Take It Off the Menu: A sizzling, accidentally married rom com! <— THIS ONE JUST WENT LIVE TODAY and it sounds SO FUN (plus I LOVE chef heroes & there’s an accidental/drunken Vegas wedding, to boot!). LOL!!
With their quickie annulment denied, Eli and Marlee just have to hang tight until the divorce goes through. It’s just a little divorce amongst friends, what’s the worst that could happen?
Tee hee!!! 😛
The author (Christina Hovland) is today’s newsletter sponsor, and we’re having a very fun giveaway to celebrate. You guys are gonna LOVE this giveaway!!! I squeeed!!!
So what’s it about?
Saying “I Do” has never been such a mess.
Marlee Medford just got dumped. Yes, things have become ho-hum in her longtime relationship, but she was two days away from walking down the aisle with the man she thought was her forever when he called it off. Convincing herself that they’d be able to reignite their spark once the wedding craziness settled? That was easy. Suddenly finding herself without a fiancé? Not so much. Marlee needs to regain control of her life, and a weekend away with her friends is a solid first step.
One of Denver’s best up-and-coming chefs, perpetual bachelor Eli Howard, isn’t into serious relationships–especially the kind that ends in marriage. As if to prove his point that they aren’t worth the trouble, the wedding he was supposed to be catering just fell apart. Feeling oddly protective of the jilted bride–his little sister’s best friend–his weekend plans now involve a trip to Sin City with her group of friends. But it looks like he had a bit too much fun in Vegas when he wakes up married…wedding night included.
Marlee’s attempts at getting her life back together are failing miserably. Her ex-fiancé is taking the house, her chihuahua is intent on a love affair with Eli’s sneakers, and she’s now accidentally hitched to the guy who can’t even say the word marriage. With their quickie annulment denied, Eli and Marlee just have to hang tight until the divorce goes through. It’s just a little divorce amongst friends, what’s the worst that could happen?
Sounds awesome and hilarious and maybe even a touch angsty. And soon… the giveaway. 😉
But first… an excerpt:
“Lothario, stop humping the angora,” Marlee Medford—soon-to-be Bishop—stepped onto the patio of her Denver townhome. Her pure-white-haired chihuahua tipped his head to the side, stopped humping her fiancé’s angora sweater that had fallen to the ground, and whined.
Leaves from their two aspen trees rustled beside her—red and orange and ready to break free from their branches in preparation for winter.
She snatched the sweater, brushed a couple of fallen leaves from the sleeve, and hung it over the arm of the empty chair next to Scotty. He was immersed in his phone, apparently oblivious to the defiling of his clothes.
Lothario had a thing for Scotty’s shirts, and it drove Scotty absolutely nuts. Aside from Scotty’s clothing, Lothario literally humped anything that moved. Except Marlee. She’d put a stop to that early on. One would’ve thought that Lothario’s recent unfortunate experience with a moving bicycle tire would’ve stopped the behavior, but all it got him was a cast on his right leg and a rededication to defiling all things.
She turned her focus from the dog to Scotty. He had his serious face on that morning.
“Hey, sweetie.” She squeezed his shoulders and kissed his cheek before sitting next to him with her morning coffee. “I’ve only got a second. I’ve got a bajillion things to do today for the wedding.”
Their wedding.
Their forty-eight-hours-away nuptials.
“Leelee.” He set his phone down beside his coffee mug. “We need to talk about the wedding.”
“Okay.” She squeezed his hands. “What’s up?”
“I don’t want to do it.” He glanced to the side, not meeting her eyes.
That wasn’t exactly a choice anymore. Not with four hundred of their closest friends coming to Denver for their wedding.
“We’re not getting married, Leelee.” He heaved a huge breath. “I’m sorry.”
She dropped his hands. What?
“We’re not getting married?” she asked.
“No.” He shook his head. “I’m so sorry.”
He was sorry? He was sorry?
Marlee’s stomach dropped.
“It’s been this way for a while.” Scotty’s eyes were kind as he spoke. “I’ve been thinking we should take a break, but with the wedding planning and your dad, I figured we’d see it through.” He sighed. “It was the wrong decision.”
He’d asked her to sit on their patio with him and have a cup of morning coffee so he could end their relationship? What. The. Hell?
