I fell in love with Wendy in the first book in this series and her own book didn't disappoint. Noah is so sweetly unaware, but completely sexy and wonderful. Wendy is tough, carefree, and a complete badass. These two need each other and I'm glad they figured that out, while we all get to watch from the sidelines!

I read this because I needed something that could help me take my mind off of a death in the family. It was pretty sweet. I liked the heroine better than the hero, although the competition thing did get a little bit annoying. I am a sucker for yearning, and this did have yearning. A good read. Kept me distracted.

*Review to go live on my blog June 18, 2018.

There are so many things I love about this novel. First, I have a soft spot for any romance with an Asian heroine, and I have an even softer spot for short Asian heroines who don't always wear towering heels. (At one point, Noah notes that their bodies don't quite mesh perfectly by book and movie standards -- rather than her chest meeting his chest, her chest met his sternum, which I found cute and relatable.)

I also love that both Noah and Wendy are super successful lawyers, and that a lot of their sexy banter comes from discussing court cases. There's a great scene where someone asks Wendy how she can be a defence lawyer and sleep at night, and Noah jumps to her defence by pointing out how, as a prosecuting attorney, he's grateful whenever a defence attorney reveals a crucial piece of evidence that proves the client's innocence and prevents Noah from inadvertently sending an innocent person to jail. Along with their obvious physical attraction to each other, they also very clearly respect each other's intelligence, and I love that about their story.

Finally, I love how their relationship makes them confront their own personal issues -- Wendy's fear of being left alone, and Noah's inability to let go of his role of responsibility within his family. While the romance was nice, the parts that really made the book for me were Noah's relationship with Jane and Wendy's relationship with Jane, Gia and Elise. I love the scene where Wendy confesses her misgivings about Jane's fiance Cameron, and her further confession that her feelings had little to do with Cameron himself and more to do with her own fears of how Cameron may take over her spot in Jane's life. I also love the banter between Jane and Noah, and I especially love the emotional scene later on when she tells him something she'd never shared before about her own feelings over their father's death, and Noah realizes he hadn't been as responsive to his sister's needs as he thought he'd been.

The one snag for me is partly due to how strong these secondary relationships were in the story, and how I sometimes felt Wendy and Noah's feelings for each other were getting in the way of these other relationships. A huge part of their romance is their intense rivalry -- Wendy offers to pay for pre-wedding drinks and Noah insists on being the one to pay; Noah and Wendy fight over who gets to pay for Jane's dress; Noah and Wendy make a bet about who throws the best bachelor/ette party. It was likely meant to be cute, but so many times, I wanted to tell both of them to grow up, stop bickering, and think about Jane for once. The bachelor/ette party weekend was particularly annoying, as they executed plans based on their rivalry more than based on what Jane and Cameron actually want. At one point, Noah's jealousy over a stripper has him sabotaging Wendy's plans in a horribly awkward way, and good on Jane for calling him out. Holiday does a great job of contextualizing their actions, so I understand why they acted the way they did, but it was still annoying.

Overall though, I did enjoy this story. Wendy and Noah have great chemistry, and I love how Holiday shows the progression of their feelings for each other -- and their realization of these feelings. I also loved the scenes involving fake New York backdrops and Pez dispensers -- gestures that were (to be honest) cheesy and over-the-top actually meant something to this couple. They contained inside jokes and childhood icons, and so scenes that could've just been silly and fun balls of cheese were actually full of heart, and showed why this couple was so perfectly right for each other. It's a fun and fantastic story, and I loved it.

+

Thank you to Forever Romance for an egalley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What a fun read! I adored Wendy and Noah. There was an issue back when Noah and Wendy were in high school that still affects Wendy today. Not in the omg my life is over and I can't move on way, but rather it's something that shaped her personality and something that as Noah is making more appearances due to the wedding she thinks about often. Even though I wouldn't have wanted this to happen to her, it did change her for the better, made her into the strong woman she is today. I appreciated that Wendy and Noah talked about it rather than dancing around the issue for a long time and worked it out in a mature manor.

One of the best things in this series is the tight-knit group of friends. They are awesome and supportive, but not too perfect where it's not believable. Can't wait to read Gia's story!

This was a fun summer read. I was a bit frustrated by the beginning with all the back and forth between the characters. Once I got past that all was good. It was very enjoyable.

