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    A December Bride
    A December Bride
    A December Bride
    Audiobook2 hours

    A December Bride

    Written by Denise Hunter

    Narrated by Julie Lyles Carr

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    A year’s worth of novellas from twelve inspirational romance authors. Happily ever after guaranteed.

    What started as a whim turned into an accidental—and very public—engagement. Can Layla and Seth keep up the façade in Chapel Springs this holiday season—for the sake of her career . . . and his heart?

    Under normal circumstances, Seth Murphy—the best friend of Layla O’Reilly’s ex-fiancé—would be the last person she’d marry. But the news of their upcoming (and phony) nuptials convinces a big client that Layla may be high-society enough to work for his agency—a coup that would put her fledgling home-staging business on the map.

    Seth has secretly loved Layla for years, even when she was dating his best friend. Maybe she’ll never forgive him for the way he hurt her back then, but he has to try. And Layla is willing to keep up their engagement farce until she’s landed her client.

    For Layla, it's the chance to save her career. But for Seth, it's his last chance to win her heart.

    “Denise Hunter knows how to warm up an inspirational romance with sizzling chemistry. You’ll fall in love with this December wedding story!” —Kristin Billerbeck, bestselling author of What a Girl Wants

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherZondervan
    Release dateNov 26, 2013
    ISBN9780310340935
    A December Bride
    Author

    Denise Hunter

    Denise Hunter is the internationally published, bestselling author of more than forty books, three of which have been adapted into original Hallmark Channel movies. She has won the Holt Medallion Award, the Reader’s Choice Award, the Carol Award, the Foreword Book of the Year Award, and is a RITA finalist. When Denise isn’t orchestrating love lives on the written page, she enjoys traveling with her family, drinking chai lattes, and playing drums. Denise makes her home in Indiana, where she and her husband raised three boys and are now enjoying an empty nest and three beautiful grandchildren. DeniseHunterBooks.com; Facebook: @AuthorDeniseHunter; Twitter: @DeniseAHunter; Instagram: @deniseahunter.

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    Reviews for A December Bride

    4/5

    54 ratings12 reviews

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    • 4/5
      The romance was good. I wish that the book had been longer to get more of it. Looking forward to seeing more of these characters in other books in the series.
    • 4/5
      This is a fake engagement story set against the backdrop of Christmas. Layla and Seth have a temporary arrangement that benefits them both, but one of them wishes their fake relationship could be more permanent. Layla and Seth already know one another when the story begins, but end up spending a lot of time together in the time leading up to Christmas. I love the way their feelings progress and I love the ending.This sweet story shares characters with another book by Denise Hunter: Barefoot Summer. She's one of my favorite authors. This was the first of her work that I read years ago, but since then I've read and reread a ton of Ms. Hunter's books and I've enjoyed every minute of it.Audiobook Notes: I reread this one via audiobook loan since it had been a long time since I first read it. Honestly, I think reading it on my kindle was a better reading experience than listening to the audio. The narrator read the story in a rigid way, over-pronouncing words throughout. It sounded odd to me. So I would recommend checking the audiobook out from your library instead of purchasing a copy or using a precious Audible credit.Title: A December Bride by Denise HunterSeries: A Year of Weddings #1Narrator: Julie Lyles CarrLength: 2 hours, 17 minutesPublisher: Zondervan
    • 4/5
      A fake engagement give Seth the chance to win the heart of Layla, despite her animosity towards him. Getting over the betrayal of her ex-fiance and cousin and opening her heart to love is Layla's challenge, but Seth makes it happen.
    • 5/5
      Loved this wonderfully witty and charming novella. What's the best way to show your Ex and his new bride that you've moved on? A fake engagement of course! Read this fantastic story to see how Layla and Seth pull this off! A great read I recommend.
    • 4/5
      A December Bride by Denise Hunter was a quick fun romance. This book is the first one in a series of novellas based around a wedding in each month called A Year of Weddings.Layla O’reilly is in need of a date to her ex-boyfriend and cousin’s wedding when her date gets sick and can’t make it at the last minute. She finds herself agreeing to go with Seth Murphy, who she has been blaming her break up with Jack on. She was harboring a lot of negative feelings towards him, so when he randomly announces at the wedding that they are engaged and getting married in four weeks to say face for Layla she is shocked and understandably mad. Seth promises to fix it until Layla decides she needs his help, because the man she wants to work with didn’t give her the time of day until the engagement was announced. Her and Seth come to a deal that they will stay fake engaged to help her if she helps him decorate his house for a tour his house was chosen to be on. Seth needed this time to convince her that he would never hurt her and loved her. Can Layla continue lying to her family just to get a job? Can she ever forgive Seth for pushing Jack and Jessica together? Is four weeks enough time for Seth to convince her he loves her?This was a quick fun read based around weddings and Christmas. I would give this book 4 out of 5 stars and would definitely recommend it to all romance readers or someone looking for some light fluff reading.
    • 4/5
      This was a fun quick read. How quickly a little lie can blow up into a huge misunderstanding. Layla needs a date to her ex-fiance's wedding.. Seth isn't who she wanted, but he was available and willing. When the bride and groom ask them if they are together they quickly cover by saying yes, they are dating and then further entangle themselves when a December wedding is mentioned. Because of her "engagement" to Seth, he convinces a big client to look at her work and possibly give her a job with his agency. It would jump start her "fledgling home-staging business". So the couple must put up with each other, which won't prove hard for Seth, who has cared about Layla for a long time. Now this is his chance to make their fake wedding plans become a reality.I enjoyed myself while reading this. It was enjoyable watching Seth do his best to make this work and Layla doing her best to try to get out of an awkward situation. Together these two will finally turn their deception into a beautiful love story with a happily ever after ending.
    • 4/5
      Layla O'Reilly is a strong woman in her own way. Coming from the wrong side of the tracks, with a dead mother and an alcoholic father, she has had to work hard for everything she has. And she is making it - crawling up the ladder with teeth and fingernails, working as a waitress and trying to get her business off the ground.