No. This was just cold feet. Totally normal. They’d get through it.
“I know we haven’t exactly been connecting lately, but that’s totally normal. We’re in a committed, long-term relationship. It’s not supposed to be exciting,” Marlee said. It’s not like she hadn’t noticed the lack of spark. “We’re just supposed to stick with it, so we have someone to grow old with, right?”
They’d settled into a routine with each other that was just about as comfortable as lukewarm bathwater. Not awful. Definitely not great. Once they were married, things would heat up again. They’d get back to Jacuzzi level.
“I don’t just want someone to grow old with.” Scotty gulped. “I want someone who lights a fire inside of me. Like we used to do for each other.”
“Look, if you want a fire, I can try to cook something.” Marlee was the queen of burning the shit out of anything she tried to make.
He chuckled. Then his expression broke. “I think we should stop now, while we still like each other. Not wait until we can’t stand to be in the same room together.”
While she waited for her heart to break, she focused on the milky brown liquid in her mug. Her best friends had flown in from all over the country. Her family owned two of Denver’s most-prized sports teams, so the wedding had even made headlines in the Denver Post. The breakup would undoubtedly be devastatingly public. The panic she felt wasn’t from all that, though. She felt like she’d been dropped out of a plane but landed on a mountain of soft pillows. What she was feeling was…relief. Relief that was starting to make her panic. And that didn’t even make any sense.
And NOW…. for the giveaway!!
The author says:
I’d love to send flowers from Eli to a winner! If the person who wins is international, I’d send a gift card for flowers depending on where they are. 🙂
OMG I LOOOOOVVVE FLOWERS!!! How cool is this???
How to enter for a chance to win this prize? Just leave a comment below (and better yet, if you have one, tell us your favorite crazy wedding story – true life – or a book – and by 10pm EST, Sunday August 25th, 2019, I will randomly select one lucky commenter as the winner.
The winner will be contacted and will have 48hrs to respond confirming their mailing address, so if you are picked, do not delay or you will lose your chance. This prize will be sent to the winner directly by the author.
Giveaway open to International!!!
This one sounds so fun and cute cover!! I don’t think I have a crazy wedding story but the only exciting thing I’ve ever done in my life is get married in Jamaica…which was pretty awesome.
My life is never as exciting as a book, so no good wedding stories. 🙁 I haven’t been to a wedding in so longm but I finally have one coming up next year for my niece.
No crazy wedding story. But this sounds really good.
This sounds like such a fun read! I don’t know that I have a fun wedding story…only that apparently half of the groomsmen in my wedding were all extremely hungover but I didn’t know until afterwards…like years later. Apparently my husband threatened them all if I had even an inkling of it, they’d be in trouble….they all deserved an award since I had no clue! As far as books, I remember that Worth It by S.M. Shade had some pretty funny stuff surrounding a wedding weekend.
No crazy stories but I 1 clicked! This one sounds great!!
I love to receive flowers!
Well, it’s fictional, but I loved on Friends when Rachel and Ross got married in Vegas when they were at Joey’s film thing. The drawn-on mustaches. I still laugh at that one. Nothing to laugh over, but I bet there’s a bunch of laughs in this book!
I loved this book!
This is an amazing book I absolutely loved it!!!
I just downloaded the book and can’t wait to read it!! Love the books that Christina Hovland writes!
I’m not married yet so I don’t have my own funny story. But…I did squirt ketchup on the groom’s tux at the reception at my best friend’s wedding. It was horrifying for me but he just told me not to worry because it was rented. Haha!
No crazy wedding story but would love to receive flowers and this book looks interesting.
Oooh flowers sound amazing. Crazy wedding story…hmm when I was in my early 20’s one of my friends worked at a strip club. She came as my +1 to a wedding where she was acquainted with the bride but not well. Turns out the groom had gotten his bachelor party lap dance from her at the club. 😂
We forgot the rings and then the priest called me by the wrong last name…should have taken it as a sign 😂🤷🏻♀️
This book sounds great! I look forward to reading it! I am trying to think if I have a funny wedding story but I don’t think I do!!
I don’t have any crazy wedding stories but this book sounds amazing!
