Review: The Trouble with Runaway Brides by Piper Rayne (Lake Starlight #3)
Note: An advance reader copy (ARC) was provided by the authors via Valentine PR.
When the trio of Kenzie Gavino and cousins (and best friends along another cousin, Brinley Kelly, daughter of Liam and Savannah from Falling for My Brother's Best Friend, book four in The Baileys) Lance Whitmore and Easton Bailey--Lance being the son of Wyatt and Brooklyn (Advice from a Jilted Bride, book two in The Baileys), and Easton the oldest child of Austin and Holly (Lessons from a One-Night Stand, book one in The Baileys)--were mentioned in the previous Lake Starlight novel, my curiosity was piqued. No, they weren't part of some sort of throuple, but why they were so talked about by the gossip-loving people in Lake Starlight is brought to light in The Trouble with Runaway Brides, the third book in the series that shares the same name as their Alaskan hometown. But at the heart of the story is a second chance romance with one's first love, Kenzie engaged to be married to Lance's business rival, and Lance finding himself playing wedding planner for the only girl who's owned his heart since they were fifteen.
My expectations were quite high going into this book, and maybe a huge part of that had to do with Kenzie's Filipino heritage. Now, admittedly I didn't click with her right away. It actually took a good portion of the story for me to like her and realize that she and Lance did make sense together. There was a lot of growth on both their ends, but especially Kenzie, or at least that's how I saw it. They were different from the teenagers they had been when they went their separate ways right before heading off to college, and at twenty-six, they were more mature and had experienced more as adults, possibly preparing them for a relationship that was simply...more. I'm sounding cheesy, I know, but Kenzie and Lance's romance was far from being corny, and I did enjoy how everything played out. The Trouble with Runaway Brides snags four stars out of five stars.
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Read my reviews for the Lake Starlight series:
The Problem with Second Chances (book one) - five-plus stars - My Review
The Issue with Bad Boy Roommates (book two) - five stars - My Review
The Trouble with Runaway Brides (book three) - four stars - My Review (posted above)
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Release Date: 08 August 2023
Date Read: 01 August 2023
Learn more about Piper Rayne.
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