Book Review: The Wedding Shop

From The New York Times bestselling author of The Wedding Dress comes The Wedding Shop.

Book Description:
Two women separated by decades. Both set out to help others find their dreams when their own have crumbled.
It's the early 1930s, but Cora Scott is walking in stride as a career woman ​after having inherited her great aunt's wedding shop in Heart’s Bend, Tennessee, where brides come from as far away as Birmingham to experience her famed bridal treatment. Meanwhile, Cora is counting down the days until her own true love returns from the river to make her his bride. But days turn into months and months to years. All the while, Birch Good continues to woo Cora and try to show her that while he is solid and dependable, he can sweep her off her feet.
​More than eighty years later, former ​Air Force Captain Haley Morgan has returned home to Heart's Bend after finishing her commitment to military service. After the devastating death of her best friend, Tammy, and discovering the truth about the man she loved, Haley is searching for her place in life.
When Haley decides to reopen the romantic but abandoned wedding shop where she and Tammy played and dreamed as children, she begins a journey of courage, mystery, and love.
As Cora’s and ​Haley's stories intertwine through time in the shadow of the beloved wedding shop, they both discover the power of their own dreams and the magic of everyday love.

My Review: 

"We'll come back here one day and own this wedding shop."

 "Pinky promise." 

"Pinky promise."

The lightning flickered, kissing the front window again.  Haley jumped up and ran screaming aroudn the shop with Tammy in pursuit.

Because make-believe was what best friends did.

But make-believe ended.

Best friends were forever.

And pinky promises could never be broken. ~book excerpt

Having read and enjoyed Rachel Hauck's The Wedding Dress, I greatly looked forward to this novel.  Right on cue, it did not disappoint.
Taking place in two different eras and times, alternating between the store of Cora and Rufus, the local riverboat captain, and Birch (past) and Haley and Cole (present day).  Each brings love, heartbreak, mystery, and ultimately friendship to the chapters that enrich this wonderful novel.

The story is a tale of wedding shop, gifted to Cora in the rural country of Heart's Bend, Tennessee and she sews and sells wedding dresses to the many brides that walk through her door.  Ironically, she rebuffs love from a local while pining away for a riverboat captain. Flash forward to current day, Haley is now out of the military and home again after the untimely death of her best friend, trying to run the wedding store she promised her best friend she would. 

"That's when she heard God speak.  Like a strange echo from her Jesus-freak teen years.  His gentle voice was a soft rain over the dry, craggy terrain of her heart.

Go home." ~ book except

Complications arrise when the fiance' is also there to help pick up the pieces, both from each other.  I laughed, I cried, I thought and I prayed right along with the couples in this book. 

4/5 stars
  
Disclaimer:  I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher as part of the BookLook Blogger Review Program, in exchange for an honest review on my blog. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this information in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255 "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."