The Make Believe Wedding

The first book and ninth book of the “The Great Wedding Giveaway Series”, “What a Bride Wants” and “The Make Believe Wedding”, respectively, are romances with a capital R.

Set in the fictional town of Marietta, Montana, both books are about strong women and the alpha men they love.

Author Kelly Hunter had the honor to debut the series with her “What a Bride Wants” which follows Ella Grace Emerson and Cam Sawyer who comes from the opposite end of the financial spectrum in Marietta. Ella Grace is the crowned “princess” of Marietta being the working heiress of the vast Emerson ranch and her family’s other holdings. Cam Sawyer is a lowly bartender at the local watering hole. It’s a recipe for disaster but both of them were in for several big surprises before they can get their happily ever after.

If the first book is about Marietta’s royalty, the ninth book, Sarah Mayberry’s “The Make Believe Wedding” is about blue collar workers. Andie Bennet, currently a journeyman electrician has been in love with her brother’s best friend and currently her boss, Heath McGregor since she was 13. Andie was ready to give up on her unrequited love but the Marietta Great Wedding Giveaway happened and all of a sudden, Andie was in the running for Heath’s affections.

A series is usually done by one author. “The Great Wedding Giveaway Series” defies that norm. Someone at Tule Publishing had the great idea of pulling these stories under one “roof” - the “Montana Born Books”. With the fictional town of Marietta as the common ground that binds all the books, what we have a great collection of books authors.

This was a pretty quick, light, fun read and I really enjoyed it. This is a best friend’s forbidden sibling slash pretend engagement story and I thought the two tropes blended really well. Andie has loved Heath for years but he has never seen her as anything but his best friend’s little sister and his valued employee and friend. One drunken Valentines Day she fills out an application for a dream wedding contest weaving her dreams of a relationship with Heath with just enough truth. Imagine her surprise when they are named semi finalists. Heath saves her by agreeing to pretend until the contest is over but one night things change, attraction boils over and there is no going back. I found this book to be a great love story. There's not angst everywhere, we’re not constantly running into psycho exes everywhere (just one but that's early) and no one is trying to kill anyone (I've been on a romantic suspense kick lately so this book made for a nice change of pace). The characters communicate, solve problems quickly and generally act like adults and I really like that. If you're looking for a fun love story this just might be the one for you. I received an ARC from the publisher through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Well written story!!!

Great pacing and engaging characters. Good secondary characters as well. Kept me engaged from the first pages and couldn't stop till I finished the book.

Andie has has loved Heath forever it seems like but she has always been in the friend category, while she watch him date petite,, curvy, brunette women. Total opposite from her. Oh, and she works for his construction company.

Well one night Andie had a little too much to drink at a valentines party. Watching Heath dance with his latest instigated the overindulgence of course, but it made her do something that created a situation.

Really enjoyed their story unfold and the friend to lovers romance. Again great pacing and good chemistry too!

Www. Goodreads/Esther_P

Andie snuggled further beneath the covers. Having Heath in her bed—even virtually—was a rare pleasure, and she wasn’t above enjoying it.
When you’d been nursing unrequited love for a man for years, you learned to take your moments where you could find them.

Sarah Mayberry has definitely come up trumps again – this book was had me swooning at its perfection.

How much do I love about it? Let me count the ways:

1. Andie – how many female electricians to you a) know and b) see in romances? Going by how much I liked Andie in this book then not enough! Although being a short story, we didn’t really get to see enough of her interaction with the work guys, I loved the way she handled herself. In the first chapter, I felt she was wallowing a bit too much and I was worried this would go on for the whole book but you could see it was partly due to the drink, partly due to the location and I like how she handled her yearning in the rest of the book. And the sassy side of her, the way she gave as good as she got to Sharon? You go girl!

“Not woman enough? That’s not what Heath said last night in the car. And this morning in the shower. And the other day on the kitchen table. And it’s definitely not what he’s going to say tonight. You want to know what he does say, Sharon? That he can’t get enough. Ever.”

eedf7318242405b75e5e892bcde6f3ec2. Heath – why hello there perfect guy! Yes he might start out the book a bit clueless but I can forgive him that when he is otherwise my ideal guy. I loved the video he made for the wedding competition.

3. Backstory – I liked how we got to see Heath/Andie’s interactions from when they were back friends either through memories or Andie’s real/fiction wedding application.

4. Tropes – I adore a good friends-to-lovers story but sometimes the transition can seem a bit forced, which is why I liked the inclusion of a ‘fake relationship’ here as a reason for Heath to start looking at Andie differently. I liked the use of Heath reading the fake wedding application Andie submitted as the ‘realisation moment’.