The only thing crazy I can think of about a wedding is my sister made me late for mine. When we got there the papers for witnesses had already been signed to keep it moving and she got mad about not being able to sign and left prior to the end of the wedding. Nothing like making my wedding about her.
I wanted to call off my first marriage when my best friend asked if I was sure? I said No but what about all those people upstairs?
It would have solved a lot of issues if I would have told her to go upstairs and tell my brother that it was off. Almost fifty yrs later it would have been the right thing to do
Okay So I married at 5 months pregnant , Justice of the peace , I cried the whole time and he keep stopping and saying you sure you want to be married, Lol , I was like yes , so we had our reception at a friends I was so sick I went to bed .. I didn’t get over morning sickness until I was 7 months ..,
Oh wow, this is the cutest contest! I would love some flowers from Eli! I don’t have any good wedding stories myself, but I love reading them 😀
I really have no crazy wedding story but we did wind up with a bunk room for our honeymoon suite! They’d misunderstood the reservation so we had EIGHT beds and sadly, we didn’t use all of them! 😂😂
BYW, I love this series!
I have read one of your books and would like to read this one too.
Sounds so fun and I love the voice.
No totally wild wedding stories, but my brother had mischief planned and was searching high and low for my luggage at the reception. Just before we left, my mother thrust my overnight bag into his hands – with the videographer filming – telling him to take it down and make sure I got it. I did – with a 10 lb bag of birdseed emptied into it. I found birdseed in it for years.
This is a great book! I loved both Eli and Marlee! Not a crazy story from a wedding, but one that makes me laugh when I remember it…The flower girl at my sister’s wedding was 3 and she didn’t want to walk down the aisle. So my dad walked her down and then ran back to walk my sister down the aisle. The flower girl stayed up front only for a couple minutes before she went running to her mom crying. =)
I just finished reading and reviewing the first two books of this series Yesterday. LOVED Babushka! I am not sure my marriage was crazy but in hindsight, I should have paid attention to the clues. The first clue being that after we were married the song we walked down the aisle as man and wife was Man of Constant Sorrow with my (now ex) husband ham boning. We were married in front of a tree that had to be cut down because it was rotten, and the judge that my ex picked out to lead the ceremony is Known as THE divorce Judge in the state. We lasted nine years (separated for one of those. I think they were all signs 🙂
I have the book on my TBR.
No funny wedding stories though.
This sounds like a fun book to read. Hubby and I were in the middle of planning our wedding and we decided it would be a lot less stressfull to get married in Las Vegas. We let close family know our plans and got married in one of those little churches on the strip and have been married for 31 years!
I LOVE these books….and as far as crazy wedding stories I really don’t have any but I was at a wedding where the grooms father thought it would be funny to walk around showing off a picture of his childhood son bent over completely naked showing EVERYTHING. It was well……a bit strange.
What a wonderful contest for an amazing, hilariously funny book! Thank you!
My uncle worked for Rolls Royce and was allowed to borrow a Silver Spur to drive to my wedding. He took us for a ride from the church to the reception. What a ride!
Everyone kept asking us if we were sure we were ready for marriage. I was 18 and hubby was 22. We celebrated our 50th anniversary this year. So yes, we were ready.
When my sister got married I had to fly to where she lived for the wedding. Our plane just missed going into the grass and in the middle of the night someone pulled the fire alarm at the hotel. My two year old was sick and I got to be a pregnant bridesmaid. I guess that counts as crazy!
I don’t have a wedding story but I love books about them. This is a 5-Star read that should not be missed!
I just finished and it was a delight!
How fun! I will definitely have to pick this one up! Thankfully after my sister gave the hairdresser pointed instructions on how to not make us look completely horrible on the morning of our wedding, the rest of the day went pretty smoothly…or I just don’t remember anything any longer 😉 One favorite wedding story is My Best Friend’s Mardi Gras Wedding, which has the some wedding hijinks! Thanks for the fun, Christina!
I love this series! Thanks for the chance.
When my now-husband and I were sophomores in college, a friend of ours got his girlfriend pregnant and they got married. At the reception, the friend’s mom (who had been drinking a lot) came up to my then-boyfriend, grabbed his hand and pulled him on the dance floor, “because he was too hot to not be dancing!” 🤣🤦🏼♀️ He was dying, he was so embarrassed.
