This RITA® Reader Challenge 2014 review was written by Emily A. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Novella Romance category.

The summary:

Getting her to the wedding on time is the least of his worries…

Kate Preston just moved to New York, but she has to get back to Seattle in time for her best friend's wedding. Joe Firretti is moving to Seattle, and has to get there in time or risk losing his new job. But fate's got a sense of humor.

Kate goes from rubbing elbows on a plane with a gorgeous but irritating strange (doggone armrest hog) to sharing one travel disaster after another with him on four wheels. Joe thought he had his future figured out, but sometimes fates has to knock you over the head pretty hard before you see what opportunity is standing in front of you…in a really god-awful poufy bridesmaid dress.

And here is Emily A.'s review:

Two everyday, ordinary people meet on an airplane and fall in love. It's a good premise for a romance novel/la. Ten years ago, I first read Nobody's Perfect. It was written by two former The Bachelor contestants where they said the best place to meet a man was on an airplane (no idea if it's true.) They also said the worst place to meet a man was a St. Patrick's Day parade (again no idea if it's true).

These people were very nice. Their names are Joe and Kate. I know a Joe and Kate in real life. They are also nice.

Kate is going to be a bridesmaid at her cousin's wedding. Her cousin, an annoying bride, has assigned a Scarlet O'Hara type dress.  I have never seen such a bridesmaid dress in real life that I remember, but I did smile at the physical gag of her carrying it around.

I liked Joe and Kate. They seemed good together. The biggest problem I had with them is that there were no big characters surprises.  They engage in gender wars.  He likes sports, she like romance novels. I like romance novels and not as much as sports. He packs lighter, she packs heavier. The way culture or pop culture works is that most attributes are divided between genders.  But when you talk to individuals, the attributes could go either way. Like men are supposedly messier than women, but Lulu may be messier than Paul.  Not just the main characters, but all of the side characters pretty much follow societal guidelines of gender. In a novella that focused on gender roles, I would have appreciated one character who crossed gender lines.

Other issues include Kate's cousin who is getting married on her mother's side, but then her extended family is described as the Prestons.  When I'm with my mother's family, we call ourselves by her maiden name, not my last name.  Also, they just let Joe come to the wedding last minute, which is tough on the bride or whoever is paying for the wedding, since adding an extra person last minute probably costs. There were also too many mentions of armrest hogging.

Of course, those are really small issues overall. I enjoyed seeing Kate and Joe work out their problems on where to live. Joe changed more, in ways I think we could all appreciate. Kate changed less, but the main way they both changed is by going from being two happy single people to two people who want to commit to each other, be in love, and have a relationship.

---

This book is available from Goodreads | Amazon | BN | Kobo | All Romance eBooks