      She is hit hard when her (Loser!) fiance' dumps her for her own cousin. Her snotty, plastic, self centered cousin. Not only that, she has to attend their wedding!

      When her wedding date, her good friend Cooper gets a 102-degree fever on the day of the wedding, her ex's best friend Murphy comes to the rescue as a replacement date. When her "ultra snotty" cousin insults Layla in front of Murphy, he decides to claim an engagement with Layla, much to her horror - for Murphy is who she blames for the ex's betrayal. (Why do women never blame the EX's for the nasty things they do?)

      What happens after is expected, but at the same time both fun and a bit more creative than most. The pains that Layla goes through to get the attention and jobs due someone of her skills is battered by the behaviour and insular attitudes of the people whom she needs to sell her business services as a home stager to. I admired her for her guts and her strength, if not so much for her inability to see what a jerk her ex is.

      Overall, if you like sweet, romantic stories without all the sex that overpowers so many books with strong possibilities as good stories but wind up as nothing but porn, this is one you should read.

      I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher in return for my honest opinion.
    • 4/5
      I received a free ARC of A February Bride via Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.This book was a short, sweet read with characters that were both likeable and easy to relate to. Everyone who has ever dipped their toes into the pool known as romance, understands that sometimes it is the ones we don't see that turn out to be the greatest loves.I liked the fact that there were already feelings between the main characters but that the man was just as insecure about making the first move as the woman. When they finally admitted their feelings the moment felt nature and not contrived which is something I look for in the romances I like to read.I would definitely recommend this novel to others.
    • 4/5
      Originally published on Tales to Tide You OverA December Bride has a masterful setup and though Seth and Layla are pushed one way or the next by circumstance and stupidity, because of their mutual background from before the story starts, their developing relationship works and makes sense. Even more so, every stupidity is of the kind that I can identify with and see myself doing if put in a similar situation. For example, the first major misstep is when Seth tries to protect Layla from someone who is being deliberately nasty. His actions are gallant if misguided because he doesn’t think through the consequences, just goes with his gut. His motivations are strong, stronger than we know in that first moment, but the protective instinct is something anyone would feel to some degree.The novella starts with Layla going to the wedding of her cousin and her ex-fiance, and Seth’s best friend, who cheated on her and then dumped her to marry Jessica. Layla is not in a good place, and she carries a lot of baggage, including blaming Seth for what happened with circumstantial reasons rather than good ones. This sets up a strong tension between them, made stronger by the connection they’d felt two years earlier, one Seth didn’t act on before his friend asked her out.It’s a complicated story told in clever asides within character’s thoughts so the reader knows the whole picture without experiencing it firsthand. I was impressed at a number of points by the sheer writing skill, especially in a novella where there is so little space to bring two people from a starting point to a happy ending.What’s funny is that, though they ask for God’s help, they never seem to recognize His hand in these crazy circumstances. It’s not a story problem, just an oddity in Christian fiction. However, I suppose if they had seen greater forces bringing them back together to that beginning point, they’d stop trying to fix things to the detriment of the story and our enjoyment.Honestly, the end came a little fast for me, a common issue with novellas, but one which this story had only slightly. The end didn’t have the strength of the beginning, but then at the same time, it didn’t fail either. I just didn’t think they needed the final push as they were steady on the path to a shared future all on their own. It was, however, in keeping with the story, so it’s a minor quibble at best.I enjoyed the whole novella and definitely recommend it for Christian romance lovers. Heck, the Christian element was mild, so even those who don’t like that aspect would probably enjoy this story. As a writer, I’d also recommend it for an example of a well-crafted novella. The characters are well-drawn, the conflicts are wrenching, and the circumstances are crazy but fun. It’s a fitting start to the novella series, A Year of Weddings.P.S. I received this title from the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this story. It is quick read with interesting characters that grow through the story. The emotions they feel are real and the twists are fun. I found I really believed in the characters and would like to read more by this author as she is new to me.
    • 5/5
      A Year of Weddings is a series of 12 novellas written by numerous well loved authors. The first of these is A December Bride. I love how Denise Hunter took the time to find the best words to bring Layla and Seth to life in such a way that her readers can identify with them. Not only did the characters come alive, the scenes of Christmas vibrated in technicolor! How unique the setting was, and caused this romantic reader to dream. Well written, vivid imagery used, fresh plot everything together made for a fabulous read! Way to go, Denise and Zondervan/Thomas Nelson.I received this ebook free from Netgalley and Thomas Nelson/Zondervan Fiction for the purpose of review. A positive critique was not required. The opinions are my own.
    • 5/5
      December BrideDenise HunterBook Summary: Happily ever after begins today. The honor of your presence is requested at a December wedding. Every couple has a love story. Join us for a year of contemporary, seasonal wedding novellas, releasing in e-book every month. Each e-novella will include an excerpt from another wedding story in the Year of Weddings Collection as well as a list of the author’s full-length novels.Review: This is the story of Seth and Layla. I really enjoyed the main characters. But just as well written were the Jennifer and Jack. They were so real you wanted to see Jennifer be exposed for stealing Jack from Layla or at the very least that Jennifer and Jack not get along. But that was not the point of the story. Seth was a great guy and the decorating for Christmas was the most fun a book has been about Christmas. I really like Seth and Layla, but at times Layla did not understand that even in small towns you can become somebody. They had great chemistry and the story was a quick read. I would like to thank Net Galley and Zondervan Publihing for allowing me to read and review this book in return for a free copy and I was never asked to write a favorable review by anyone.