The parents have retired and the family business of the de la Rosa’s has been left to the three daughters. Rings and Roses is one of the top wedding boutiques in the Washington DC area. It is now in the hands of Mari, Jane, and Pearl. Each who have very different personalities which often ends in conflict. Not always great for the business. The three are not only trying to plan the lifetime of romance for others but they are all trying to find romances of their own even if it does interfere with the business and their private lives.
Buckle up and get ready for a rant. These characters drove me crazy. Marisol or Mari was just not likeable in the slightest, I think she was the one we were supposed to root for, but I just could not do it. She was constantly in petty drama and just would not meet in the middle with Pearl on their disagreements. Jane, like the common stereotype for the middle child, just was not there. This story would be the complete same if she was not a character. Pearl would be my favorite if I had to choose. She was just trying to get out this toxic situation that Mari had them in and she wanted what was best for herself and she knew her worth. These characters were immature, and I could not sympathize for them with their petty drama.
The one way that I can think to describe this writing is random. Now, going into romance novels, I do not expect beautiful and life changing writing like I might find in literary fiction. here the writing was random and all over the place though and I was finding myself confused. In the beginning, I felt like there was head jumping between the characters as we would be at Mari’s perspective but still be getting told what Pearl was doing in the next room over. There was one part where we are with Mari at a wedding, then a random dream sequence, and then back to the present and she is randomly at home a few days after the wedding. I did not understand how we went from one scene to the next and how they were connected. There were a lot of scenes that ended abruptly, a lot of tell but not show. It was hard to find out what was going on throughout the story.
The setting was my favorite part of the novel (other than getting to go on rants.). Washington DC is my favorite city and as this book is set just across the river in Alexandria, there were a lot of places that I was familiar with. You can tell that Marcelo is familiar with the area and just really knows the DMV and the culture of it.
I liked that the romance was not the main feature. I find that with stories that are just romance centric and act as though the characters do not have lives outside of that as boring. However, that is not to saying that this story was not boring. Something was always happening, and the story was fast paced but I found myself bored and not connecting with the plot. I could not get past the petty drama that was always happening amongst the sisters and it led me to just being annoyed with this book.
These characters drove me crazy. They were immature, and I could not sympathize for them with their petty drama. The one way that I can think to describe this writing is random. It was hard to find out what was going on throughout the story. The setting was my favorite part of the novel. I liked that the romance was not the main feature. I find that with stories that are just romance centric and act as though the characters do not have lives outside of that as boring. However, that is not to saying that this story was not boring. Something was always happening, and the story was fast paced but I found myself bored and not connecting with the plot. I could not get past the petty drama that was always happening amongst the sisters and it led me to just being annoyed with this book. This book did get me to my reading challenge goal of seventy-two books, though, and and I am thankful for that.
2 out of 5 stars.
Izzy Reads 