Thank you for this most excellent chance!!! Sorry I have no wedding stories. Even my own was at the court house 25 yrs ago.
I had such a blast reading about Lothario’s unique skills with people and things. Lol.
Our wedding went off without a hitch but at our post wedding bbq (we got married on a Tues and held a second get together on Sat) one of my groom’s good friends got so wasted he couldn’t locate the restroom and went outside and peed all over MY car. (He’s never been afl favorite of mine!) He then fell asleep against the car standing up leaning in his own urine. Super classy!
Enjoyed reading everything here. Book sounds terrific! We had our wedding reception in a huge room at the church. The lady catering our reception had the table and the room all decorated with wedding bells overhead and huge bouquets of flowers, etc. Napkins and plates and forks were all in place. The beautiful wedding cake was at the center of the table, but when hubby and I started to cut the cake it was discovered that the caterer had provided no knife! Fortunately one of my bridesmaids was on the ball! She quickly rushed into the church’s kitchen and grabbed a large knife, then took some flowers and ribbons from one of the bouquets and decorated the handle of the knife. Her efforts appear beautiful in the pictures and the problem was solved. The cake was delicious and everyone just had a good laugh. I bet that caterer never forgets the knife again!
I read an arc of the book & it was amazing, funny, just a great book! No crazy wedding story though.
My 4 year old daughter was in a wedding and we we instructed to just bring her in a loose t shirt when I went to pick her up out of the car I felt her little naked hiney.. Where are your panties? I asked, You were rushing me! she says I didn’t have time to put any on! So now we always ask her when attending weddings if she put her panties on! She’s 26!
No crazy wedding story but I’d love to win!
Sounds fun. Can’t wait to read it. No crazy wedding story but love to read them.
Such a fun book, I loved Eli he was a teddy bear and really loved Tiffany. Even though it took him ages to come to the realisation. Eli would be my ideal type of guy because he is challenging, funny and protective. Be still my beating heart! Swoon!!
During our wedding ceremony somebody dropped one of the hymnals. It hit the floor whith a loud bang and about 20 of the guests stood up with drawn hand guns. They thought it was a gunshot. Need i say my husband to be was a cop? Love this series of books. Laughed through all of them my family thinking i was nuts.
No crazy wedding stories but I loved the one in this book! It has been a long time since we’ve been to a wedding. But the nieces and nephews are all at that age. One niece is getting married next May. She and hubby-to-be have had the entire wedding planned and booked for 3 months already. She has purchased and altered her wedding dress, made all the decorations and sent all the invitations. He has picked out the suits, planned the bachelor/bachelorette party and had the website up 2 months ago. Now, they just have to finish writing their vows. It is so cute how excited they both are.
I’ve never been to a wedding but I love flowers
I met my Destiny when I was introduced by my aunt. We went to lunch, dinner, dancing, drinks… Never looked back. We lived together twenty years, and then ran off and got married. Married on the beach in sandals and jeans, flowers in my hair, cascading boquet. Stayed in beach shacks, ate at beach fish shacks, visited with locals, drank local beers and wines, biked everywhere, surfed, climbed lighthouses… Perfect wedding and honeymoon. Cute proposal too. I came home from work, and he asked me to get his glasses from bedroom I did bitching about my day. In the room was bouquet, wrapped in long chain with my ring on it, and lingerie, candy, and a note reading Its a good day to die, Marry me?, I said yes, and were together, till his death. Thirty six years of memories.
I went to a wedding 2 weeks ago where the groom fainted and spent most his wedding day in hospital… Turns out he had to much to drink the night before and was severly dehydrated oooops
My fiance had to go to Vietnam in1970. Little did we know at the time, I was pregnant with our first child. He had to get special permission from his commanding officer to come home for 2 wks so we could get married. He had to go to the Red Cross and get blood work and have it sent back home. I didn’t know he got approved until he called me from the airport. I picked him up @ 6pm and we were married by 8pm. Nothing like rushing! It was crazy!
This sounds incredibly fun! I don’t know a crazy wedding story.
I’m still waiting for Mr Right to come along.So I’ve never been married. I don’t have any crazy wedding stories and all the romance books I have read haven’t had crazy wedding stories in them.Actually all the wedding that I’ve read have been beautiful or have had some family dramas in them.
