To Love and to Cherish
by Lauren Layne
Published by Pocket Books
Book #3 in The Wedding Belles series
Alexis Morgan has spent the past eight years
devoted to turning her tiny start-up into Manhattan’s premiere wedding planning company, The Wedding Belles. Now that her business is thriving, it’s time to turn towards her much neglected personal life, and Alexis approaches her relationships like she does everything else: with a plan. Not a part of that plan is Logan Harris, the silent partner in the Belles, and the one person who’s been there for her since the very beginning. But Alexis needs someone fun, and Logan’s all business, all the time—except when a late night at the office ends with an unexpected kiss that leaves the usually cool and together Alexis reeling.
Logan has lusted after Alexis since the day he walked into the tiny Harlem apartment that used to double as her office. But the ambitious wedding planner has always been untouchable...until now. Alexis has made it clear that she’s on the dating market—and equally clear that he’s not in the running. But when Alexis finds herself in need of a date for her sister’s last minute wedding in Florida, Logan knows it’s the perfect time to show Alexis that there’s more to him than numbers and spreadsheets—and beneath the pinstripes and glasses lies a hot-blooded heartthrob. As Florida’s sultry days turn into even hotter nights, Logan’s out to convince Alexis that the fling of a lifetime could just maybe turn into forever...
Genre:
Triggers:
Sister marrying ex
Spoiler filled ramblings ahead. You have been warned fellow book nerds!
To Love and To Cherish is the third and final book in the Wedding Belle's series. It centers around the owner of The Wedding Belle's, Alexis, and her friend and accountant, Logan. Alexis has been a big question mark in the last two books. It's been heavily hinted that she has some pretty big walls up, but we finally jump right into her character and find out WHY Alexis is the way she is!
I love how Logan and Alexis meet. Its very classic and happens at a bar. Alexis turns him down, because she is dedicated to getting her business, The Wedding Belle's, off the ground, and she is scared of being hurt. Instead of walking away, Logan takes an interest in her business proposal, and reads the whole thing. Crazily enough, he gives her an offer: if she makes him half owner, he will finance The Wedding Belle's with his inheritance his aunt left him. She turns him down again, but changes her mind a week later.
Eight years later, Logan and her are friends. He is a silent owner (Alexis has full control), and he meets with her twice a week to discuss Wedding Belle finances. Everyone at the Wedding Belles can see Logan is head over heels in love with Alexis, but Alexis doesn't see it. Alexis's life revolves around her business.
Until of course, she finds out her little sister MIGHT be pregnant. And fun fact: her sisters boyfriend (Adam) is Alexis's first love, college boyfriend, and the man she thought she would marry one day. You know ... until Adam and her sister met, and it was like love at first sight. He broke up with Alexis a few weeks later. Her sister (Roxie) and Adam are together a year later, much to Alexis's heartbreak.
This sends Alexis into a tailspin. She decides she finally needs to put some energy into her private life, so she can fall in love, get married, and have the kids she always dreamed about. Of course, she doesn't think of Logan. But Logan, who is being pressured to move back to London and take over the family business, see's Alexis, and decides its finally time to make his move. Slowly. So he doesn't scare her away.
It all goes to hell when he kisses her. She freaks out. I get why. In her limited experience with love, the person you love leaves. Moves on. Her constants: The Wedding Belle's and Logan. Logan trying to change his role in her life makes her think she could lose him.
Logan is a patient and persistent man though, and he still fights for her. And she fights back, while becoming more and more AWARE of him.
It all comes to a head when Roxie admits that she IS pregnant, and her and Adam are getting married in a week. Alexis goes to the wedding, prepared to be hurt ... and discovers that she has finally found closure. She can move on. It helps that Logan flies to Florida and pretends to be her date of course. Logan's persistence pays off to a degree: she sleeps with him. Even extends her vacation so they can have a few days together. But she decides to end it at that, and wants to go back to being friends back home.
Doesn't last. They sleep together back home too. After a week, Logan becomes frustrated that Alexis is not truly spending time with him. She works well into the evening, not talking to him, and he feels used. He finally admits that he is in love with her, and has been for eight years, and she still doesn't see him. She begs him to wait, for her to figure out what this is, but he is finally done waiting.
She tries to move on, burying herself into her work, which has always made her happy. But it doesn't. Heather and Brooke ambush her, and help her realize, it wasn't JUST the business that made her happy. It was Logan. He was a part of the business, and now that he was withdrawing, it didn't make her happy anymore.
