Romance, clean; contemporary Hallmark movie adaptation
Clean romance, Jenny is an assistant to her cousin, a famous movie start. In order to keep her cousin's wedding plans secret, she pretends she is the bride planning her wedding in Heart's Landing. The town's wedding venues and businesses are always looking for a "True" Heart's Landing Bride. Jenny's kind, genuine, sweet personality, have Nick and the other vendor's labeling her a "True" bride and making concessions to help her have her dream/ideal wedding. As her cousin repeatedly changes her mind, things get tense. Nick helps Jenny with 'her' wedding plans, the vendors, and making decisions, and takes her around Hearts Landing, and just to help her decompress. Nick fights his attraction to an 'engaged' woman, as he spends time with Jenny, he can't help but lose his heart to Jenny. Genuine, honest, characters, with sweet chemistry, fun, unique romantic setting, Jenny and Nick's romance and fall was a fun escape read. More of a 3.5 for me as a reader.
I received ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. My opinions are my own.

Jenny's dream was to get married at Heart's Landing, however when her famous cousin gets engaged she sent Jenny to set up her wedding there. Jenny pretends she is engaged and goes there, It is the perfect scene for her, just as she imagined.
Nick owns I-DO cakes as soon as he sees Jenny he knows she is a Heart's Landing bride, however something seems off with her. She keeps changing everything and she is not picking the things he notices she loves for her wedding.
This was a book that was written to take you away to a another place. It is a wonderful book.


** I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a honest review**

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Synopsis: Jenny always dreamed of getting married at Heart’s Landing. But when she finally visits the charming small town, she’s there to make wedding arrangements for someone else: her cousin, who also happens to be her boss and a famous movie star. To keep the event secret and avoid a media circus, Jenny pretends she’s the one getting married.

Review: this was such a sweet feel good romance I enjoyed reading from beginning to end. Hallmark does not disappoint in love stories and HEA. I enjoyed reading about Kay and Jenny’s strenuous relationship and how their relationship developed, and thought the overall story was a perfect light hearted, springtime read! The author did tend to go a little overboard in descriptions, but I did get a great mental image of the quaint wedding town!

An enjoyable romp of a book. Easily finished in one day. I was kept interested in the storyline and in the characters. I wanted to get to the end to find out how it finished although I had guessed part of the ending it was enjoyable. I would recommend the book for a light read. I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t make a movie of it. I gave this book four stars.
I received an advance read kindle format of this book through Netgalley.com. There was no requirement that I leave a review, all thoughts and comments are my own freely given. #ASimpleWedding #NetGalley.com
Description as found on NetGalley.com
Fall in love with Heart’s Landing, a romantic wedding destination, in the first book of a Hallmark series.
Jenny always dreamed of getting married at Heart’s Landing. But when she finally visits the charming small town, she’s there to make wedding arrangements for someone else: her cousin, who also happens to be her boss and a famous movie star. To keep the event secret and avoid a media circus, Jenny pretends she’s the one getting married.
Nick is intrigued by this bride-to-be who starts visiting his bakery every afternoon for sweet treats and conversation. He has to keep reminding himself that she’s already spoken for.
As Jenny deals with her cousin’s ever-changing demands, she tries to hide her attraction to Nick. Planning this wedding couldn’t be more complicated…and what will happen once the truth comes to light?
This funny, heartwarming romance includes a free original recipe for the best-ever Lemon Bars.

A Simple Wedding is the wonderful first installment if a new series. I loved this book. Its sweet and romantic and wholesome, everything you expect from Hallmark and more. I love fun wedding fiction and if you live it as well, I highly recommend you grab this book and hold on.

If I could have a do over on where I had my wedding as well as have an unlimited budget for it, I think I might have to pick the fictional picturesque town of Heart's Landing, Rhode Island. It's sounds like a dream come true to have everything you need to plan a wedding within walking distance of each other and to have such accommodating townspeople that will bend over backwards to help you. This is the kind of experience Jenny Longley finds herself in when she arrives in Heart's Landing to plan a simple wedding. Unfortunately, Jenny has agreed to plan the wedding without letting anyone in town know that the wedding she's planning isn't really for herself but for her cousin Kay. (Her cousin is a famous movie star that doesn't want the paparazzi to know that she's getting married in Heart's Landing.) Jenny's plan to secretly plan the wedding would probably go forward without a hitch if it weren't for the fact that her cousin keeps changing her mind about the wedding details and if there wasn't such a good looking baker in town!

