With a premise like this you pretty much know what is going to happen, the trick is in crafting a story that is engaging and characters that you like. I would say this book just about does that. Hope is a very likeable character and despite her questionable decision making you still want to see her get her happily ever after. I wasn't sure what to think of Brent at first, but came to like who he was when he was with Hope. Seeing their relationship develop was the best part of the book. I also really liked that he recognized he was partly to blame for everything that had happened - had he known anything about the woman he was marrying he never would have been fooled the way he was. The marriage of convenience aspect was certainly something new, but allowed the premise to work better.

I thought the scene where Hope first pretends to be her sister was really well done. It's funny and you can see how/why Hope let herself get caught up in the whole charade. However, I then got frustrated with Hope because there were plenty of ways she could have gotten herself out of the entire mess. I also thought having her keep up the act through the actual wedding was a little too much.

One thing I would have liked to have played out in the book was the fallout from Brent finding out the truth - what was that conversation between Jackie and Hope like? And Brent and his family? I also would have liked it if Hope had gone to see Brent's grandmother rather than just written a letter - but I understand that the letter was necessary to set up the ending.

As for the ending, I did really like the way it played out between Brent and Hope. It fit what you had come to know about the characters and fit within the story.

The Duplicate Bride was such a cute contemporary read. The whole story definitely had an element of 'couldn't put downess' that makes a book special.

Hope is finally on summer vacation after another year of teaching and the only thing on her schedule is her sister's upcoming surprise wedding. When her sister calls needing a favor, Hope wishes she'd never answered the phone. Jackie wants Hope to switch places with her while she finishes up getting her current wedding panned out. Hope says absolutely not and plans to stick to that, until she gets to Jackie's future in-laws and they not only assume Hope is Jackie, the grandma also insults her. Hoping to help bridge the distance between the families, Hope pretends to be Jackie and quickly finds herself falling for Brent, her sister's fiance.

I don't want to go into more since spoilers, but this was a cute read and definitely wasn't what I expected. I enjoyed this story and thought it was super cute. The ending felt a bit rushed, but overall I enjoyed the writing style, the flow, and the characters to want to keep reading the entire story in one go. I can't wait to see what Ginny Baird does next.

The Duplicate Bride was my first book by Ginny Baird and color me impressed. The premise of this book was what drew me in.

Twin sisters Jackie and Hope are as different as night and day - personality wise, so when Jackie asks her twin to step in for her, the week before her wedding, so she can handle work issues, Hope is justifiably shocked. The plan is for Hope to help her sister out but not take her place.

What ends up happening is very different. Hope becomes Jackie and things get difficult when she discovers that a) her sister’s engagement is not what it seems and b) she is extremely attracted to her soon to be brother in law.

Intrigued? Need to know more? If yes, then this is the perfect book for you. The Duplicate Bride is a sweet and funny, clean romance with all kinds of twists and turns that will keep you glued to the page. TBR and Enjoy!

Having read Ginny Baird books before, many of them centered around weddings and brides, I was excited to read her newest. With its twin swapping nod to The Patent Trap, a favorite movie, I was looking forward to some fun frolics of schoolteacher Hope trying to imitate her career driven sister
Jackie’s more no nonsense personality.
Instead, Hope played herself, but used Jackie’s name. While the deception started innocently enough, with Hope trying to help form a bond between Brent’s family and her sister, Hope and Brent start to bond in a way he never did with a Jackie.
The longer the story and deception went on, the more implausible the story became for me. And when others got sucked into, and went along with, the switch, the more I began to dislike both sisters. I never liked Jackie, to be honest, but I think I expected more of Hope, especially since Brent really began to open up to her.
For me, the story went on too long and the play acting went way, way farther than it should have. While Hope was trying not to hurt anyone, she inevitably hurt everyone. I will say that a Jackie is the character who in my eyes is the most irredeemable, so it’s there’s any sort of sequel about her, I’ll be passing on that book. Hope was saved only because of Brent’s feelings for her and her own remorse. I’m grateful that this was a clean romance!
The writing was fine but the plot got away from this reader...and I think possibly the author as well. 2.75 stars.

Ginny Baird is a new-to-me author, and since I’m always on the hunt for my next favorite author, I opted to give this new book of hers a try. It’s a standalone contemporary romance that takes a marriage of convenience and mistaken identity to an entirely new level!