5. Beau/Andie’s sibling relationship – I liked their scenes and the backstory of their brother as explanation as to why he is so protective of her.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THIS IS THE LAST BOOK IN THE SERIES? BUT WHAT ABOUT BEAU/LILY’S STORY?! I NEED THEIR STORY!!!

“I just wondered where you were, that’s all.” His gaze dropped to the shadowy valley between her breasts, a geographic feature that was only possible thanks to the engineering geniuses at Victoria’s Secret.
Andie went very still. She was pretty sure Heath had never looked at her breasts before. Ever. Maybe Lily had been right about the blue t-shirt.

Book: 5*

Cover: 3*

Make-Believe Wedding by Sarah Mayberry

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Andie is a girl with a problem, being in love with her brothers best friend for most her life but hiding it from him. She works side by side with him and hangs out with him like one of the guys watching him date and never look at her. She dreams of the day he sees her for the women that she is. She enters a contest by accident when she fills out a contest form with her dream life with Heath and some how it gets entered and life spins out of control.

Heath is a man with a hard past who's worked hard to get ahead in.life, not staying with one women to long, he doesn't think anything of Andie but his best friends sister and coworker, but when this contest comes into play and he can't let her get humiliated he steps up and becomes her fiancé. But the first moment his lips meet hers he can't get her out of his head. How she felt in his arms, the feel of her body, the softness of her lips.

Can these two over come everything and let love win?

View all my reviews

Andie is a girl with a problem, being in love with her brothers best friend for most her life but hiding it from him. She works side by side with him and hangs out with him like one of the guys watching him date and never look at her. She dreams of the day he sees her for the women that she is. She enters a contest by accident when she fills out a contest form with her dream life with Heath and some how it gets entered and life spins out of control.

Heath is a man with a hard past who's worked hard to get ahead in.life, not staying with one women to long, he doesn't think anything of Andie but his best friends sister and coworker, but when this contest comes into play and he can't let her get humiliated he steps up and becomes her fiancé. But the first moment his lips meet hers he can't get her out of his head. How she felt in his arms, the feel of her body, the softness of her lips.

Can these two over come everything and let love win?

Recieved copy from Netgally for honest review

I read this book as a stand alone and The characters were appealing for reading and I wasn't disappointed.

Andie Bennett has been in love with a secret crush for over 13 years and she has never told a soul, she couldn't because it was her brothers best friend Heath McGregor and he looked at her like a little sister or one of the guys. She ended up going to the Valentines Day dance alone, and seeing that Heath didn't even really notice her dressed up she decides to get drunk and when someone came around with an application to the Make Believe Wedding, she ended putting all her frustrations and feelings on paper, but what she didn't know is she entered in the contest and this is where the chaos started.

This was a fun short read with a touch of humour and chemistry. I can't wait to read Beau's story, he reminds me of a Bear, and you know what happens when you poke a bear right??

The only thing disappointing in THE MAKE-BELIEVE WEDDING is its size – which actually qualifies as a novella. Sarah Mayberry always writes a delightful story that just inspires the reader to smile and walk away a very satisfied customer. THE MAKE-BELIEVE WEDDING certainly did make me smile and at times laugh out loud because it is a well written situational comedy complete with one-liners. It’s well worth the price of admission.

THE MAKE-BELIEVE WEDDING is part of the ongoing Montana Born Brides series called the Great Wedding Giveaway. This story truly stands on its own merit and did not depend on any prior familiarity with any characters.

The premise is simple. Andie Bennett having attended stag and having a little too much to drink at the Valentine’s Day Ball had a little too much idle time on her hands. And so she innocently decided to fill in an application for a wedding prize package – truly a mock version – but candidly based on a whole lot of truth. Liquor has a way of loosening one tongue and inhibitions – in this case it sort of gave Andie a whole lot of literary license.

Wouldn’t you know it – if Andie had any kind of luck it would be bad. Her mock application somehow was collected along with legitimate ones and somehow winds up in the final running for this prize. Surely she would be able to head off any real damage – remember Andie and her luck? Well not to be.

So there is she in front of the whole town, all her friends and her overly possessively, protective brother Beau trying to explain why she and said brother’s best friend Heath are in the finals.

Honestly Andie has had a major crush on Heath all these years. They were thrown together often because of Heath and Beau’s friendship. But Andie never considered herself in the running for anything more than just good friends. Physically she wasn’t Heath’s type. And Heath would never cross that boundary with his best friends little sister.

Never say never. Suffice it to say that where Andie was concerned neither Heath nor Beau would ever fail to come to her aid. The application and contest has left Andie in a very vulnerable position and Heath was destined to become her white knight. Best friends make the best couples.

THE MAKE-BELIEVE WEDDING is a great little story with just enough meat to keep you interested even with its brevity. Sarah Mayberry is a jewel and with this novella provides a tasty little morsel for any romantic’s appetite.

I liked this story a lot, one of the Montana Born Brides Series, of which I have read and enjoyed the majority.

Andie has been in love with her brother's best friend for years and hoped to catch his eye at the annual Valentine's Ball, going all out having bought an expensive dress, had her hair done specially and been shown how to do make-up. Alas he called her Panda which was her childhood nickname and went off with his date!

Andie got drunk and entered them into a competition to win a dream wedding, which as you can imagine came back to bite her on the backside as we say!.

I won't give too much of the story away but it was really refreshing to see people doing normal jobs, not being billionaires and whisking others off their feet, and also enjoyed how Andie wasn't the most stunning person to have walked the planet being a supermodel, actress etc but an electrician. Very down to earth which made it more likeable to me.

Highly recommended and I look forward to Beau's story, dare I hazard a guess with Lily??

I really like this book.

Andie had loved Heath basically all of her life. Heath had never even really seen Andie any other way than as a little sister or kid. They work together every day and Andie would do anything for Heath to actually notice her.

Enter the Valentine’s Ball, too much drinking on Andie’s part and she unknowingly enters her and Heath into the Great Wedding Giveaway. She knows that she is not Heath’s type, but she has her hopes and dreams and that is what she writes down on the entry form.

Heath finally starts to really SEE Andie, but thinks that he shouldn’t be having these thoughts and feelings about his best friend’s sister. He tries to fight his feelings and Andie knows that she is going to get her heart broke in the end BUT DOES SHE? Heath wants to tell her how he really feels but doesn’t get a chance before her brother scares her off. Heath finally gets a chance to see the entry form and realizes how Andie truly feels about him and that he feels the same way.

I loved how the story ended and how everything has its own way working out in time.

**ARC received from NetGalley for an honest review**

The Make Believe Wedding is an excellent choice for a romantic read. This novel by Sarah Mayberry is sweet, hot, and funny. Andie has a fantasy of her friend Heath. But Heath doesn’t know it. Andie fills out a slip for a Great Wedding Giveaway..but doesn’t actually enter. Somehow fate takes it place by making both Andie and Heath the finalists for the giveaway. Heath creates a plan to make it look like both he and Andie are in an engagement only to quietly break apart. But what neither one realizes is that the engagement is no longer just pretend. The feelings and the attractions are real. Will Heath convince Andie they should be together? Or will she feel Heath’s attraction is just friendly? I enjoyed reading this novel from beginning to end! I fell in love with the strong characters and fell hard for the brewing romance between to friends. I highly recommend others to pick up this book and start reading! This is a romance that will heat up your night! I rate this novel a 5 out of 5 stars.

Ooooh, unrequited love given wings and how. Loving her friend and boss since forever, Andie succumbs to the temptation to pretend...on paper...while she's drunk and ends up a finalist in the great wedding giveaway. Heath, the object of her deep affection, helps her to save face...and in the process realized what a gem he has had under his nose all the time. Love the "yes, dreams do come true" aspect of this story arc. WE all have THE ONE we wanted with all our hearts once upon a time. This story takes us through what might have been if our dream came true. Definite recommend.

fantastic author every book is one not to miss...story is wonderful

This was a book that I liked the sound of and an author I've never read before, but I will definitely be reading again. I absolutely loved Heath & Andie. In some ways this is your typical girl pines for guy, makes guy notice her, and they fall for each other, but this story is also unique. Andie isn't your typical female, she's a kick ass electrician and Heath is her boss/brother's best friend. Andie gets drunk at the Valentine's ball & enters herself and Heath in the Great Wedding Giveaway unintentionally. When she is informed, at work, that she and Heath are finalists she is mortified. Heath, being a good guy rolls with it and things escalate from there. I found myself laughing out loud at times, and cringing with embarrassment at others. This book hooked me in and kept me until the last page. I didn't put it down until I was done. It's a wonderful book and one I recommend to all romance readers. I'm giving it 4.5 stars.

This was short, sweet and well written! What's not to like?

Andie Bennett has been love with his older brother's best friend Heath McGregor since forever but he has never noticed her. At least not in the way she wants to be noticed. Years of unrequited longing for

Heath resulted in Andie pouring her heart out on a Great Wedding Giveaway entry that she has no plan on submitting. But fate has other ideas. Andie and Heath found themselves engaged and finalists of the contest. And so their story begins.

Yes, this trope has been done many times before but I still found myself loving Andie and Heath's journey to HEA. Aside from being well-written, Andie and Heath and sympathetic characters. Plus their chemistry is smoking hot. And once Heath started noticing Andie for the wonderful woman she is, he was there all the way. There was no going back for him even when met with his best friend and Andie's brother's disapproval. That made their HEA sweet and believable.

What a wonderful story of Andie and Heath.

This was a great read. Andie has been in love with Heath, her brother’s best friend, since she was 13. They grew up together and now she works for him, but he’s never noticed her as a woman. The night of the town Valentine’s Day Dance, she hopes to finally change that and dresses to knock his socks off. Except..he doesn’t notice. A little drunk and a lot frustrated, she fills out a questionnaire about her and her fiance – adding her name as the bride and Heath’s as the groom – for a Great Wedding Giveaway the town is hosting. She accidentally leaves it on the table, then forgets all about it. Until three months later when the Chamber of Commerce tracks them down to tell them they’re semi-finalists in the giveaway.
When Heath sees how humiliated Andie is, he offers to pretend to be her fiance until the winners of the giveaway are chosen. He doesn’t see much harm in it, especially if it will save Andie embarrassment in town. Until they share a kiss in public. Then he suddenly realizes Andie is a woman, not just his best friend’s little sister and his employee.
There were so many great things about this book. Andie is an electrician, for one. She’s also tall, reed thin and more cute than pretty. She can out-fish, out-hunt and out-spit most men. All-in-all, she’s pretty much the opposite of every romance heroine out there. I loved it. Her feelings for Heath came across as very real. A lot of times when one is carrying a torch for someone their feelings are shallow or they love the ideal of the person. Andie really knew Heath. Her love made sense.
Heath was a little dense when it came to Andie’s feelings, but I like how his eyes were slowly opened to her and how his feelings developed once he realized she was an actual woman. His attraction to her came on slowly – he was so used to seeing her in the role of friend/employee – but he didn’t deny it. He realized pretty quickly he wanted more than just a fling with Andie and did his best to show her how he felt.
Mayberry has always been great at pulling me into a story. I finished this one with a smile on my face and a happy heart.
I’m told Beau, Andie’s brother, and Lily, her best friend, will get a book early next year. I’m really looking forward to it.
4.25 out of 5

Lovely, enjoyable, sweet and magical is how I would describe this book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. From page one to the end this book had me smiling and laughing out loud. If you're looking for a feel good romance I highly recommend this book.

This sweet and sexy romance is the story of Andie and Heath. Friends forever, Andie has nursed a one sided love for Heath since being a teenager, one that has only gotten stronger over time, while Heath has never seen Andie as anything more than his best friend's little sister. When a drunken Andie fills out her heart's desire for a wedding competition, little does she expect that she and her 'fiance' Heath will be picked to be in the running. To save her from embarrassment, Heath offers to pretend to be involved with her until the competition ends, after which they'll quietly break up and resume being friends. Only, when the pretense starts to get a little too real, Heath suddenly sees Andie for who she really is, a beautiful grown woman - is it too late for him to make her believe that his feelings for her might actually be real?

This was such a fun story to read! I always enjoy Sarah's writing style, and this story has everything I look for in a contemporary romance - interesting characters, fun filled situations, family and friend dynamics, a little tension and a lot of chemistry. I liked Andie's character. She is a strong woman when it comes to holding her own as one of the guys in her job as an electrician with Heath's construction company. But when it comes to dealing with men as dates, she is shy and less self assured. Heath is a handsome, dedicated and loyal man, a bit of a playboy but never settling down with one woman. Being put in the position of fiance for Andie is something he never envisioned happening, but seeing her in a new light makes him realize what he's been missing all along. There is definitely sexual chemistry between them, and when they give into this attraction, the resulting love scenes are steamy and satisfying. Also, there are some secondary characters introduced in the story, namely Andie's less than pleased brother Beau and best friend Lily who have a definite spark of something between them that I hope will be addressed in a future book.

Overall, I found this to be a fast paced and entertaining story with believable and attractive characters and a sweet and sexy romance. 4 stars!

This continues in the winning style of Tule Publishing and their Montana Series... so good and just sweet yet feisty...Our gal gets a little carried away dreaming about the man she secretly loves... and oops... she is the winner of the dream wedding... What will happen and how will all of this end up??? You know you are in good hands with this series...