This story captured my heart from the start and was so much fun to read. I fell in love with the town of Heart's Landing and was sucked up into Jenny's wedding planning. I didn't like that she had to lie in order to help plan her cousin's wedding, but I can imagine that movie stars might really have to go to these kind of measures to have privacy from the paparazzi. Luckily, I did not have to get up and go anywhere the next day after reading "A Simple Wedding," because I was up late, late, late reading the finale. I couldn't break myself away. As soon as I finished this book, I was on-line trying to find out when the next book was coming out in the series. I'm very grateful that Hallmark Publishing and NetGalley gave me the opportunity to read and review this book. All thoughts expressed are my honest opinions of the book.

I fell in love with the location and the people of Heart’s Landing with ease and this small town is perfect for romance, weddings, and the beginning of a new series – Heart’s Landing.

A Simple Wedding is a fun, delightful tale of, well, a behind the scenes bridezilla in the form of movie star Kay who is determined to have her wedding in the most romantic setting of Heart’s Landing… without cameras rolling. And one sweet cousin who works for the bride-to-be and has to pretend to be something she’s not – the bride, while falling in love with the perfect for her man. Jenny works for her cousin, the famous movie star (or so she behaves) and, quite frankly, feels obligated to do Kay’s bidding without argument since it was Jenny’s aunt who raised her after her parent’s deaths. She’s put up with a lot but now pretending to be the bride to keep her cousin’s secret is proving very distracting. Especially since the man of her own dreams, Nick, thinks she’s about to walk down the aisle with someone else. Talk about awkward and complicated.

I had so much fun with A Simple Wedding. It’s lighthearted with a few grumble, bridezilla moments and brings together two people who would truly fit perfectly together – if only that secret wasn’t hanging over Jenny’s head. It’s a fun, emotional journey to watch Nick and Jenny fall in love in spite of everything happening around them. And the ending… was worth the wait.

Looking for a fun, believable romance to get you through the rough spots of life? Then you’ll want to pick up the first story in the Heart’s Landing series as soon as possible.

*I received an e-ARC of this novel from Hallmark Publishing via NetGalley. That does not change what I think of this story. It is my choice to leave a review giving my personal opinion about this book.*

I loved this book so much. It was definitely a five star book for me. It was the literary equivalent of comfort food. It was cozy and wholesome and heartwarming, with a very satisfying ending. It's, unfortunately, a very frequent thing in romance novels to have one of the characters behave horribly towards the other for most of the book, only to slowly change and behave better over time. So I was happy to finally read a book where the two love interests were genuinely good people. They weren't perfect. They made mistakes and were real, believable characters, but they had good hearts and good intentions, which made the book even more enjoyable.

I posted a review of this book on my Instagram page:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B_Q5-QrAPJj/

A Simple Wedding by Leigh Duncan was a true gem among Hallmark and romance books. Duncan’s descriptive writing and palpable emotions nestled the town of Hearts Landing into my heart.

Hearts Landing is the most picturesque, perfect town. I wanted to move there by the end of the story. I found the overall story more complex than other romance and Hallmark novels. There was a twist in the second half of the book that I did not see coming. The chemistry between every character was tangible. Jenny and Nick shared an extra special bond. I felt very engaged with the characters and wrapped up in the story.

I cannot wait to read more in this new series and from Leigh Duncan. From the initial description, I was not sure I would enjoy this book, but in general, I love the work that Hallmark presents. A Simple Wedding really did stand out for its writing and story.

I received an electronic advanced reader copy from Hallmark through Net Galley. Although, I did purchase my own edition of this story when it became available. Getting a free copy in no way influences my review. Thank you, Leigh Duncan, Hallmark, and NetGalley for a copy.

Hearts Landing, RI is the nation’s premier wedding destination and Jenny has always fantasized about being married there someday. Her job as her assistant to Kay, her Hollywood mega-star cousin, has kept her so busy that she hasn’t found her Mr. Right to whisk her off to Heart’s Landing. Kay suddenly announces to Jenny that she is marrying her co-star, mega-star Chad and she wants Jenny to handle all the arrangements for the super secret wedding – in Hearts Landing. The only way for Jenny to carry off the deception is to pretend she’s the bride.

