The Bad Luck Wedding Night is the continuation of Geralyn Dawson’s Bad Luck Wedding series. The heroine of this most recent installment is the business partner of the heroines from the previous two titles in the series (The Bad Luck Wedding Dress and The Bad Luck Wedding Cake) and the characters from the preceding books all make appearences. Unfortunately, this book is not as good as The Bad Luck Wedding Dress, which I found hilarious.

The opening chapters featuring the wedding night from Hell are promising and extremely funny. Sarah and Nick Ross are 16 and 18, and thanks to her mother, Sarah is terrified of the sexual act. Mama refers to a “rod of steel” and tells Sarah that Nick will poke her with it till she bleeds, but blessedly sex doesn’t last long! Poor Nick has had some experience, but not nearly enough to help him calm Sarah. He botches the whole process, not even managing to remove her shield of virginity. Of course, it’s hard to perform when the rigid bride is praying out loud the whole time.

Before he can fix things his whole world falls apart in a series of horrendous events. A telegram informs him his titled brothers are dead and he is now the heir. Then a minister storms into the hotel room and accuses him of making his daughter pregnant. Sarah throws him out and Nick leaves for England and a meeting with his odious father.

The next few chapters are charming, consisting of letters between Nick and Sarah over a period of ten years as he travels the world as a reporter and spy. Though this is a ten-year period, it does not read as a dreaded lengthy h/h separation; instead this section is reminiscent of the epistolary relationship between the hero and heroine in Connie Brockway’s My Dearest Enemy. After this auspicious and funny beginning, the story goes downhill until the action picks up in the last third of the story.

Nick forces Sarah to come to England from Ft. Worth, ostensibly to get an annulment. He has formed an attachment for the odious Lady Steele and plans to marry her, much to his sisters’ distress. Once Nick sees Sarah he realizes he is still attracted to her and orders his attorney to go slowly on the annulment while he tries to revive his marriage. Nick is just divine and his efforts to woo Sarah through a Pillow Book are so tender and sweet, not to mention hot; this man has a way with words.

But the terror of sex that was funny and understandable in a sixteen-year-old virgin becomes silly and irritating in a woman of twenty-six. It’s also unrealistic in light of the fact of Sarah’s friendships with her partners, who obviously have passionate relationships with their husbands.

Sarah presents problems in other ways; her constant dithering was annoying. She built a successful career and is independent, intelligent, and feisty – all good things. So why is she constantly letting silly fears about the sexual act cause her to reject and hurt Nick and ultimately force him to go ahead with the annulment? It was understandable that she would waver about living in England and functioning in the ton as a Countess. But her constant wavering with Nick, even after he shows her what passion can be, just doesn’t jibe with the rest of her straight-forward character, and her interior monologues nattering on about it makes the book suffer from a sagging middle.

On the other hand, Nick is delightful, a loving man despite his father’s rejection. He has only recently met his sisters, and his attempts to launch them successfully into society and marriage allow his true nature to shine. His relationship with them and their plotting on his behalf are definite highlights of the book.

A plot to assassinate the Queen made for a nice sub-plot; its resolution is hilarious and I wish this section had taken up more of the book. Nick’s sisters and Sarah’s friends prove to be great matches in putting the Lady Steele in her place. Dawson’s humor continues to work in The Bad Luck Wedding Night, but Sarah’s fears and inconsistencies detract from these strong elements. The final chapter sets up the next book: The Bad Luck Wedding Guest, which will feature one of Nick’s sisters. Based on the past books in this series, I will give it a try.