What I Liked Most About the Book: Hope’s heart and Brent’s family. Our heroine has a huge heart and a sweet personality and is the complete opposite of her twin sister. Her heart is truly in the right place, but it’s so easy for her to get caught up in the fantasy of her own happily ever after, especially since she’s a romance book enthusiast. And Brent’s family is the kind of family you really would want for your own. They are loyal, close-knit, and love big, but they aren’t perfect, either.

NICUnurse’s Rating: I’m married to a twin and despite the fact that my husband and his twin brother are very opposite and don’t look as much alike as they once did, they still are mistaken for each other a lot. So in a situation where the family doesn’t know Hope and barely knows her sister, it wouldn’t be too terribly hard to pull off playing Jackie. This story is a bit sweet, a little bit of heat, and a lot of swoon-worthy moments between Hope and Brent. And since neither one of them is a character you would want to hate, it totally tugged at my heartstrings, and I found myself absolutely rooting for the best for them both. This was a nice escape from the still harsh reality we are living in right now, and that says a lot because since the pandemic and quarantine began, I’ve had a hard time concentrating and enjoying even some of my top fave authors’ books. If you like contemporary romance and are looking for a happily ever romance without much angst at all, this is should be your next read!

I give The Duplicate Bride by Ginny Baird 4 out of 5 stars!

Thank you NetGalley, Ginny Baird and Entangled Publishing for the ARC of The Duplicate Bride. This is my personal review in exchange for this ARC.
The Duplicate Bride is about twin sisters. Jackie asks Hope to please step in for just a day to go to her fiancés family home. Hope is OK with helping her for a day but of course things happen and it just is not for one day.
I read the book and kept saying to myself that I found it hard to believe Jackie's fiancé could not be able to tell it is her twin sister Hope and not her. They book was an OK read but now one I would keep to reread later.

This book combines some of my favorite tropes-- notably marriage of convenience and fake engagement-- and blends them into something else entirely. Filled with drama, passion, and lots of deception, it follows Hope as she fills in for her twin sister for the festivities leading up to Jackie's (her twin's) wedding, falling for Jackie's fiance Brent in the process. Though there were definitely moments of aggravation toward the twins-- Jackie moreso than Hope-- it was overall a light, sweet read that had me rooting for Hope and Brent the whole way.
The cast of characters was a bit large and unruly, but they had me falling in love with them alongside Hope.
The writing style was more matter-of-fact, with more "telling" than "showing," a style I don't mind if it's done right-- and I think, for the most part, it was done right here.
All in all, I really liked it and would absolutely recommend it to anyone looking for a romantic read full of drama, fraught relationships, close familial ties, and a little (okay, a lot of) deception thrown in.

A quick and sweet contemporary romance that I enjoyed. Hope and Brent were likable characters that had great chemistry. However, the twin-swapping was a little unrealistic even if Brent and Jackie's relationship was more like a business traction without affections to start with. Overall, it's a nice romance that left you with the warm and fuzzy feels.

I volunteered to provide an honest review of an advance complimentary copy of this book.

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The Duplicate Bride by Ginny Baird is a cute story in the Haley Mills – Parent Trap sort of way. In fact I could see a grown Haley Mills playing the role of Hope and Jackie. I liked Brent Albright and his family but wondered how this could all work out. Wouldn’t he care when he found out the truth.?

In the Parent Trap it was the twins who had been lied to all their lives about having a sister so they pulled the prank. In this case, it is the twins playing the switch on unsuspecting Brent. The women’s saving grace is the marriage planned is more of a business deal. That helped me to go along with this outrageous plot of a story.

All of the above is in the description so I am not really giving anything away. To find out what happens as Hope impersonates Jackie when these two are only alike in looks, you need to read it for yourself. As is always the case, the truth does come out.

An ARC of the book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley which I voluntarily chose to read and reviewed. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

An entertaining and well written romance. Great plot and character development. Romance readers will enjoy this book. I received an advance ebook from the publisher and this is my unbiased review.

Hope is compassionate, kind-hearted and there isn’t anything she wouldn’t do for her twin sister Jackie and that includes pretending to be her for a family get together with Jackie’s fiance’s family. She isn’t sure if she is going to be able to pull off as that couldn’t be more different except when it comes to their appearance.

