Jennifer's Reviews > The Bride

Please note: This review may contain spoilers for readers who have not read the first two installments in The Boss series:
#1-The Boss
#2-The Girlfriend


The Bride is the third installment in Abigail Barnette's The Boss series. I've so enjoyed the first two books The Boss and The Girlfriend, along with the short story The Hook-Up, and although I enjoyed The Bride too, it felt a bit different. The heavy romance of The Boss and the heart wrenching circumstances of The Girlfriend have now been exchanged with talks of settling down. That's a good thing given the crazy year they just suffered through and it shows that they survived and are now stronger for it. But Neil and Sophie are continuing to deal with issues that seem to keep resurfacing like a revolving door and unnecessary drama created by friends and family is NOT helping. The issues themselves are getting a bit old in my opinion. There is a lot of interpersonal conflict/drama among pretty much all the characters in this installment and I felt that this took away from the overall story that I have grown to love. While Neil and Sophie are the focal point in the first part of The Bride, and have some very memorable moments, the heart of this story felt more like a wrap-up of all the side stories that have been going on in the peripheral. It's not a complaint necessarily, I mean if you're going to write a bunch of side stories/subplots then you need to follow up on them, but again I felt that it took away from the Neil and Sophie that I have come to adore. There are some significant happenings in Neil and Sophie's life, so overall, The Bride leaves a lot material that focuses on them for the next book The Ex. But I must add that I seriously do not like that title so I'm just hoping we are going to meet Neil's ex-wife and it has nothing to do with Neil and Sophie!!! In summary, if you are a fan of this series then yes, read this one too! I'm hoping The Bride is just a series "catch-up book" and it's not a sign that the characters and overall story will be stalling out or weakening from this point on.

My favorite quote:
”I'd never bought the idea that a person had a 'better half.' ... It was a sweet notion, but I found a much simpler explanation as to why people shape you and change you. People are darkened rooms, and each person they choose to include in their lives is a beam of light, uncovering some new, previously hidden part of them.“