Oh, what a tangled web she wove. The people of Hearts Landing become her friends, particularly the very attractive baker and owner of I Do Cakes. To make matters even more complicated, her cousin keeps changing her demands.

The story was sweet and the inhabitants of Hearts Landing were professional and kind and accommodating. I have to admit I wanted to take Jenny aside and tell her to get a backbone and tell her cousin to back off. I understood, however, her feeling of indebtedness for the way her aunt and cousin took her in when her parents died. Did my irritation with Jenny color my enjoyment of the book? Not in the least. I admired her good humor and her inventive solutions to the problems her cousin created. And the people of Hearts Landing were amazing in the way they responded to Jenny’s requests. I understand why Hearts Landing is the center of marriage beginnings.

I received an ARC from Hallmark Publishing through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own

A Simple Wedding by Leigh Duncan
Source: NetGalley and Hallmark Publishing
Rating: 3½/5 stars

Though Jenny doesn’t have a load of free time or much of social life, it hasn’t stopped her from dreaming of such luxuries! In fact, since she was a little girl, Jenny has dreamed of her wedding day, the flowers, the cake, the dress, and especially the groom and the location. Heart’s Landing has been Jenny’s dream since she first discovered the idyllic location as a young girl. However, getting the wedding of her dreams likely won’t happen if she doesn’t find a way to carve out some free time to socialize and hate.

Jenny’s life revolves around her cousin, a Hollywood starlet turned serious actress with several awards to her credit. Jenny’s cousin is top-notch and running her life has Jenny moving and shaking 24/7. In fact, her latest movie, set to earn her yet another award, has Jenny and her cousin completely consumed. As if the work weren’t enough, Jenny also has to deal with her cousin’s surprise announcement, not only is she engaged to her costar but the wedding is going to be in just six short weeks, it will be in Heart’s Landing, and Jenny has to plan the whole thing onsite while keeping the identity of the bride and groom a complete secret.

Heart’s Landing is every bride’s dream location. The entire town is charming, beautiful, and filled with shops, services, and settings geared toward the bride and the perfect wedding. Heart’s Landing prides itself on its quality and the shop keepers and business owners go above and beyond to ensure each bride has the wedding she has always wanted. To that end, Jenny comes to town with a mixture of feelings. On the one hand, she knows the town and its offerings will be perfect for cousin, but on the other hand Jenny hates lying to people who are bending over backwards to help her.

The lying starts the minute she walks into town and doesn’t stop for even a second. Jenny’s cousin concocted and entire backstory and life history for Jenny’s “fiancé” so no one will suspect Jenny isn’t the bride. In short order, Jenny gets all her cousin’s wishes squared away and considers leaving town early before she must lie to anymore of the fine people in Heart’s Landing. Unfortunately, her cousin has different plans, a lot of different plans that has Jenny backtracking, rearranging services, and generally pissing off everyone in town. To keep her under control, the shop keepers call on Nick, the owner of the local bakery to keep an eye on Jenny and keep her from making anymore radical changes related to her big day.

The deception weighs heavily on Jenny especially as she gets to know Nick and the rest of the residents of Heart’s Landing. The more time she spends in town, the more she wants to divulge every detail of her sham wedding and apologize profusely to the entire town. Unfortunately, Jenny is loyal to her core and she would rather jeopardize her own happiness than sell out her cousin. Though Jenny is miserable, everything is on track and ready for the big day. That is, until just hours before the wedding when her cousin completely betrays Jenny and all that she has done in her name.

The Bottom Line: While I generally sink into the Hallmark books and love on them from cover to cover, I must admit struggling with this book. To be clear, my struggle and my star rating are related to a single character, Jenny’s cousin. I found Jenny’s cousin to be the very definition of spoiled, selfish, and entitled. Her actions betray Jenny at every level, and I found it hard to enjoy any scene with actress as every word out of her mouth was another bit of misery for Jenny. Having said that, I found all other aspects of the book to be quite agreeable. Jenny and Nick are just delightful, Nick’s tasty creations are mouth-wateringly described, and Heart’s Landing and her residents are picture perfect. For most, Jenny’s cousin won’t be an issue, and many will find this book to be the perfect rainy day read. Outside of the single issue, I found A Simple Wedding to be just that!

📖📖📖📖📖

This book is like watching an @hallmarkchannel movie. It’s so wonderfully funny and sweet! I really hope to see this made into a movie sometime in the near future! I high recommend this book. Jenny goes to plan her cousin’s wedding and meets Nick the local baker. They form a quick friendship and begin to fall in love but nick believes jenny is the bride. What a great story!

