Chasing I Do

The Eastons, Book 1

By: Marina Adair

Narrated by: Piper Goodeve

Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

Darcy Kincaid might be a runaway bride, but she still believes in happily ever after, which is why she's devoted to helping couples orchestrate their perfect I do. Even though her fiancée turned out to be unfaithful and a big disappointment, Darcy walked away from her wedding fully committed - to her unborn daughter. Now, a single mom, it's up to Darcy to secure her daughter's future, which is why she's invested her life savings into renovating Belle Mont Manor, Portland's oldest, and nearly forgotten, wedding venue. So when a magazine offers her the cover for their June issue, in exchange for planning the wedding of a high-profile couple, Darcy thanks her lucky stars. Until the star's best man turns out to be her ex's brother.

The last time Gage Easton saw Darcy, she was sneaking out the back door of her own wedding - destroying his brother's life. No way is he going to entrust the gorgeous jilter with his biggest client's special day, no matter how much in love with her he secretly was. Determined to take his client's wedding elsewhere, he confronts Darcy, only to meet a toddler with Darcy's blonde curls and the Easton blue eyes that has him renegotiating the wedding for a chance to know his niece. But when a fun day in the park leads to warm family dinners, Gage finds himself stuck between his loyalty to his brother - and the two women who have stolen his heart.

©2016 The Adair Group (P)2016 The Adair Group

Where's the ending?..

I loved the storyline and characters but felt that the book needed another chapter and/or epilogue. There are still unanswered areas: 1) did wedding go as planned 2) did darcy attend wedding and face mother or did she go to Disney with daughter 3) did she ever tell the whole story about her relationship and why she fled and 4) why was intern at wedding and did her appearance and/or words prompt her decision to flee. Lastly- where is book 2?

Chasing I Do

Good handling of a familiar plot line. Grandma was a good twist, but the handling of same resulted in a cliffhanger, which was annoying, because Granny owes a huge apology to the heroine before obtaining visitation.

A rating...

My Review:
Overall: 4.5
Performance: 4.25
Story: 4.75

I was so pleasantly surprised by this book. I already knew that Marina Adair was a good writer. Her books are easy to read with great characters. But this audiobook was a shorter one, so I really expected it to be a little short on story for what I enjoy. I was so wrong. This book was full of depth for the characters and the backstory and loaded a great emotional punch. I loved listening to it!

My heart absolutely broke for Darcy especially and more and more of her story was revealed and it became obvious just how much she'd lost when Gage's brother betrayed her. But I also really loved that Gage and Darcy had been friends when she'd dated his brother, although he always felt more for her.

This is a family of brothers (I love that) and I like how they all get together to talk through the family issues. They're really close and I do like that kind of dynamic in a book.

Overall this was just a great audiobook. I'm just sad that none of the other books have come out since this book came out quite a bit ago(writing this as of August, 2017). I'm ready for more Eastons.

Chasing I Do

This was a good story except for the end. The conflict was resolved in one paragraph. I mean, there was real conflict. Serious conflict between the Hero's mother & his love interest and between him & the woman he loves. And then it was just brushed away like it was never a real threat. I hate when an author does that. One of my pet peeves! But I liked the characters and the build up of the story up to the ending.

She's a doormat who never stands up for herself

The story is charming, and it could have been so good. But it reads like a Cliffs Notes version and is missing a lot. I also have a big problem with h, who is a doormat for all the awful behavior the H's family heaps upon her, and they do that for YEARS.

Spolier alert- Her finance cheats on her repeatedly while she's pregnant before the wedding. Her almost MIL blames her for being born poor and tells her she doesn't deserve her darling son, cheater or not. h leaves him, he goes and gets drunk and then drives drunk and dies. MIL then has her physically drug out of the funeral, roasts her in the media for causing his death, and has her arrested for retrieving her stuff from their former shared apartment. She cuts h off feom the entire family. Oh, and then sues her for the engagement ring, serving her at her work to try to get her fired. Then, years later, when they discover h had a baby, MIL sues for custody of h and H's daughter and calls h all sorts of horrible things and tells the courts lies about h being unfit to parent the granddaughter she hasn't even met? And it's all ok? She just keeps taking it, over and over and over. Yuck.

Meh

I love stories about big, overprotective families who love each other unconditionally. This was sadly not that. The two main characters are too understanding and perfect. Gage’s brothers seem to just be some filler characters with no substance. And his mother is an evil b$@&h who not one of her sons stands up to. The story was good at first, but it wrapped up in an unsatisfying rush with loose ends hanging everywhere.

Short and under developed

This book was very short, not only in time but also in content. It ended very abruptly without resolution (or with a very under developed resolution) to many of the conflicts presented in the book.

This is the first in a series and definitely reads as such...and not in a good way. It feels as though the author sacrificed development of this story in an attempt to set the stage for the remaining series. Unfortunately, it fell flat.