I completely adored the first book in this series and was so excited to dive back in for more. This time around, while I did still enjoy the writing and had a few laugh out loud and swoony moments, the story fell flat for me. I was more frustrated with Wendy and Noah than anything. I felt like their competitive natures could have felt like foreplay, but instead it kept me from really connecting to their chemistry at all. Wendy was maybe a smidge too prickly and Noah was maybe a smidge too glib and while I really did want to know how things worked out between them, everything in between felt like filler.

I think that the chemistry and emotion that I connected with so deeply in the first book was missing here. Ironically, Cameron was my favorite character this time around (as last time) and his role here was very limited (but at times tugged at my heart even more than Noah and Wendy did). I'll definitely be back for the next one, but I'm so sad to say that this one just missed the mark for me.

Jenny Holiday’s series about a group of self-proclaimed Lost Girls whose weddings cause romantic chaos in each other’s lives takes us into the wedding of book one’s heroine, Jane. While she deals with her out-of-control plans, her best friend begins to fall back into love with her brother… and therein lies the tale.

Busy lawyer Wendy Liu is fully prepared to be maid-of-honor in her best friend Jane Denning’s wedding.  After the disaster that plagued their friend Elise’s ceremony the previous year (covered in the previous book, One and Only - which is also where mild-mannered Jane met her daring groom, Cameron), Jane seemed to be looking for a nice, sedate, easily-organized ceremony, but Wendy soon finds herself swept up in Jane’s snowballing, elaborate plans – which Jane, who isn’t good in social situations, is having a hard time keeping in order.

Struggling with the fact that the wedding means Wendy’s deep, long-standing friendship with Jane is going to have to expand to include Cameron, Wendy is not looking forward to spending the upcoming weekend with Jane’s brother, Noah, the object of a frustrated youthful crush and the guy who hurt her so long ago.

Little does Wendy know that Noah’s been infatuated with her since they were teenagers as well, but refuses to pursue his desire for her because he thinks Wendy sees him only as a big brother figure. Noah is pleased about Jane’s upcoming marriage, but he’s having trouble processing that Wendy is a grown woman who might not need his protection any more.

Wendy and Noah’s repressed mutual attraction comes out in the form of banter, which only underlines the sexual tension between them. In spite of the temptation, Wendy is reluctant to explore the possibilities that develop between them; she remembers all too well what it felt like when Noah didn’t show up to meet her at the senior prom, exacerbating her abandonment issues.  Can Wendy learn to settle down? Can Noah learn how to be protective without smothering the women in his life? And when things explode between them in Las Vegas, will their developing feelings stay there?

It Takes Two is an excellent romance.  It takes apart the insecurities of its characters with confidence and careful reflection.  Sensual, touching, it’s as much character study as romance – an imperfect one perhaps, but one that’s worth reading nonetheless.

I really liked Wendy; flawed, scarred and imperfect, she’s funny and witty, professional and collected, but loose and clumsy and sweet - easy to love and easy to understand. Her friendship with Jane is just as important to the novel as her romance with Noah, and Jane’s mutual, bonding love of Josh Groban was such a great, realistic little detail.

Noah’s a worrier, which leads to attempts at controlling behavior, but it’s not a quality that entirely subsumes his character. His struggle is to see Wendy as a fully autonomous woman, and his sister as the same, but he is forced to do a proper grovel for this.

The relationship between Wendy and Noah is rather combative at first, and then settles into a nice, melting sense of tenderness; these are two characters who push and pull at one another until they get what they need, and the immaturity of their early connection is questioned and called out by the narrative. They already have actual interests in common – both are runners, and like to train for marathons –  so there is some commonality beyond the mutual lust they have.  They’re even mutually attracted to each other’s chests, which comes off as an amusing instead of creepy detail, though Noah does tend to go off on tangents about her boobs (and I also wish Ms. Holiday hadn’t made the unfortunate choice to have him think about how he’s “not getting Wendy’s milk for free” just after thinking of them).

Holiday’s prose is sprightly and lighthearted, while striking at the heart of deep, true things in Wendy’s life.  The balance between angst and character study is well maintained and her characters are refreshingly human and flawed.  I liked the minor characters, including Gunnar, who strips at Jane’s bachelorette weekend, and Gia (the clear future star of book three in the series) a fashion model who loves to party.

Unfortunately, several flaws detracted from the book’s final grade. One is an editing issue that caused confusion - at least twice we’re dumped into flashbacks without warning, and the only way to tell the difference between the Wendy, Jane and Noah of the present and their past selves is the sudden appearance of discussion about school and the dance.  It’s a truly lazy decision from the editor, who is careful to denote the amount of time that has passed as the time for the wedding approaches at the header of every normal chapter.