Cute, enjoyable read.

Now we're talking.

The heroine has been in love with the hero for half her life, the hero has been completely oblivious to her feelings (and charms) because she happened to be his best friend's sister...And it took a drunken contest entry and a little luck to open his eyes.

I loved this one. I simply adored it. The story flowed beautifully, the voice was great, the characters (main and supporting) were wonderful, the mix-up at the beginning a hoot, providing much more "hootiness" throughout the story...I just loved it.

This is a well written, short and sweet story about two good friends turned lovers, and the heroines unrequited love for the hero.

An die has known Heath for almost her whole life and has been in love with him for half of it. The trouble is that Heath only sees her as his best friends little sister and not the woman that she has become. When Andie and Heath are accident,y entered into a wedding gateway contest things begin to shift. One kiss will rock their world and change everything. The question is, can Heath see Andie as anything other than the kid sister he always thought of her as?

While this book is relatively short, Ms. Mayberry did a fabulous job of writing a story that was complete and didn't make you feel as though you were missing chunks of the storyline. The characters for well written and the dialogue flowed very naturally. Overall, it was a very enjoyable story!

*I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion*

I liked the fact that the “Great Wedding Giveaway” series is done by a number of authors. I think that it makes it more fun to read about situations and characters in the same small town of Marietta, Montana but from different authors’ perspectives.
Make Believe Wedding is the story of Andie Bennett, who has a bit of a day dream moment during a Valentine’s day dance and fills out an entry form into the great wedding giveaway, never intending to actually put in the entry form. Thanks to the romance fairies that exist only in romance books, the entry form does get entered and becomes one of the finalists. Her best friend Heath McGregor, decides to play along with the charade and let everyone believe he and Andie are a couple, instead of Andie becoming the laughing stock of the town, not realizing how much he cares about Andie to begin with.
I enjoyed this story. The characters were charming, the storyline was appealing. It was a great short, sweet and fun read. All in all, a lot of fun.

Once again I joined a series in the middle … do you guys sense a theme? This time though I feel that maybe I missed out on some of the nuances that make this series so great. There were relationships and moments that probably would have been better appreciated if I had a grasp of their history. But the main story itself was definitely complete and totally enjoyable.

I loved Heath and Andie together. The idea of the friends to lovers storyline has always been one of my favorites and this one has a little Ugly Duckling thrown in just to make me extra happy. The premise might seem a little far-fetched, but Mayberry makes it work. And once the two are a couple for real, it is wonderful.

At about 150 pages, The Make Believe Wedding is a little more than novella length but it reads super-fast. With a years-long friendship to guide them, the interactions between Heath and Andie are both fun and sweet. Heath is strong and caring, but just hasn’t found the right woman yet. When he realizes that Andie has gotten herself into an embarrassing situation, he’s got a big enough heart that he’s willing to help her out. But it might lead to more than he expected.

Andie is convinced she’s the woman that Heath needs and has been right in front of him forever. Logically she knows that if he wanted her romantically he would have done something by now but the brain and the heart are not always connected. There are times when her feelings for Heath will break your heart but it is well worth it to get to their HEA.

There are a lot of secondary characters that I feel like I would know more about if I’d read the other stories. It wasn’t that big a deal but I think I would have enjoyed having them around a little more if I’d been more informed. Overall though it didn’t hurt the main plot and was just a minor irritant.

Full of angst and warmth, The Make Believe Wedding will grab your heart and hold on until the last page.

I adored this book! Andie was a perfect heroine and Heath, oh my! Ms. Mayberry's writing was good, crisp and clean. I'll be searching for more of her work.

Thank you for the ARC.

Make-Believe Wedding was that one romance that had all the melodramatic tropes of a friends to lovers story without the drama. In fact aside from being sweet and romantic with a well thought out romantic plot development, Sarah Mayberry has managed to make both Andie and Heath real for the readers. Andie's unrequited love can seem pathetic at first glance but each tell tale emotion, action and words instead paints a picture that we don't get to choose whom to love but instead its chosen for us and that for her it was really bittersweet. While Heath's sudden interest in Andie can be seen as well sudden. But it was written in a manner similar to blinders being removed and for him this was like being given that gift of seeing Andie for the first time as a romantic interest. Excellently crafted with characters that were captivating Make-Believe Wedding is one contemporary romance guaranteed to bring a smile to readers.

Easy to read novel, engaging characters and a heart warming romance.