After a truly hellacious day, I knew I needed to set aside the gritty piece of historical fiction I was currently reading and find something that would make me smile. After a quick glance at my review pile, I decided on the pretty blue book with a cat in a tiara on it. Kirsten Sawyer did break me out of my bad mood with Not Quite a Bride, but a shaky heroine, the most predictable plot ever, and a wallbanging twist at the end brought this grade down significantly.

Molly Harrigan is fed up with being the only single person in her universe. She’s handled the “always a bridesmaid, never a bride” situation fairly well until now, her 30th birthday. After doing a cross-town walk of shame in a hideous bridesmaid gown, she pretties herself up for her birthday dinner. When she learns that her younger sister is pregnant and her best friend Brad is getting married to a she-devil, Molly just cannot deal. She storms out of her party and comes up with a plan.

An ad for a male escort catches her eye and starts her brain working. Her romantic grandmother created a “wedding fund” for Molly in her will and Molly wants to use it when she will enjoy it. So she hires Justin, a gay, aspiring actor/waiter, to pose as her fiancé for a year, help plan a wedding, and ultimately stand her up at the alter so she can put on a strong face and party.

Things go pretty smoothly for a while. Everyone loves Justin and nobody doubts their story. She also finds a good friend in her male escort. Guided by a Martha Stewart list of to-dos, Molly quickly regrets her decision but wants to “keep her eye on the prize” What exactly is the prize? A white dress, wedding presents, and a huge party.

In almost all Chick Lit there is a love interest who plays mostly at the sidelines until the end. A good author can usually make this work. Brad only shows up in time for an argument with Molly. It didn’t work. For a novel that is surrounded by the romance of weddings and engagements, the actual romance was … well, horrible. Brad is engaged to a witch who is supposedly a high class Manhattan socialite. Yet I don’t think many thirty-something Manhattan socialites say “whatever” as their cutting remark du jour. I was left wondering why and how a “great” guy like Brad ended up engaged to her, and why he and Molly are even friends to begin with.

I mentioned that Molly is a shaky character. It isn’t until the mid-point in the story when both her brother and her fake gay fiancé (her words, not mine) were living with her that I realized how dependent she was on other people. In a genre that emphasizes a women’s mental and emotional growth, Molly fails to grow. She is the same woman on the last page that she is the first – besides the happiness from (supposedly) being in love, that is.

I do have another problem – a big one! This is slightly spoilerish, but after weighing the pros and cons, I don’t think it hampers story one bit and will help some readers decide to stay far, far away. So here it is: She never ‘fesses up. She lied to 1) her parents, 2) her sister, 3) her best friends, 4) the man she loves … and never reveals that she hired a male escort to act as her fiancé for a year. I found this completely distasteful. I could easily predict the whole plot after the first few pages, but this really went against the grain. This, to me, made an average read a bad one.

The book’s premise wasn’t a really bad. Completely unrealistic, but not really bad. Molly’s dependency and her lack of growth made this a C read, but the unfortunate turn of events at the end drove it into D territory. If you don’t have issues with people lying and getting away with it, give it a try. I might owe Not Quite a Bride a bit of gratitude for taking me out of my bad mood, but I don’t think I owe it enough to recommend.