Review of "The Wedding Dance" by SJ McCoy

The Wedding Dance 
4 Stars ☻☻☻☻

How fun to revisit all the couples in Summer Lake - plus a few extras I hope to see more of - in this long weekend in Las Vegas. There was a lot of ground to cover, and a lot of POVs, but that was part of the fun. At times the narrative switched seamlessly between characters, and it became akin to being at the various events, moving from group of friends to group of friends, and thereby moving across the landscape of the story.

Call me a realist, but I liked that some of the characters - despite having had their own happy ending in their featured book - were realizing that relationships aren't all buttermilk and bananas. They take work. That is life. So seeing characters working through some schtuff made me happy.

I also loved the surprises - not surprises for me, as a reader they were a bit predictable - but the characters scheming up surprises for each other. Overall the various storylines were sweet and entertaining. The characters, as usual, are very well drawn and consistent. I never got confused about whose head I was in, or surprised by things that were out of character. I was even moved to tears by at least two scenes.

As usual, there were a couple of characters I wanted to beat on the head with a...(looking around Las Vegas for something suitable to use)...maraca to make them see sense, but there are people IRL that I want to do that to, also, so nothing new there.

As far as the location, there was really very little of Las Vegas to be found. I didn't get a real sense of place. Then again, Las Vegas is really a character in its own right - a big, flamboyant character that could easily run away with the book, so while I missed it a bit, the story was about the characters from Summer Lake, so I understand why it wasn't there in big, full color.

Another thing that was utterly missing, but not missed (since I only just realized it as I am writing this review) is the steamy part of the Sweet & Steamy romances. Again, there was really just too much going on to want to visit each couple in the bedroom. 

The Wedding Dance is a solid addition to the Summer Lake Romances. You won't want to read it if you haven't read the other books. It just won't make sense at worst, and at best, you won't care about any of the characters, since most of them have been developed in the previous books. (You can get away without having read the Remington Ranch books, although there is crossover mention of the Montanans.)

Fair warning, it ends on a bit of a...not really a cliffhanger, but the final three words say it all: "Wait and see."