First of all, There Goes the Bride had lots of promise, and it could just have been my mood – I’ll be the first to admit that one – but I found that, as I read along, there were just certain little things that kept irking me, and in the end, I found it wasn’t quite as good as I hoped it would be. I had read an excerpt of this book on the Internet the other day at Renee’s website and it sounded funny enough that I sought it out as soon as I could. I looked forward to a quick-paced, funny story, and There Goes the Bride did have it’s moments. I normally love Renee’s books, but I did find this one disappointing.

Deedee Emerson is standing at the alter, about to marry her employer’s son, when she realizes that if she goes through with it, she’s making the biggest mistake of her life. Having the lights go on and finding somebody home, she races from the church, wedding gown and all, and hightails it through the first open window she comes across. That open window is the entry into Garth Gentry’s pickup truck.

Now Garth is one of the typical good ol’ boys, who’s footloose and fancy free. He loves his dog, his horse, and his grandparents, and not necessarily in that order. He’s one of those drop-dead gorgeous men who have women dripping off of him like rainwater off the side of a house, and his standard phrase to one woman and all women is, “Marry me, darlin’.”

Now this sounded like the premise of a very good read to me so how could I resist? The book started out very well and it was interesting enough to keep me going until I finished it. I’m not certain what I was expecting, but in the end, it wasn’t quite this story. I kinda figured that Garth was an “on the road man” and I guess I was expecting a road story but this one stayed put at the grandparents’ ranch throughout 98% of the book. Nothing wrong in that, it worked rather well, but there just didn’t seem to be much excitement. Guess that was what I was looking for in the first place. The beginning of the book seemed to indicate that.

There was a dog in the story but nothing really happened to him. He could have been a real character – instead, he was a dud. I liked Garth’s grandparents, though. They were pretty feisty for a couple of oldsters, but I do think that their characters could have been more involved. They were involved, but never quite enough.

There was some sexual tension, but not enough to give it that oomph that a person looks for. What totally put me off was that Deedee kept thinking of Garth in terms of “Mr. Pollinator” like he was going around to see which woman he could pollinate next. I got tired of Deedee’s belief that she couldn’t get involved with Garth because he was Mr. Pollinator. I just found it too trite, too average. The other thing that ticked me off was that Deedee was a ranch girl herself and she kept telling herself she couldn’t get involved because she hated ranch life, but she sure settled into that everyday routine pretty easily yet never mentioned that fact to Garth or his grandparents. Seems like she was pretending to be the great “City” girl.

Overall, the story was okay. No surprises and definitely, it didn’t live up to my expectations. In the end, it wasn’t even funny which is truly unfortunate because I really do like Renee’s work. This book isn’t a keeper for me but it’s a good enough read for a boring, rainy afternoon, and that’s why I gave it an average rating.