"Readers will say i do to this fine collection"

"Meet the Parents" by Janelle Denison. Mainlander Jason Crofton meets Hawaiian Leila Malekala while on vacation. They fall in love over the course of the next few days. However he must persuade her parents he is the one for their daughter because they expect her to wed native Kalani Pakolu and have purebred grandchildren, not hybrids from a California haole.

"I Do, Don't I?" by Tori Carirngton. In one week Efi Panayotopoulou and Nick Constaninos are to marry in a Greek wedding in Michigan. Instead of a blissful final seven days, the extended family drives Efi and Nick into reconsidering what they are getting into. Everyone is acting crazy at home, at the family owned My Big Fat Pastry Shop, and anywhere that two Greeks meet in the state especially if one is the Crete spinster.

"There Goes the groom" by Leslie Kelly. In Chicago, bridal boutique owner Rachel Grant dreams of being the bride when DA Lucas Santori says "I do"; however instead the Italian Stallion is marrying the "Nazi bride" of Taylor Ave, Maria Martinelli. Lucas has had doubts ever since Maria became "bridezilla and now that he has begun to know Rachel his reservations have grown enormously as he is attracted to her even if she fails the family ethnicity test.

Linked by the internet wedding favors firm domeafavor.com, the three stories are well written with likable lead protagonists and a wonderful horde of ethnic secondary characters. Each of the fun tale adheres to the theme of the struggles just before the vows so that readers will feel like honored guests at the nuptials.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted May 1, 2005

Summary

It's way too late to elope...

Meet the Parents by Janelle Denison
Like all dutiful Hawaiian daughters, Leila Malekala is expected to marry a Hawaiian groom hand-picked by her parents. But guess what Mom and Dad? Leila has wedding plans of her own. The groom is California bad boy Jason Crofton...and the bride is pregnant.

I Do, Don't I? by Tori Carrington
Efi Panayotopoulou is about to marry her childhood sweetheart Nick Constantino. Everything should be perfect. But their families seem hell bent on turning the wedding into a farce—or Greek tragedy. And Efi is about a baklava flake away from running off...without her groom.

There Goes the Groom by Leslie Kelly
Luke Santori is engaged to "a nice Italian girl" from his Chicago neighborhood. But wedding plans get tossed—like unbaked dough at his family's pizzeria—when Luke falls for blonde-haired, blue-eyed Rachel Grant ... the dressmaker designing his fiancee's bridal gown.

Love—not-exactly-American-style!