I received a free copy in exchange for my honest review. All options are my own.

I loved this first installment! I don't always get time to sit down and watch Hallmark movies with my husband and two boys usually controlling the remote, so being able to grab a classic Hallmark movie "book-style" is exactly what I needed! I loved the town, I loved the characters, and I can't wait to revisit Heart's Landing again soon.

Description from Amazon:

"Fall in love with Heart’s Landing,
a romantic wedding destination,
in the first book of a Hallmark series.

Jenny always dreamed of getting married at Heart’s Landing. But when she finally visits the charming small town, she’s there to make wedding arrangements for someone else: her cousin, who also happens to be her boss and a famous movie star. To keep the event secret and avoid a media circus, Jenny pretends she’s the one getting married.

Nick is intrigued by this bride-to-be who starts visiting his bakery every afternoon for sweet treats and conversation. He has to keep reminding himself that she’s already spoken for.

As Jenny deals with her cousin’s ever-changing demands, she tries to hide her attraction to Nick. Planning this wedding couldn’t be more complicated…and what will happen once the truth comes to light?

This funny, heartwarming romance includes a free original recipe for the best-ever Lemon Bars."

There is nothing “simple” when it comes to Karolyn “Kay” Karter. So, her ever-faithful assistant (& cousin) Jenny Longley should have known better when Kay the Movie Star tells her plan a “simple” wedding to her Hollywood Heartthrob hottie. Warning bells go off for Jenny when Kay directs her to Heart’s Landing, the #1 wedding destination in the USA and a place where Jenny herself dreamed of walking down the aisle to her HEA. But now she must quietly slip into Heart’s Landing and stealthily organize “her” wedding to cover for her cousin. No – there is nothing simple about this assignment for Jenny!

This author is new to me, and her book was a welcomed surprise! I did find that Ms. Duncan could get a bit caught up in descriptions and “setting the scene,” to the point where I felt the plot dragged a bit. But the charm of the characters made up for that; these are characters I hope to see again. As for Jenny, she did frustrate me at times – she seemed so wimpy in her interactions with Kay, who never really redeemed herself with me. But my frustration was nothing compared to Jenny’s as she had to pretend to be the ever-demanding, somewhat schizophrenic bride with the absentee fiancé! And how sweet was it that our hero is a baker – pun totally intended. Nick Bell was a perfect match for Jenny, although I wasn’t sure if the “true Heart’s Landing Bride” schtick was magical or marketing on his part. As the story takes place in a land where brides achieve their dream weddings, I will go with it being magical! This was an enjoyable read, and I hope Ms. Duncan takes us back to Heart’s Landing!

A city totally dedicated to making the brides dream come true.
Heart's Landing has shops and streets with names suggestive wedding, as Tux or Tails; Honeymoon Avenue; I Do Cakes, etc.

Jennifer "Jenny" Longley was a personal assistant to her cousin, a great Hollywood actress, Karolyn Karter.
When Kay falls in love with another Hollywood star and decides to get married in a hurry, Jenny takes care of planning the ceremony at Heart's Landing.
In fact, this has always been Jenny's own dream, but when her cousin "stole" her idea, for being grateful to be raised by Kay's mother, after her parents' death, she embraces the idea.
However, in order for the information not to appear in the newspapers, Jenny should act as if it were her own wedding

The city was a dream, the people were kind, but one of the merchants in particular was very interested in Jenny.

Nick Bell was the owner of I Do Cakes, which he had inherited from his father.
Despite being always involved in making others' dreams come true, Nick has not yet been lucky to find his great love.
But then Jenny appears in the city wanting to organize her wedding with Tom (or Bob), which makes Nick feel torn between maintaining his professional side and being completely attracted to another man's bride.
However, as the day of the ceremony arrives, some surprises (not so pleasant) cause the secret to surface and what could be great news, hurts the best people who had ever appeared in Jenny's life.

A totally Hallmark-style film/book, a lot of romance, a hint of comedy and a happy ending to make you sigh..
5 stars

What could possibly go wrong? A Simple Wedding by Leigh Duncan shows how very much could go wrong when Jenny Longley steps in for her famous cousin to plan a very simple wedding.

