Married by Monday (The Weekday Brides #2) by Catherine Bybee

Summary:

Carter Billings:
Sandy blond hair and Hollywood good looks, Carter Billings could have any woman he wants. However, when he makes his bid for the Governor's seat in the state of California, he needs to settle down and become a family man. Eliza, the woman he secretly adores, embodies the perfect amount of spice and passion to suit his marital needs, but she’s not interested in becoming Mrs. Billings. She can't even stand to be in the same room with him.

Eliza Havens:
It’s much easier to drive Carter away than to give into desire. Matching couples is how she earns a living, but getting married isn’t an option. The secrets she carries are too dangerous to entangle anyone else. When her hidden identity and past threaten her future, she’s left with little choice. Carter is quick to offer solutions to both their problems, but saying yes could mean endangering the man she’s growing to love.

Reviewer: Dolce Amore

Getting married every single year was becoming a pain in the ass. Especially for the maid of honor.

 Being the maid-of-honor to the third wedding of Eliza Haven's best friend Samantha is what starts everything. Well, that and a fight outside a bar to protect Gwen, Sam’s sister-in-law; because the fight puts in jeopardy Carter Billings’ chances of being elected the next Governor of California. So Carter asks Eliza to marry him.

Getting married fixes the image of a fight-starting, party boy in a bar. It adds stability to an office that historically has been run by married men. It’s the answer to my problems.

However, Samantha accepts just after finding out that the person who killed her parents and put her in the witness-protection-program could order a hit on her. Although he is doing two life sentences at San Quentin.

“I don’t know…”
“Is it me? I thought we were doing rather well. Didn’t you like the flowers?”
“I loved the flowers.”
“My skills with the crab fork turned you off?”
She was laughing now…and not saying no.
“We’re talking marriage.”
“Your best friend and mine married for more trite reasons, and it turned out okay. I don’t want to have you disappear in that New Mexico bunker. I’m still owed the lobster dinner … remember?” 

Samantha won't be able to breathe freely until the threat is removed.

Where to start? I have four pages of favorite quotes and I hardly can choose between them! If I hadn’t already added Ms. Catherine Bybee to my list of favorite authors, after reading this book I would have been compelled to. This is a book nobody should miss, because the magic it contains is awesome.

The story is filled with wonderful humor like: 

“Eliza,” she said, “And my non-virginal friend Gwen.”

Carter was a hair away from saying, but he started it. How high school could he be?

A note was stapled to a receipt from a department store. Your shoe-eating dog loves the taste of leather. What did you do, give him a cowhide to gnaw on?

And romance: 

Something inside of him bloomed. Eliza was going to be Mrs. Carter Billings. Instead of worrying about what could go wrong, he only saw bright lights and happy endings.

and...

For a brief moment, it was only the two of them.
The minster wasn’t there, the audience … the sea.
No one. Carter stepped into her space, wrapped his hand around her waist, and lowered his lips to hers.
He didn’t care that flashbulbs recorded the moment, didn’t care that his loving parents stood by and watched. This was for them. It was in that moment he knew that marrying Eliza meant more than protecting her from her past.
This was deeper.
This was lasting. 

And finally, substance. The story is about all the people who testify against criminals and the hole they leave behind if they go through the witness protection program. Although the criminal is caught, the inherent danger of testifying may never disappear.

I loved all the characters. Each and every single one of them is deep, well drawn, human. These are the kind of people you see everyday in the street, the type that could be your friends which gives richness to a story that is already incredibly well written. I think the only word that can express my feelings about the book is that is filled with magic. And the only thing I hated about it was that it ended!

I love the interaction between the girls Eliza, Sam and Gwen and I can’t wait to read Gwen’s story, I hope hers will be next because of this kind of feeling dialog:

“I’ll miss this terribly. I’ve never had girlfriends as close as the two of you,” Gwen said.
“I’m moving out, not away,” Eliza reminded her.
“We should initiate a “girl’s night out” once a month … maybe twice.”
“That sounds delightful.” Gwen scurried off the bed and picked up a box from the floor.
“No talk of work. Just girl talk.”
“Sex talk.”
“You’ll have to find a boyfriend if you’re going to entertain us,” Eliza chided.
“I might just do that.”

“It seems like yesterday that Blake and I were here packing my clothes. Maybe the bed is blessed and those who sleep in it are marriage bound.”
Gwen tilted her head and considered the mattress with renewed interest. “If that’s the case, perhaps I should move in here.” She placed both palms on the covers and gave it a tiny shove.
“You want to get married?”
“I’ve wanted to marry for years, but the men I’ve dated simply didn’t suit me for the long term.”
Eliza laughed. “You might have to give them more than a week of your time.”

In the end, I rate it the whole sky, reluctantly leaving the just allowed 5 stars. 

Publisher: Catherine Bybee
Review Courtesy Of: ManicReaders