Secondhand Bride

Nancy Warren

Apr 2015 · Ambleside Publishing

About this ebook

Five brides and one (possibly cursed) wedding gown. Will any of them get to wear the designer wedding dress down the aisle?

As the poor relation in the rich and powerful Carnarvon family, Ashley Carnarvon is used to hand-me-downs. But getting handed down a wedding dress that’s cursed? Okay, the curse is bad enough, but even worse, the dress doesn’t suit her. The fabulous gown was designed for a taller, slimmer bride who ran away before the wedding and never wore the dress – which gets back to the curse…

At twenty-five, Ashley’s not sure what she wants to do with her life. She’s still living on the Carnarvon compound in Malibu, sharing a cottage on the property with her mother. She goes to school part time, works part time and parties more than she should. Mostly, she parties with Eric Van Hoffendam, who’s the slacker in his rich, powerful family. A lot of their friends are starting to get married and when Eric asks her to marry him, she likes the idea. Eric doesn’t look down on her or demand anything of her. Life with him would be easy, and Ashley likes things to be easy.

Bennett Saegar has a bad habit of making his life harder than it needs to be. Trying to make it as a Hollywood screenwriter is hard enough, but when a movie star stages a very public suicide attempt over unrequited love for him, the media frenzy is so bad he needs a place to hide out. Luckily, the pool house is free on the property of his family friends, the Carnarvons. He’ll be out of sight and able to concentrate on his next screenplay. Best of all, he’ll be far away from women.

When he moves into the pool house, the first person he sees is Ashley Carnarvon. Ashley who had a world class crush on him ten years earlier. Now, she’s all grown up and something about her pulls at him.

Good thing she’s engaged, or she could be a serious distraction. Then, Ben meets her fiancé and realizes this guy is all wrong for Ashley. She’s got so much more potential than she realizes. He wishes he knew how to show her how special she is without anyone getting the wrong idea about his intentions. Especially him.

Ratings and reviews

I actually read this series backwards. After reading the Secondhand Bride(#2), I ended up finding Kate(#1) for free. The Almost Wives Club series is different from what I normally associate Nancy Warren with. Many of the books that I have come across from her are suspenseful page turners. But whimsical and funny work well for her. Wish I had discovered that before now. Secondhand Bride is the story of a woman that wants to be happy but doesn't know how. All of her life she has felt second best. But a cursed wedding dress ends up being the wake-up call she needs. Well written story, fun characters and beautiful lessons to be learned.

About the author

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Nancy Warren has always loved to read books by funny, daring women. Bonus if the books are also about funny, daring women. Her influences are: Jane Austen, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Jenny Crusie, Susan Isaacs and Jennifer Weiner to name a few. Naturally, when she began writing, she chose romantic comedy featuring -- you guessed it - funny, daring women and the men who eventually win them. She believes in happy endings, the antidepressant effects of good chocolate and that if you want to enjoy the view from the top, you have to hike up the mountain. She has two amazing kids and the unconditional love of her Border Collie, Max.