Keeping her cousin Kay's wedding a secret proves to be quite a challenge. As a popular and famous actor, Kay wants to hold a small intimate wedding at Hearts Landing.The very location Jenny has dreamed about since they were kids. Jenny goes along and acts as the bride to make all the arrangements. As long as she doesn't divulge that the real bride Kay. Things go along well, until Kay decides to make last minute changes.

Nick Bell is the wedding cake baker who befriends Jenny and enchants her with his mouth watering cupcakes. Problem is, he starts to fall for her. Knowing that she is engaged to someone else leaves the plot of the drama frustrating to say the least, as Jenny begins to fall for Nick as well. What will the truth reveal?

This is a delightfully sweet romance. Hallmark Publishing has hit the mark with this one.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book which I received from the publisher. All views expressed are my honest opinion.

She always wanted to be married at Heart's Landing, a town completely devoted to weddings, but instead her cousin beat her to it. Since she works for her cousin, Jenny is sent to Heart's Landing to arrange everything for her cousin, all the while pretending she is the bride-to-be. Obviously the town really steps up as there doesn't seem to be anything that is too dear. Jenny arranges everything, all the while wishing it was for her.

A Simple Wedding by Leigh Duncan is a great start to this new series from Hallmark Publishing!

Jenny's tasked with planning the perfect wedding for her cousin and famous movie star boss in the nation's top wedding destination: Heart's Landing. With only four weeks to plan the wedding and an order to keep the famous couple's identities under wraps, Jenny pretends she's in Heart's Landing to plan her own wedding. But lying to the kind hearted business owners isn't as easy as Jenny initially thought it would be, especially when Jenny begins to start falling for Nick. The sweet, charming baker pulls out all the stops to make sure Jenny gets her dream wedding and Jenny can't help but wonder if a future with Nick could be possible once she's finally able to tell the truth.

I love the concept of Heart's Landing! The sense of community and the town's commitment to delivering perfect wedding days are guaranteed to put a smile on any reader's face.

Thank you NetGalley, Hallmark Publishing and Leigh Duncan for the digital ARC.

Have fun - plan the wedding
Best-selling author and award winner Leigh Duncan presents a wedding that is many things but not simple in "A Simple Wedding. A Heart's Landing Novel from Hallmark Publishing". Jenny's desire since her childhood was to get married in Heart's Landing. Now she is there, enjoying the little town and planing every detail for a wedding which is not her's, but her best friend's who happens to be also her cousin and boss and a well-known actress. The wedding preparations need to stay secret and so the plans include Jenny's non-existent fiancé Tom/Bob. Jenny is not only struggling with her conscience and her cousin's changing requests, but also falling in love with Nick, the town's baker of marvelous chocolate cupcakes. But then something happens that pushes the truth into the open. How will Nick, how will the people of Heart's Landing react and what will be the consequences?
This was the second book by Leigh Duncan which I read. I really enjoyed it with it's believable and charming characters. It is a funny, heartwarming story, a clean romance and a relaxing and enjoyable read which I highly recommend to all readers who love romances with a wedding topic. And, once again Hallmark included one of there special recipes, this time the one for Lemon Bars.
The complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley free of charge. I was under no obligation to offer a positive review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
#ASimpleWedding #NetGalley

A fake wedding, even for the best of reasons, leads to complications & hard feelings. Jenny would do anything to show her aunt & cousin how much she appreciates them. She’s been her cousin Kay’s personal assistant for years. Now that Kay is an established actress & is now engaged to another actor, Kay needs Jenny more than ever. Jenny goes to Heart’s Landing undercover. While pretending to be setting up her own wedding, she’s really organizing Chad & Kay’s wedding without reporters catching wind of it. She just didn’t expect to make the friends she did & feel like she wears deceiving them.

Nick had come back to Heart’s Landing to take over his father’s cake shop, I Do Cakes. In the ten years he’s been running the business it’s grown to where he has very little free time to find his own happy ever after. He hopes to find that special someone but didn’t expect her to be engaged to someone else & planning her wedding. As circumstances keep throwing them together, his feelings grow stronger.

I really enjoyed this story. Everyone pulled together to try to give Jenny the wedding of her dreams & real friendships developed from it. The pace of the storyline was perfect. The scenery was well described & as a reader, I could picture it in my mind as I read. I really loved the way the relationship between Nick & Jenny slowly developed over time instead of the “instant” love that many enjoy. I would love to read more stories in the same setting!