Impossible rules for an expected perfect maid of honour…

Synopsis

The first rule of serving as the maid of honor at your perfect sister’s destination wedding? 

No mistakes. The second rule? No drama.

For Jess Chavez, a week in Maui is hardly a dream vacation—not when her sister expects her to be the perfect maid of honor. Not only does Jess have to fake perfection, but she can’t let anyone know she’s unemployed and barely scraping by. Above all, she needs to steer clear of Connor Blackwood, the sexy groomsman who broke her heart five years ago.

A family wedding offers Connor the ideal opportunity to convince everyone he’s no longer an irresponsible playboy. If they see he’s changed, they might support his decision to leave the family winery and strike out on his own. With so much at stake, the last thing he needs is an alluring distraction like Jess.

When Jess and Connor end up together, exploring the island’s lush, tropical beauty, the sparks between them become impossible to ignore. Throwing caution to the wind, they decide to make their own rules.

Five days of passion. No strings. No tears. No promises.

What could possibly go wrong?

My review

Jess Chavez is maid of honour for her sister. Not only is the wedding taking place in Maui, but her sister expects Jess to be the perfect maid of honour, causing no drama and making no mistakes.
Easier said than done, because Jess is now unemployed and is forced to move back to her mother until her life is back on rails.
And she has most importantly stay away from sexy groomsman Connor Blackwood, a well-known player that broke Jess’ heart five years ago.
But Connor is ready to show even his family he has changed, and sparks still fly around whenever Jess is around. So having 5 days of passion with no strings attached, nobody knowing what they are doing, nothing can go wrong, right?

I always love a story about characters meeting again, still having that spark and sometimes even against better judgement give in to those resurfaced feelings.
But what made me love this specific story even more, is that Jess is so recognizable, relatable.

When we meet Jess for the first time, it’s obvious she is a magnet for travellers’ bad luck. Not only is her luggage lost, she also meets Connor at the airport, the man who broke her heart.
But beside her bad luck whenever she travels, she also feels like she failed everything. Not only has she lost her job, also her boyfriend broke up with her and kicked her out of their place.
And having a sister where nothing goes wrong and is just perfect and organized in every aspect, surely doesn’t help her self-esteem.

So I felt very connected with Jess and felt sorry for her as how her life was going and being compared to perfect sister Gabi…
Even if Jess feels like a failure, she knows this holiday and week is all about Gabi and she is determined to be the best sister and make sure nothing goes wrong, or at least does her best to avoid anything going wrong. And spoiler alert: of course there are several things going wrong!!!

Connor is in a total different situation. He is known for being a player, but he now wants to show he has changed and he even wants to have his own winery and wants to run it according his vision. And that is in total contrast with how his family run their business. They only care about money and prestige and Connor isn’t appreciated at all. even his own sister is being used somehow as a pawn in the bigger scheme.

There were some side characters I immediately disliked, like Connor’s father, but also Lance, with his smooth talks, and Darren is just someone I want to slap!
But there were also so many likeable characters, like Brody and after my wrong first impressions, also Victoria and Gabi herself were on my good side.

Reading a story where characters decide to just have a fling, is never a surprise when in the end feelings do surface. But that is also the beauty, because in this case it’s also about second chances and seeing how people have matured and changed. Changed but also somehow managed to stay their real self…

I had many laughs, several times at Jess’ expense, because how much bad luck can a girl have? But there were also many sweet moments that made my heart melt.
This was a very entertaining story, but also with the message that people can change for the better and that sometimes you have to give people the chance to proof themselves.
And most important: nobody is perfect, but everyone is perfect in their own particular way!