Thanks for the chance
Loving this series, and can’t wait to read this one! Don’t have a wedding day story but my husband and I just celebrated our 41st anniversary and I still love him so much!
No crazy wedding stories here. At my own wedding, I started to hyperventilate during the bows. Haha
I would love to win!!
I love this book. The series is one of my favorite.
This sounds like such a fun read! Weddings of my! I haven’t been to a wedding in a long time. Book weddings, hmmm. What comes to my mind is Linda Broday’s book, The Heart of a Texas Cowboy. In the first chapter, Houston Lengend is at the altar at his wedding that is taking place outside at the Lengend Ranch when a bullet rings out and kills his bride! My heart broke for him but it was short lived because she was the wrong bride for him anyway. My review follows…
Another great read from Linda Broday. I’ve loved all of Linda’s books that I have read but I do believe that Houston Legend is my favorite of her Hero’s so far. As always a major event always happens in a Broday novel in the first pages that draws you in and you have to know what is going to happen. Houston thinks that a single bullet and it’s results have ruined his life forever. As it is often true to life that bullet just put him on the path he was meant to be on. Lara Boone has suffered more than is fair in her young life also. Eighteen, single and having a baby in 1876 is a hard life for a young lady. Her I’m father is looking for a man to be give his granddaughter and daughter their name. Houston’s father sees it as an opportunity for Houston to heal after the tragic death of his first love and the realities of that relationship. Little does Houston know he’ll be forced to protect the lives of his young family from the start. A great adventure.
I’m a single mother on disabilty so I would love to receive flowers! Thank you for the opportunity!
I’d love to receive flowers from Eli! True life wedding story. When my current husband an I got married, my best friend, Dana, and her husband drove a couple hours from another city because she was my matron of honor. Dana is extremely farsighted and unable to see without glasses. Unfortunately, she’d forgotten her regular glasses and only had the prescription sunglasses she was wearing so had to wear those the entire time! My husband’s family was a bit put off, thinking she was making fun of them at first. They’re from a very small Texas town.
Wow flowers…love them.
I enjoy reading love stories especially the craziness of Vegas ones. A night of drunkenness fun and anyone can wind up married….wish I had that kind of luck to snatch a hot man and end up keeping him too….a woman can dream!!
Sounds like an excellent read.
Sounds like an excellent read
I love this series, and Marlee and Eli sound like the perfect match! I had a small, simple wedding and reception, so nothing really crazy happened. However, all week it looked like the garden reception would be rained out, and then we had a heat wave. It was over 100 degrees at our outdoor, afternoon reception. Many of our friends lived within a few miles of us, and when something caught on fire (turned out to be a RV), everyone quickly left to check on their house and/or kids. The somewhat abrupt ending was a bit disconcerting.
No crazy wedding stories. I’d love to read this book and I love flowers.I didn’t have any at my wedding.
Sounds great! I need to read this?
Crazy wedding story. I used to be late for most things. But this was not my fault. I was late to my wedding because the hairdresser forgot to by Bobby pins and was not their at my appointment time. Who does That? I had it book for months.
But a cute part is. Our 13 month old was the ring bearer and would stop at pews with people he knew and wave and say Hi.
I really can’t wait to read this one. I need a good laugh this weekend! And it’s been at least 10 yrs since I’ve been to a wedding.
I will be reading the book soon. No crazy wedding story. But a beautiful drama free day.
I love flowers!
I got married on April Fools Day in a stone castle in northeastern Ohio. Fools falling in love, y’know 🙂 It was a cool castle on the grounds of a small park. The only thing we hadn’t taken into account was that locals had painted lots of graffiti on the inside walls… we had to pose carefully for photos. Also, we’d wanted the judge who lived next door to my folks to perform the ceremony, not knowing he wasn’t the kind of judge who could perform marriages. (Who knew only certain ones can?. Scrambling at the last minute, we had the Jewish mayor of the small town where the castle was located perform our ceremony. Instead of throwing rice, my sister had the bright idea of throwing bird seed. My husband was Black… and you can imagine how long it took to get all the bird seed out of his hair!!
no crazy wedding story here
Sounds like a fun giveaway! Count me in 🙂
Thanks to preorder, this book arrived in my kindle right on time, and I have already read it! Eli is so dreamy, and I want Marlee to be my new BFF. You would think that after being a brides maid twelve times, I would have numerous stories to share. However, I only have happy memories including my own wedding. I guess that is why I love reading so much. Don’t miss out on any of Christina Holland’s books because they are all amazing. Her characters will resonate with your own real life friendships. I want to be Babushka when I grow up! 😊
Don’t have a crazy wedding story but this book sounds like a great read.
