Tall Tales and Wedding Veils - Jane Graves

Heather Montgomery couldn't dread her cousin's wedding more. Not only is she forced to be a bridemaid, clad in the world ugliest dress ever, but she has to endure each and every family member asking her why she doesn't have a boyfriend.
It's not enough that she has a successful career, a good 401k, and lots of great friends. All her family wants is for her to get married and have children stat.
Heather isn't exactly opposed, but she hasn't met a guy yet who wants more from a woman than a hot body, perky breasts, and no IQ. So when Heather is forced into a bridesmaids' getaway in Las Vegas, she goes to get her family off her back. But what happens in Vegas doesn't always stay in Vegas...Tony McCaffrey is one step away from his fulfilling his dream. Just as he's about to buy McMillan's, a bar Tony has wanted to own for years, the owner demands a much higher down payment and threatens to sell the bar to someone else. So Tony does
the only thing he can think of to get the money: he flies to Vegas and prays Lady Luck won't let him down. But Lady Luck has much more up her sleeve than Tony could imagine...One lucky chip, twenty thousand dollars, and lots of cocktails later, Heather and Tony find themselves married. So what on earth do they do now?

I had never heard of Janes Graves before but after I read the review at RRR I couldn't resist entering the giveaway there and I was lucky enough to win.

I very much agree that at first glance there's nothing really new here plot wise. Serious, sensible, intelligent career woman meets rakish, laid back, carefree future bar owner on a night out in Vegas. She helps him raise enough money to buy his bar and on a wild celebration night they end up having a Vegas marriage. The characters however are what makes the story stand out for me and both Tony and Heather were people that I found interesting and engaging.

They both decide to have an annulment the day after, but when Tony discovers that Heather will be humiliated in front of her family, and since she did help him with buying the bar, he decides to maintain their charade of a marriage till her cousins wedding in a month time.

Things won’t go as easy as he thinks though as Heather is forced to move in with him, her family decides to celebrate their union with a surprise party at his bar that leaks the news to all his friends and employees and he and Heather's relationship truly evolves from a temporary affair to a true friendship.

Despite the fact that they may seem like stereotypes in the beginning they become real characters and there's no sudden makeover or changes in both of them to make for sunny happy ending. Heather does become more confident in her body and Tony decides his career as a playboy is over but that's it. It's quite funny to see how they start to develop feelings towards each other and the funny dialogues between them. Heather may be the less experienced but she gives as good as she gets.

I closed the books with a satisfied sigh and I think I'll be looking for more titles by Graves in the future.

Grade: 4.5/5

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Now to celebrate my enjoyment in the book and share my joy at having won it, I will give away my copy to a lucky reader who leaves a comment in this post by May 8th. I'll draw a name and announce the winner on May 9th! Good luck!