Brent comes from an affluent family and is poised to takeover the family business and all he needs is the perfect woman to be his wife and Jackie fits the image he is looking for. Their arrangement is more merger than marriage, so although she looks like his fiancé, she isn’t acting like his fiancé, and the feelings he is developing for her are not the ones he used to have for his fiancé however he is about to find out that appearances can be deceiving.

On paper Brent and Jackie couldn’t have been a better match as they are both focused on their careers but with Hope, he finds what he didn’t know he was looking for.

2.5 stars. I struggled with this story. I had trouble staying interested, and I still don't understand how she didn't tell his family right at the start. I really like twin romances, and mistaken identity stories so I expected to really enjoy this, but the humour felt more awkward and cringe worthy than cute or funny. I didn't feel any chemistry between them, and the epilogue was just weird. The writing was fine. Overall, if this was a physical book, it would be hitting my donate pile. Maybe you will find my metaphorically donated book and view it as a treasure. *I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and this is my voluntary and honest review.

A typical clean romance about a twin sisters switching places the week before the wedding...Hope got stuck playing the bride for her sister who selfishly couldn't attend the week of wedding activities...of course fell in love with the groom who couldn't tell them apart...

The Duplicate Bride by Ginny Baird is a stand alone romance where identical twin sisters have to do the ole switcheroo in order to save one’s upcoming wedding and career. But things spiral quickly when the wrong twin starts falling for the groom and the groom has no idea that he’s not falling for his bride, but her sister. Think of it like the adult version of parent trap. I’m not going to lie, this book was a little hard for me to review. While I liked certain aspects of the book and thought they were funny, there were some things that bothered me about the plot.

Hope and Jackie are identical twins. Jackie is a workaholic wedding planner who, while trying to deal with her own wedding, gets into a kerfuffle with the current wedding she is trying to plan and begs her sister to take her place with her own wedding to meet the groom’s family and they’ll switch back in a day or so. Hope is a sweet, carb loving twin who loves her sister dearly. Hope, refusing her sister’s request at first, gets caught up in the tangled web and ends up reluctantly taking her sister’s place. As she starts meeting Brent and his family, she starts to fall for all of them, especially Brent. And as Jackie keeps extending when she is going to be at her own wedding, the tangled web becomes bigger.

*Spoiler warning: From this point on, it’s hard for me to get into why this is so hard to review without revealing a big plot point that isn’t brought up until 75% of the book is done, so if you don’t want to know, look away now and stop reading. You have been warned.*

I think, going in, suspending belief is required because some things are way out there. In doing so, I enjoyed the book for what it was which was like a Hallmark movie that would never work in real life but is campy enough to make you laugh. Twin sisters, one who likes to run and diet and the other who is totally opposed, physically probably don’t look alike but her own groom couldn’t tell the difference? Very sus. But I liked Brent and his family. They were all likeable and sweet and while it took a little while for them to warm up to Hope/Jackie, they end up loving her.

Hope and Brent have an instant connection and Brent realizes that there is something different about “Jackie” and as he spends more time with her, starts falling for her. I say starts because he and Jackie were going to have a marriage of convenience after dating only three months and weren’t in love with each other. At this point I’m like, ok, maybe it’s not cheating then. But 75% in we get from Jackie the breaking point “oh yeah, I’m not going to make it for my wedding. You can do it. We’re technically married already. It’s fine.”…….What!!!!??? No, nuh uh. And this wasn’t even the worst part! Because Hope goes thru with it! And when Jackie finally decides to show up, Hope finally confesses her feelings and Jackie admits she was never going to say anything!! And after poor Brent gets catfished hardcore, he reads a letter from Hope apologizing and everything is hunky dory and they wind up married…. This is why I say that if this happened in real life, I would be suing for emotional damage and not getting married to someone that played me for the biggest fool ever. Suspend all disbelief and it’s a funny read but that last quarter of the book, I couldn’t enjoy it anymore.

This is a really cute story about identical twins switching places. Jackie is about to marry Brent, but she can't make it in time. She's a wedding planner herself and the wedding she's working on has just fallen apart. So she begs her twin, Hope and convinces her to go to her fiancé's family home and pretend to be her. Hope refuses and says she'll go and explain why Jackie hasn't arrived.

