Ten years ago, Quinn Barton was on her way to the altar to marry Burke Morrison, her high school sweetheart, when something derailed her. Rather, someone derailed her the Best Man, who at the last minute--and with shocking revelations--begged her to reconsider the marriage. Quinn, stunned, hurt, and confused, struggled between ignoring what she was told or running away. She chose running. With the Best Man. Who happened to be Burke's brother, Frank. That relationship didn't work either. How could it, when Quinn had been engaged to, in love with, Frank's brother? Quinn opted for neither, and instead, spent the next seventeen years working in her Middleburg, Virginia, bridal shop, Talk of the Gown. But when the two brothers return to town for another wedding, old anger, hurt, and passion resurface. Just because you've traded the bad guy for the good guy for no guy doesn't mean you have to stay away from love for the rest of your life, does it?
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Quinn has been dating Burke since she was 14 years old. Now 21, it's the day of their wedding. Moments before she sets out to walk down the aisle to her happily ever after, Burke's brother Frank comes forward, begging Quinn not to go through with the wedding. When pressed for his reasoning, Frank explains that Burke has actually been unfaithful to Quinn a number of times over the years. Frank had assumed that Quinn knew but just chose to ignore it. It was only in the days just prior to the wedding that he started to suspect she honestly knew nothing about Burke's infidelity.
Understandably, Quinn is quite overwhelmed by the news, especially given the time it's dropped on her. In a flurry of rage and hurt, she leaves Burke at the altar. Needing to work out those feelings of revenge, Quinn rounds up Frank for a whirlwind drunken road trip to Las Vegas, Nevada. After a few days, they come back to their hometown in Virginia. Quinn takes up her work in her family's bridal shop, never speaking of anything that's happened. For the next 10 years, she keeps up this emotional shell, staying in town while Burke and Frank go off to create their careers elsewhere. That is, until the guys' widowed grandmother announces her plans to remarry. Grandma hires Quinn to design her wedding dress, but also sneakily arranges ways for Quinn to reconnect with both Burke and Frank. Old unresolved feelings fly all around Quinn and the brothers, forcing her to really dig deep and think about what .. or who... she really wants in her life.
I have to agree with other reviewers who said the very best part of this book was the title. Admittedly, that's what made me gravitate toward it even though I'm not the biggest contemporary reader. That title just gave me the best laugh, because what girl can't relate in some way? ;-)
There were some cute moments of banter here and there. I did like the potential of Frank and Quinn but I felt like Frank wasn't quite developed enough as a character. Burke's reasoning for what he did all those years ago made me groan so much. Yes, you can excuse some bad behavior with that sort of dismissive "You make stupid choices when you're young" but it still mostly felt like a cop-out. Going back to Frank's story, I also felt like given the conclusion of the novel after nearly 400 pages, the history between him and Quinn needed to be more detailed for the curtain to come down where it did.
The characters fell a bit flat for me -- except the grandma, she was fun! It's a decent book for a chill beach-day read, but I didn't develop a deep enough interest in any of the characters to be all that invested in the outcome of any of their stories and it didn't feel like the type of book I would see myself revisiting anytime soon.
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