Monday, January 1, 2024

REVIEW: Double Happiness (novella) by Jen Trinh

Double Happiness is a contemporary romance novella. I bought my copy new.

Review:

Winnie is convinced that her sister Nancy is about to marry the wrong guy. While Bradley is just some jock with a megawatt smile, Steven is Nancy's childhood sweetheart. Nancy and Steven are clearly perfect for each other, and Winnie is convinced that all she needs to do put them near each other and Nancy will realize he's her soulmate. Plus, as Nancy's Maid of Honor, Winnie also has the power to do a little bit of pre-wedding meddling designed to highlight the ways in which Bradley is a bad match for Nancy. What could possibly go wrong? What Winnie fails to realize is that Steven is actually in love with her, and her meddling might ruin her relationships with both him and her sister.

Ehhh. The only thing that saves this is the fact that almost everyone involved has known each other for years. Surely this isn't the first time Steven has seen Winnie act like an ass. It also helped that, somehow, the gate crashing games worked out despite Winnie's attempts to set them up so Bradley would fail. I admit that I wasn't initially convinced that Bradley was a good fit for Nancy either, but that didn't excuse what Winnie did. I cheered when he nailed those challenges.

Overall, the "annoyance to sweetness" ratio in this was way off - too much annoyance, too little sweetness. And I needed more groveling on Winnie's part. 

One aspect of this that might be of interest: Winnie is bi, a divorcee was who married to a woman. This was never part of the issues standing between Winnie and Steven, although her complicated feelings about her failed marriage played a part in how she behaved towards Bradley.

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