My hubby was iin his brother’s wedding and one of the groomsmen passed out, hit his head and had to be taken to the ER by ambulance. They just dragged him out and the wedding mass continued like nothing had happened.
The book sounds awesome! I don’t have any crazy wedding stories.
This book looks awesome! Can’t wait to read! Thank you for an amazing giveaway too! If I had to choose a wedding story, it would be my own. Turned out my two nieces also had their First Holy Communions on the same day, all at different churches. We had to do the ceremony runs for each one, culminating with the wedding that evening and the girls wore their dresses and were like little brides with me on that special day! We’ve been married 35 years now and my nieces are grown with little princesses of their own!
Our priest said “Mitch and Sally have come here today…I mean Mitch and Shirley have come here today”. He had been helping a couple adopt a child and their names were–Mitch and Sally. My uncle in law called me Sally for years!
I don’t have a crazy wedding story to share, but the title of the is attention getting and the book sounds like a fun read.
I have no crazy wedding story of my own. Never been married. Only 1 wedding I went too, my sister’s in 1972. Her husband just died on May 28th of this year. That’s a craxy long time to be married. I did read a book by Amanda Quick called Late For The Wedding. That was a crazy wedding story. Of course everything went wrong and she was actually late. A very good book with crazy wedding suspense. Check it out. Thanks for a chance to win.
A lot of people thought this was crazy and it certainly felt that way to me…
My oldest and youngest got married last summer. At some point in the year prior when we were all together we realized they had picked the same day to get married, my oldest had already ordered his invitations tho so my youngest was going to have to change hers. She decided to get married to weeks later! And I’m making both wedding cakes!! No stress there! Lol Both weddings were beautiful, but neither one of the kids realize to this day that that just wasn’t normal for one family to have two weddings two weeks apart!
Fun contest and who doesn’t love flowers!
Flowers are always nice! Can’t remember the last time I received any!
Such a funny excerpt! I’ve really enjoyed this series and look forward to reading this story. The only crazy/weird wedding is one that didn’t really happen. I went to a co-worker’s wedding and the bride never showed up. Apparently she changed her mind and sent a bridesmaid with the bad news. I felt so bad for the groom!
Was standing in the entry-way of any old country church getting ready to go down the aisle. My future hubby was up front standing by the minister. A wasp was flying around me. I widely swiped around with my arms to shoo it away (fortunately, didn’t get stung). Many years later my husband tells me didn’t had no idea there was a wasp. He thought I was just waving at him! LOL. 🙂
Fun contest! I don’t really have a crazy wedding story. I guess we were lucky to make it to being able to get married! For awhile my parents forbid me from seeing my boyfriend. They even encouraged me to move to the mainland hoping that would cause us to drift apart, it didn’t work because he followed 3 months later. My parents finally came around and we have been married for 17 years now!
Your new book sounds very intriguing.
One of my favorite books has a crazy wedding story. The bride is curvy and has terrible self-esteem thanks to some dreadful family members. Long story short, she gets sewn into her wedding dress!
I love this book. It is a must read.
Funny! I want to read this one! As far as crazy stories, I have a cute one. At our wedding, my younger cousin met my husband’s younger brother. They were both in their early 20 and we still think it was love at first sight. They got married 3 months after our wedding. This year we will celebrate 20th wedding anniversary and so will my cousin and brother-in-law. If it was not for our wedding they might’ve never met:)
I was a bridesmaid in a wedding. I got my hair done and it was terrible, I had to fix it myself before the wedding started. My top clasp of my dress broke off and I was literally sewn into keep my dress on. Needless to say I was glad when that wedding was over. So much so that me and my husband got married on a Sunday afternoon in our backyard then flew off to Vegas. My wedding dress cost $100. Simple with no regrets.