My other issue is with the strangely patriarchal feeling of Noah’s interaction with the women in his life, such as his exchanges with Cameron which make it feel like Jane’s well-being is simply switching hands from her brother to her husband. And while it’s a decent character trait that Wendy chose to become a world traveler and to experience several friends-with-benefits relationships to deal with her emotional scars, it reduces her experiences and interests to abandonment issues that started over something more trivial (Noah not showing up at the prom) instead of something major (her father’s death). The book does try to lampshade this, and the narrative eventually rebalances, with Wendy reclaiming her own sexual and autonomous freedom of body.  It’s a relief to see her take responsibility for her issues and not lose the hero in the process, just as it’s a relief to see the hero address his control issues.  Some readers might be disappointed that the ending is very much an HFN rather than an HEA, but I think that these two need the extra space to be together and yet figure out how to grow up.

It Takes Two is a unique contrast between spicy romantic comedy and emotionally intense character study – and a rare example of such a dichotomy managing to make the book cohesive instead of causing it to fall apart. Check it out, you won’t regret it!

Buy it at: Amazon/Barnes & Noble/iBooks/Kobo

Jane, Gia, Elise, and Wendy have been friends for years. Jane found love during Elise's wedding in the first book in this series from author Jenny Holiday, and now it's Wendy's turn to find love during Jane's wedding festivities.

The thing I like best about this book is seeing the characters growth as the plot progresses. Jenny Holiday writes flawed, believable characters. It was easy to connect Wendy and Noah's childhood experiences to the people they are as adults. Additionally, I really liked the dual narration in this story. I like getting to see the perspective of the male lead throughout the story too.

I can't wait for book three to catch up with this group of friends, and to learn more about Gia.

This book was exactly what I needed. A fun light-hearted romance novel. You immediately fall in love with the characters. I really enjoyed the journey the author took you on. I like when it's not just a woman and man love story. I love when there are friends and family members that you learn about in the story. I feel like it brings a more real aspect to the story and makes you feel like your right there along side them.
The story is about Wendy and her best friend's brother Noah! Wendy was in love with him since a teen and thought he only saw her as his sister's best friend. 17 years later it all changed! I would recommend this book to anyone who loves romance!

I loved this book. It wasn't an immediate happily ever after. Their childhood 's together were no picnic but Wendy and Jane survived with Jane's brother Noah taking care of them. They grew up, Jane is getting married and Noah comes back into Wendy's life. Noah broke Wendy's heart when she was young and she never could forgive him. I cried right along with Wendy at that point in her life. I felt it. Forgiveness is good. But always remember that what happens in Fake New York stays in Fake New York. I received this book from Net Galley for an honest review and no compensation otherwise.

Wendy's best friend, Jane, is getting married and she's the maid of honor. Unfortunately Jane's brother, Noah is also in the wedding. Wendy has spent years avoiding him since an incident in high school but she can't any longer. Fun romance about second chances.

Better than a “3” but not quite a “4”...I’m not sure how to rate this story. The first half of the story was a no-win. One of my pet peeves is characters who can’t let high school go even though they are well into adulthood.

With that said, I persevered and really liked the last half of the story. Chemistry started to bring the two characters together in a more realistic manner. The bad attitudes faded and I didn’t feel so weary in my reading. If the first half could be as good as the last half, I would rate this a solid 4.

I really like Jenny Holiday's writing style. First in Famous and now in It Takes Two, she writes such believable characters with realistic emotions and palpable chemistry. I think it's safe to say that I'm a fan.

To start things off, can I just say that I loved Wendy's friend group? Wendy, Jane, Elise, and Gia so obviously cared about each other and wanted what was best for each other. It was so nice to see such strong female friendships in a romance novel!

Now for the main characters. I loved Noah. He was swoony, charming, and sweet. He had a big heart and just wanted to do what was best for everyone. Wendy was... a little bit frustrating, but otherwise fine. I liked that she was independent and focused on her career, but I got a little disappointed when she continually fixated on her high school prom that even she admits was almost two decades ago. I understand that it was a big turning point in her life, but come on, you're in your 30s now, calm down maybe.

This book might be second in the series, but it works just fine as a standalone. I don't really feel any need to read the rest of the series, but I bet it's just as good. Despite the fact that it took me almost a week to read this book (honestly, about four days longer than it should have), I did really enjoy It Takes Two.

Great funny story that I didn't want to end. Flowed smoothly with great likeable characters. So many great one liners and unfortunate incidents.