Hope shows up and everyone thinks she's Jackie. She figured surely Brent would realize that she wasn't the right person, but he believes it the most. She's so confused that she just rolls with it. Maybe they'll realize soon?

While pretending to be Jackie, Brent and Hope develop real feelings for each other and Hope doesn't know how to break it to Jackie. How does a person fall in love with their sisters fiancé? And what will Brent say when he finds out the truth?

I enjoyed this one. I initially thought this was going to be a little more on the funny side but it was a little more emotional. These two characters are slowly falling in love but they also have this deception between them. And you wonder how these two can make it work.

Hope Webb's twin sister Jackie, asks her to switch places for the pre-wedding festivities. Immediately she refuses. There's no way they can pull it off now as adults. The plan is she'll go ahead and make apologies for Jackie but when Brent's grandmother makes a comment that bugs her, and he can't tell she's not Jackie, she makes the decision to pose as Jackie. Besides It's only for a day.

Brent Albright notices the change in his fiancee but is enjoying this different side of her. After their initial doubts his family is finally starting to like her and so is he. So he starts to woo her for real this time., hoping for more than a marriage of convenience.

Thanks to Entangled Publishing and NetGalley for this ARC

The story of twins who switch places has always intrigued me. Hope and Jackie switch for what they expect to be one day but extends to a week and alters the lives of two families fORever.

But when all is said and done, Hope can't continue the charade and tells the truth. Although the truth hurts, continuing living a lie is painful too. Will forgiveness happen? Read to find out: it was a fun book.

I received a free ARC eBook from Net Galley and the publisher in exchange for my honest opinions.

i’m going back & forth on this review.

did i enjoy it? sometimes.

was it very drawn out? totally.

did it make me want to read all the marriage of convenience romances? definitely.

would i recommend it? probably to my friends who prefer clean romance!

i’ll give it 4 ⭐️ but it for sure was not my fave.

thanks for the arc, entangled pub!

Twins swapping places – what could possibly go wrong? Hope is a teacher who has the summer off when her twin, Jessica, begs her to fill in for her at her fiancé’s home. Jessica is supposed to be preparing for her own wedding when there is a snafu with her own business. Hope agrees to fill in, but will let them know that she is Jessica’s twin and is only there to help with the wedding preparations. Before Hope can tell them, they assume that she is Jessica and Hope begins to have feelings for Brent and his family. Will Hope continue to deceive Brent? I just couldn’t understand how you would ask your sister to take care of your wedding or why the sister would agree. The plot seemed thin and the characters naïve at best. I received an advance review copy at no cost and without obligation for an honest review. (by paytonpuppy)

DNF @34%
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I've never read Ginny's books before so I requested this book on NetGalley purely on curiousity. It gave me this The Parent Trap vibes so naturally I had to read it.
At first, it's about twins exchanging their identities for a day. I was like ''okay, sure, it's just a day'' even though I don't particularly love they (especially Hope) had to lie to people.
Then I just wasn't feeling it anymore.

What bothered me?
I thought this book would be fun but the more I read the weirder it got. First of all, Brent didn't suspect anything. I mean, if his supposed fiancée doesn't remember important conversations and keep asking about them, I think you should be a little suspicious? But no, there was zero, zilch suspision. He just thought she forgot because she's a wedding planner and therefore very busy.
Second, this is not a love arrangement. Which is fine, considering Hope and Brent are meant to be together but at the same time I kept asking myself why would Brent and Jackie even marry? It looked more and more like a business arrangement. They were the worst match ever.
Don't even let me start on Jackie. I think her actions were arrogant. This is too much. To ask her twin sister to drive to Brent's house, meet his family, interact with them and then they would just swap places?
No, that's just wrong. If I thought it cute at first, it went crazier after the first couple chapters.
I understood Hope for wanting to be there for her sister but enough is enough.

When I reached third of the book, I realised this book is really slow. There's no heat, no chemistry. I need to feel the connection. I'm used to at least some tension between characters so I checked the reviews. It looks like it's a clean romance and I'm not a fan of that. I also saw in reviews that the pacing of the story does not change. In fact, the story gets more ridiculous.
I'm not interested in that therefore I decided to read other books that captured my attention.
This one unfortunately didn't.