemistry between them. The sex scenes are great, but the lead up to them makes little sense. Also, that’s the second time I see the heroine leaving the hero in the middle of a date to go about a business deal. Is this normal? Is that what single people do today? Leave right in the middle of a date? If a guy did that to me, I sure wouldn’t want to see him again.

One more thing that put me off: Finn doesn’t sound Irish at all, despite having lived in Ireland for 18 years before moving to the US. And Brenna’s father also doesn’t sound as Italian as he should. Why write foreign characters if you don’t know your foreign languages?

All in all, this was a light read, and I really enjoyed the parts of the book that deal with the vineyard, the wedding business and the process of wine and whisky making, but that’s as far as it goes for me.

I’m not sure what has happened with Jaci Burtons’ writing in the last couple of years, I absolutely adored her Hope series but I have found most of her recent reads to be extremely lacklustre, formulaic and lacking any real spark between the leads. The Boots & Bouquets series started out okay, I really like the Bellini family and the locale the author has built around them, but this book was as dull and overly dramatic as all of the books in her Brotherhood by Fire series.

The lack of quotes in my review is another indicator I wasn’t that engaged because it means nothing really stood out enough for me to highlight it. I had high hopes as Brenna has been a decent secondary character in the previous books, but I just found her emotional back & forth with straight-talking Finn (who made it completely plain he was interested in her from the start), and the initial reasons for their ‘fake engagement’ to all come across in reading as really immature, and this is a woman who has been married and divorced so you would expect a little life experience and maturity from her, but she behaved more like a scorned teen a lot of the time.

I hope the author gets her spark back, she’s always been someone I have looked forward to reading in the past but either my reading taste has changed or her writing style has. We shall see I suppose.

I enjoyed this almost friends to lovers story (one of my favourite tropes) and found Finn & Brenna to be really interesting characters. It was nice to see the emotions from both sides and how misunderstandings affected their relationship, but how they worked through it. The secondary characters added a great voice of wisdom on it all, and the book itself was a good length. However, my only reason I wouldn't recommend this book, is that there were way too many very descriptive sex scenes, and it kind of took away from the story itself due to the frequency and length of them. Personally I'd have preferred it if there were only 1 or 2 and it was just alluded to the rest of the time as it got very distracting, taking you away from the story and got very tiresome

Brenna is divorced and when she finds out that her ex and his new wife will be at the same wedding as her, she enlists Finn to be her fake finace for the weekend.
Will it go the way of all good fake relationships and end up a real one?

I like how it is told from boht points of view.

Looking forward to Honor's story

What a lovely Summer read! The vineyard setting was so idyllic and romantic, with all the weddings going on and the Bellini family and their friends really rounded out the plot, with all their stories going on in the background. I did find Brenna a little cold at times and not always easy to relate to, but Finn was the perfect hero!