It took me more than 50% through the book before I got into it. Seemed like there was repetition of the discord and in-fighting between Wendy and Noah. Written in different ways but basically same thing over and over. This is the first book I’ve read in the series so had no preconceived ideas like other readers. Saying that, I did not find this book interesting enough to encourage me to read any others in the series.

I liked It Takes Two, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as One and Only. The first book in the series felt like a refreshing change of pace, whereas book 2 felt a bit repetitive for the first 60-70%. As hinted at in One and Only, Noah and Wendy have a long backstory stemming from when Wendy was an honorary member of Jane and Noah’s family growing up. Wendy’s growing feelings for Noah as a teenager were shattered when he stood her up at the prom — albeit for good reasons. Much of the first half of the book consists of both of them internally recounting their childhoods (and respective traumas) and taking out their lingering aggressions on each other, with not much character development going on (that happens in the last 40 pages or so). I liked Wendy and found her somewhat relatable, but I couldn’t warm up to Noah. For all that his character was defined by his “obsession” with caring for his family, he acted very selfishly throughout and became disturbingly controlling with Wendy. Their relationship didn’t feel healthy to me by the end, so I’m glad it was left with some open ends as opposed to immediate marriage.

Putting aside my critiques, I do like Jenny Holiday’s writing style and am looking forward to reading Gia’s story next!

Thank you to Hachette/Forever and Netgalley for providing an ARC for review!

It Takes Two is the second book in The Bridesmaids Behaving Badly Series and can be read as a stand-alone novel. It Takes Two follows the story of Noah and Wendy. Noah and Wendy have known each other for forever. In Wendy's eyes, Noah is the one she's always wanted, but he broke her heart. Wendy has spent many years trying to avoid Noah. But when Noah's sister gets married, staying away is no longer an option.....

It Takes Two is a super sweet romantic comedy with a bit of forbidden flare. I'm a big fan of the friends/bff's older brother troupe and this one was a lot of fun. Noah and Wendy fought like cats and dog and were always trying to out do each other. I loved watching these two interact. Their banter was entertaining and led to some seriously delicious tension. 

Wendy is the sweetest girl. She's hard working, smart, isn't afraid of a challenge, and is a fan of casual sex. That brings us to Noah. Noah is hard-working, dependable, protective and a serial dater. He has a bit of an attitude when it comes to causal sex, but doesn't judge others on their preferences. These two have so much in common and such explosive chemistry. I really enjoyed the two of them together and loved watching them try to figure things out.

It Takes Two was a really fun book to spend my day swept up in. I loved the characters and the story-line. There is a bit of an insta-love quality to this story, but I think it works really well. It Takes Two had just the right amount of romance, steamy moments, laughter and light drama. I think book is a perfect summer read that will leave you with a smile on your face.

I enjoyed the first book in the <i>Bridesmaids Behaving Badly</i> series and looked forward to Wendy's story. Unfortunately, <b>It Takes Two</b> never gains any momentum as it progresses and the central relationship and its conflicts grow tiresome as the novel progresses? advances?

Wendy is best friends with Jane (who fell in love in the last book <b>One and Only</b>). She's smart, sexually confidant and a successful defense attorney at a top law firm. She doesn't have boyfriends - she has friends with benefits, and she likes it that way. Her closest friends are her family - and Jane is like a sister to her. When the story opens, Wendy is struggling with Jane's upcoming nuptials. So instead of talking to her about it, she's planned a six-month sabbatical from work to travel around the world. The trip is scheduled to begin shortly after the wedding day; unwilling to be abandoned by Jane once she devotes her time and attention to Cameron, she'll leave abandon her first. Well, that's the subtext but it's not as obvious to Wendy until late in the novel.

Anxious about the possible demise of her friendship with Jane, Wendy is a bit off her game. Things go from bad to worse when Jane's brother Noah, whom she's loved since girlhood, surprises his sister and shows up to attend a pre-wedding photo shoot. Wendy is caught off guard - half naked whilst trying to change her top.

When Noah catches sight of Wendy - and her beautiful boobs - he can't look away. She's struggling to untangle her shirt, and her frantic squirming isn't helping matters. She's clearly startled to see him but he can't help but feel a frisson of attraction towards her. He also can't shake the image of her beautiful boobs. When he stops by to say hello, their encounter is marked by their usual competitive one-upsmanship games, but there's something else...Noah is attracted to Wendy and the sensation is a surprise.

