A Lowcountry Bride

A Novel

By: Preslaysa Williams

Narrated by: Carmen Jewel Jones

Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

"I absolutely adore this book...love story begins slow—like a delicious lowcountry boil—but heats up to the perfect ending." --Kathleen Y’Barbo, bestselling author of The Black Midnight

A heartwarming Avon debut of love, forgiveness, and new beginnings set in the beautiful South Carolina Lowcountry.

Maya Jackson has worked for a renowned New York City bridal gown brand for years and dreams of becoming Head Designer. She has the talent, she just needs a chance to showcase her unique style. Due to an illness, she’s always prioritized her career over her personal life until Maya’s father fractures his hip and she returns to Charleston, SC. While home for only a few months, she’s thrilled to find an opportunity at the local bridal gown boutique, never expecting sparks to fly with its owner....

A military veteran and widowed father, Derek Sullivan hopes to save Always a Bride from bankruptcy in order to preserve the legacy of his family. He also wants to reconnect with his estranged, twelve-year-old daughter, who is still recovering from the loss of her mother. The last thing he needs is a relationship with a beautiful, smart, complicated woman who will be leaving soon.

When Derek begins to fall for the lovely Maya, he knows there’s no future. But destiny has its own plans, and these two lonely people with big hearts discover that coming home to love is the best gift life can give.

©2021 Preslaysa Williams (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers

Hallmark with heft

Hard to find clean books that aren’t saccharine, but this hits the spot! Maya is half black and half Filipina, goes to her hometown in SC to help her father. Meets cute widower, struggles between a promising but soul-draining job and her own ambitions. This book expertly deals with the real-world tragedies that both bring the couple together and keep them apart. Nicely told from both Maya and Derek’s POV. One antagonist has a bit of a light-switch change of heart that didn’t quite work, but otherwise a well-unraveled romance. The narrator is fabulous! I completely forgot there weren’t several people in the studio.

Romance for the pessimistic soul

Are you an over-thinker, ever dealt with cultural clashes, belonging, and/or a serious health issue?

This book might be for you. It's a romance story you might connect to. It's sweet and there's main character growth. Maya has had it hard and she's who she is because of it.

5*****

Powerful and compelling part of a history and modern day that is taken for granted. great job narrative Compelling story.

Great Story Line; Editing Would Improve the Writing

I really enjoyed the story line. The writing was sometimes repetitious and simple editing would improve it a lot.

Life's Sharings

It was journey of 2 totally different peoples world and how they came together in love.

The cover is better than the story

I was frustrated with the main character many times throughout this book. Self-sabotaging and catastrophizing throughout the story is a major downside of this book.

Good Read

Enjoyed reading this book and the history in it. So Happy for Mya and her ending. I would love to see what her dressed looked like the stitch.

It was an easy read….

I listened to the audio some chapters and other chapters I read in the book…. It was a super cute story like but I got frustrated a lot by the extreme low self esteem and lack of self love portrayed by Maya….. that bothered me quite a bit in the book. But loved the happy ending……

A Romance About Something

I appreciated that this light romance is actually about something. It touches on themes of race, illness, grief, ambition, and life purpose. The narrator also did well.

dnf

Chapter 1: white woman boss laments how humidity makes white girls' hair flat and rants about how terrible a nasty black history museum is for tourism and wedding dress sales in the area (?!)... and wants it torn down before she can consider doing business with local shops...to her black employee, a girl dying from sickle cell anemia, descended from slaves, who was only in the boss' office to ask to take vacation time she doesn't have, to help her injured father. The crazy racist boss, who has clearly been exploiting her employee (who takes the abuse only to get ahead before she, literally, dies) allows her to go home to tend to her father (who has assistance and told her not to come) only if she takes work with her ... I stopped before I got to the part I assume is coming, where the boss demands the black employee personally works to shut down the black history museum while she is on non-vacation, in order to 'clean up' the area making it suitable for the sale of bridal gowns to white people, because omg what a bunch of way over the top charicature and stereotyping and tropes. It's the first chapter.