After eight years of him patiently, and silently loving her, she is the one that chases him down. She loves him. Has probably always loved him, but was so scared that by doing so, he would leave.
Happily ever after.
Okay, I loved this book. I have a bit of a thing for nerdy guys, and Logan has that hot, nerdy thing going for him. Gotta love that he is British too, and some of the things he says is adorable. I appreciate a love story that has time behind it, and eight years is a LONG time to get to know somebody. To know you truly love them. Logan's patience and long time suffering makes him so insanely likable. Hell, I even like Alexis, despite her resistance to love. Her reasons are valid. Her sister and the man she loved were together, leaving her brokenhearted by both of them. Didn't mean I wasn't frustrated by her treating Logan the way she did. I wasn't sure if I would like this story, because Alexis seems so rigid in the last 2 books, but through Logan's eyes, it was easy to start liking that about her. I finished this book in less than 2 days, because I just had to know what happened. The nice finishing touch to the story: Logan selling his half of the company to his now girlfriend Alexis, and Alexis, promptly dividing the company into thirds. One for her, one for Brooke, and One for Heather.
Gotta love the updates on the last two books featured couples. Seth and Brooke were planning a December wedding. By the epilogue, we can assume they were already married. Josh and Heather are married, and living together happily. Josh is one of Logan's business partners.
Alexis: "Is that why you came over here?"
Logan: "No, darling. That would be your smile."
Alexis: "I don't remember smiling."
Logan: "You're unusual. I like that. And you did smile. At the bartender, when you ordered your wine."
Logan: "There. That wasn't so hard, now, was it?"
Alexis: "Actually, it nearly killed me."
Alexis: "Wait, so you're telling me that whether or not I meet the man best suited to be the father of my future children is dependent on which way I swipe my finger on my iPhone?
Jessie: "Future children?! Give me that. Slow your ovaries"
Logan: "Most excellent."
Josh: "Come on, man. I get that the British thing means you're more restrained, but sort of thought you might be a little more excited. Can I get a fuck yeah?"
Logan: "Fuck yeah."
Logan: "Why not me, Alexis? Why when you finally decide to stop living in a shell, why some random chap off the street, and why not me?"
Grant showing Maya his knife.
Grant: "What do you think, babe? Sharp enough to cut the sexual tension?"
Alexis: "Damn you, Logan. Damn you for ruining everything."
Josh: "I love when he gets British. Hey. Say bloody wanker."
Seth: "I myself prefer bloody hell. It's very Bond."
Logan: "I thought I was going to marry that girl. I used to think about the chubby, fat babies we'd have. The chubby dog."
Alexis: "Why was everyone chubby? What were you feeding them?"
Logan: "Tell me you brought a bathing suit."
Alexis: "It's Florida. Yes, I brought a bathing suit."
Logan: "Tell me it's a bikini."
Alexis: "It is."
Logan: "Tell me it's tiny."
Alexis: "Logan."
Alexis: "Has he seemed ... different to you?"
Heather: "How so?"
Alexis: "I don't know. Cocky. Deliberate. A little cunning."
Heather: "I don't know. Logan's always seemed a little that way to me."
Alexis: "Really?"
Heather: "Sure. You know, like, first glance, shy and bookish, second glance, sneaky sex god."
Alexis: "I don't dance."
Logan: "It's always the ones who don't dance that need it the most."
Alexis: "Logan Harris, I dare say you're almost as delicious as the cupcakes."
Logan: "Almost?"
Alexis: "Well, look on the bright side. You've got two whole days to figure out how to take first place."
Alexis: "He's my friend and my business partner, but we're not going to be seeing each other anymore. Not like that."
Cecily: "But why?"
Because I can't afford to care more than I already do. People leave. They move on.
Logan: I should have made my move before now, but I'm realizing it wouldn't have made a difference, would it? I love you with everything, and you won't give me even a little bit of something."
Alexis: "Josh. Could you do me a huge favor and get lost?"
Josh: "Oh, I'm sorry. I guess I thought for a second that I lived here."
Alexis: "Why did you offer a woman you'd just met your entire inheritance?"
Logan: "Because you weren't a woman I just met. From the very moment I saw you, I knew. I knew you were the woman I loved."
Alexis: "I can't decide if that's nuts or romantic."
Logan: "When we tell the story to our chubby children, we're absolutely going with romantic."
Check out the rest of the Wedding Belles series below!