<b>It Takes Two</b> unfolds as Wendy tries to deal with her feelings about Jane's impending marriage - and how it makes her feel - and the unwelcome realization that she's still in love with Noah despite her best attempts not to be. Everything about the set-up is charming and light and great - except the execution. The Wendy we initially meet is completely subsumed into a slightly hysterical female who's jealous of her friends, obsessed with a guy she claims she doesn't want, and afraid to admit she feels lonely and abandoned. By the time the novel concludes, she's nearly unrecognizable.

Noah might be a stone cold hottie, but Ms. Holiday oversells him as the perfect big brother and... well, frankly, he's kind of boring. That he's a serial monogamist who's also somehow a killer in the sheets and a master at dirty talk the ONE and ONLY time he picks up Wendy for a night of casual sex just doesn't ring true; he's also incapable of controlling his nasty habit of assuming Wendy is out to get some with every guy but him.

I don't know folks. I love a good friends to lovers story but this one has so many stops and starts, and the principal characters are so blind to each others feelings...it gets old fast. Just admit you want more already. Why not?

I was also excited to read about Jane's wedding to Cameron, but Ms. Holiday seems determined to provide us with a bridezilla in every story. Practical, self-aware and no frills Jane goes slightly nuts trying to plan the perfect low-key wedding and her friends...let her. Meanwhile, they roll their eyes and carry on as she obliviously acts like a wedding crazed loon. Jane reads like a completely different character from the woman we met in the previous novel, and I just didn't understand why. Not all women go nuts when they get married - and coming off that story, you'd imagine she'd be slightly more self-aware than most brides.

Look. I like jenny Holiday and her style of romance. But <b>It Takes Two</b> is mostly - despite it's appealing premise and likeable principal and secondary characters - mostly a miss for me.

This series, as the name suggests, is built around weddings, bridezillas and how each pairing is cemented in this heightened time of blustery emotions spiking high and low…along with random crying spurts. Jenny Holiday’s ‘One and Only’ set the precedent. ‘It Takes Two’ continues it in a different way, and had me on tenterhooks for a while. Well, most second-chance romances do actually, because I’m always looking for a satisfactory explanation of the pairing’s history before I can believe in the way it all comes together in the present.

A ruined teenage crush that had been elemental in some ways and a man who’s nothing but oblivious to what he’d done—his mind was simply on responsibility and not much else—do after all, make for interesting reading. In this case, the best friend’s brother returns home and Wendy’s constant avoidance of Noah Denning—through the years—is no longer possible. That childhood, familial bond has since devolved into uneasy tension, layered over by sniping and oneupmanship that happens during a wedding that neither can avoid.

Wendy’s history with Noah is thankfully, not made out to be a something that she hasn’t ever gotten over, but rather, a hurtful and never-forgotten experience cementing a personality that solidified in the many years after Noah left. And because Holiday hasn’t made this momentous event akin to the most epic heartbreak of Wendy’s life, this is fertile ground for a so-called second-chance that I think I can get on board with. Still, blaming Noah for the entire change in her adult outlook on dating however, seems extreme, seeing as Wendy’s combative stance stemming from her (somewhat unfairly) padded memory of prom night when she’d deliberately remembered him as someone he isn’t.

The amount of self-reflection that Holiday writes into the story and the tightly-controlled amount of angst, I think, make this better than the average rom-com for me. There are odd bits though, that threw me off: the flashbacks that aren’t demarcated but pop into a scene unannounced, the somewhat awkward dance between Wendy and Noah that hops from taunting to a huge step into bed. But to the even more awkward and unbelievable realisation that the thing between them had always been love despite 17 years of separation and nothing but big-brother-type protection before? Gobsmacked doesn’t quite cover it.

In all, there were parts I liked and parts that caught me frowning. I would have preferred a more iron-clad HEA in a conclusion that seems more like a HFN here; this is, like the previous book, an abrupt one that leaves the couple standing at a precipice of change just as the credits start to roll.

It Takes Two by Jenny HolidayWendy and her best friend Jane bonded over both losing their fathers at a young age, naming themselves the Lost Girls. Jane definitely had it a little easier with her older brother being there to help out. Of course, that may have also been a detriment since her brother Noah was so unbelievably overprotective. And he still is. Of course, he's also still hot.

Noah didn't want to get sucked into the vortex that is his sister's "low-key" wedding, but he doesn't hat that it's brought him back in the circle with Wendy. He was always attracted to her and that hasn't gone away. She's a lawyer, like him, a runner, like him, and really into baseball, like him (although they don't like the same team.)

I really liked the first book in this series and this one doesn't quite live up to that but is still good. The ending was definitely over-the-top for me.



Three stars
This book comes out June 21
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley