by Portia MacIntosh

About six months ago, one of my co-workers introduced me to NetGalley, a place to read books for free that are in pre-publishing; the catch: write a review. Not that difficult. I’ve been so pleased with the books that I’ve been able to read. This time, I read a book called No Ex Before Marriage by Portia MacIntosh. It is about four friends, but specifically, Poppy. They have been friends since high school and it is the last girl’s wedding day. Poppy, however, is divorced and one of the bridesmaids and is made to sit at the single’s table. Poppy meets Kat and they begin a great friendship. Poppy finds out from her dad while on a date that her divorce was never finalized and she is still married to Zac, her high school sweetheart. Along the way, we learn the ins and outs of their marriage and what went wrong. Poppy and Kat travel to Castle Tarness to have Zac sign new divorce papers before he is to be married to Lilac Strong, daughter of a movie star. The wedding doesn’t end up happening and Zac loves Poppy, Lilac reports she is in love with Farrell. Poppy returns home and her father reveals that he orchestrated the whole thing. But that’s not the end…read it to find out if it’s a happy ever after ending.

I found this book to be cute and I couldn’t put it down. I love having the accessibility on my phone to read whenever I want to. I’ve never read this author before and it has been a pleasure to be introduced to Portia MacIntosh’s style. I have grown to love British novels and their landscapes. Macintosh does a great job describing the landscape for the person who is not necessarily familiar with the area. She has great character development. The one criticism I have is that she doesn’t right away have flashbacks to the past, so when it is introduced, it is a bit of a surprise. Five stars from this book lover. 

And what did I snack on while reading? This was great to sip a good cup of coffee with a winter landscape in the background. I found myself, since it was Christmas time, snacking on the pleasures of Christmas, cookies and chocolate covered pretzel Christmas trees. What would you snack on with this book?

You should try out NetGalley if you haven’t looked into it before. For me, writing reviews is a way for me to remember the book and make myself accountable to the book. 

#NoExBeforeMarriage #NetGalley