**From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Fool’s Gold romances Susan Mallery, comes the first standalone title in the Happily, Inc. Series—YOU SAY IT FIRST! You’re invited to visit Happily, Inc., a wedding destination founded on a fairy tale. Where people live… wait for it… happily ever after.**

Order your copy today!

YOU SAY IT FIRST Synopsis:

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Fool's Gold romances invites you to visit Happily Inc, a wedding destination founded on a fairy tale...

Sculptor Nick Mitchell grew up in a family of artists and learned from his volatile father that passion only leads to pain. As he waits on a new commission, he takes a day job as a humble carpenter at a theme wedding venue. The job has its perks--mainly the venue's captivating owner, Pallas Saunders. Although he won't let love consume him, for ecstasy with an expiration date, he's all in.

Pallas adores Weddings in a Box. But if she can’t turn the floundering business around, she’ll have no choice but to cave to her domineering mother and trade taffeta for trust funds working at the family’s bank. Then when a desperate bride begs Pallas for something completely out of the box, her irresistible new hire inspires her. Nick knows she doesn't belong behind a desk, and she knows in her heart that he's right—where she really belongs is in his arms.

Get your copy of YOU SAY IT FIRST here!

Amazon | Kindle | Barnes & Noble | Nook | Book Depository | Powell’s

iBooks | BAM | Kobo | GooglePlay | IndieBound | Audible

Review:

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

You say it is the first book in a new series by Susan Mallery. It follows Pallas the owner of weddings in a box and Nick a famous sculptor. Besides the two of them, we also meet a horde of other characters who will hopefully get one day their own books. Like for example Drew and Silver. I want to see Drew making up for hurting Silver. Overall I liked almost all of the secondary characters we met in this book. Only Libby was a sour experience for me. The rest were at least okay for me. Each character has something that makes them stand out from the rest. Like Millie the giraffe for example. How many characters do you know that speak about a giraffe like she is human? Each character has its quirks but in some weird way everything worked out nicely for the book. I could have found it over the top in other circumstances which is why I decided to mention it.

There was one thing that popped into my mind around the 80% mark. I realised that I was invested in the secondary characters and their lives and on the wedding business. I wanted to see how Pallas was going to fix her situation and save the business. I didn't care for her relationship with Nick to be honest. And I don't believe the author cared about that either because Nick and Pallas hardly spend some time alone without doing something that business related. At least this is what it felt like. The romance aspect of the story was nonexistent which is sad considering that I wanted to read a romance novel. Fortunately, everything else in the book managed to hold my attention and I was a somewhat satisfied reader. At least one thing is for sure. I will continue reading the series.

Excerpt:

NICK SANDED THE sliver of wood so the point was sharper, then used tweezers to carefully put it into place. This time the fit was perfect. The restoration of the panels was painstaking work, but worth it, he thought. Something this beautiful deserved to be made whole again.
“Do you have a second?”
He looked up and saw Pallas in the doorway. Not a surprise—this was her business and from what he could tell, she was in the office every day. However, right now something was very different and every cell in his body noticed.
Instead of her usual work uniform of jeans and T-shirt, she had on a long dress. But not just any dress. It was low-cut, with a tight, black leather corset over a white short-sleeved puffy blouse and full, black-and-white vertical strip skirt that fell to the floor.
She had curves he hadn’t noticed before—the kind of curves that got a man to thinking about touching and tasting. While he’d known that Pallas was female and someone whose company he enjoyed, he hadn’t exactly seen her that way before. That he did now was unsettling. Worse was the possibility that now there was no way to unsee her.
She held out the skirt with both hands. “I have a princess wedding with a black-and-white theme. My friend Violet wants to make these changes to the server costumes.” Her voice sounded doubtful. “We’ve used this basic style forever, but she added the corset and the overlay on the skirt.”
She spun around for him to see the back, then bent over to look at the—well, he didn’t know or care what. Not with her breasts practically spilling out. Was it him or was it hot in here?
“I can’t figure out if it’s sexy or slutty. I thought I could get a man’s opinion.”
He had to clear his throat before he could speak. “It looks good.”
“Really? Do you think it will be a distraction?”
“Probably, but is that bad?”
“As long as the bride isn’t pissed.” She smiled. “I guess we’ll risk it. I’ll tell her we’re a go with the slutty dresses.”
“Sexy, not slutty.”
“I can only hope.”
She released the skirt and crossed her arms under her breasts. The full curves seemed to swell toward him, which made it difficult to think about anything but walking over and pulling her close. What he would do after that wasn’t totally clear. Mostly because there were so many possibilities—there was no way to pick just one.