Summer Seaside Wedding
Summer Seaside Wedding
by Abigail Gordon
Harlequin Medical Romance
On sale date: Apr 1, 2011
Miniseries: The Bluebell Cove Stories
Category: Classic Romance
Here’s how “Summer Seaside Wedding” opens:
“It was June and the hot summer sun above made the confines of the car feel restricting as Leo Fenchurch drove along the road at the top of the cliffs in Bluebell Cove, a costal village in the Devonshire countryside.(Note the 86-word sentence. This would probably give a contest judge a heart attack!)
“It had been a long morning. The first surgery of the day had been followed by home visits to the patients of the Tides Practice, where he was employed as one of the two doctors here, and now every time he glanced down at the sea, blue and dazzling as it danced onto the sandy beach, his collar felt tighter, his smart suit more a burden than an asset, and the yearning to pull into a deserted lay-by and change into the swimming trunks he always carried in the car was strong.”
I love it! Love it! Love it!
When I reviewed Abigail Gordon’s “The Village Nurse’s Happy-Ever-After” back on February 26, 2011, I marveled at how the story did not open with a hook, how the first chapter featured plenty of back story, and how there was plenty of physical description. New writers are told not to do these things as they slow up the story.
Also new writers are told, in so many words, that today’s readers are so dimwitted that if each paragraph doesn’t open with a hook and end with a cliffhanger, even fans will lose interest and pick up another book. (It’s a good thing not many fans read writing books.)
After reading, “The Village Nurse’s Happy-Ever-After” (see my review here), I just couldn’t wait to read the next "Bluebell Cove" book. Why? Because Abigail Gordon is a great storyteller. She lets you know she is going to tell you a story, she sets the scene and when the stage is set, she spins her tale. It’s so natural and smooth that I just loved it. When I read, “The Village Nurse’s Happy-Ever-After,” I wondered if the author always writes in this storyteller mode of if “The Village Nurse’s Happy-Ever-After” was just a one-off.
Well, “Summer Seaside Wedding” is even better! I liked it even more! Almost every bit of dialogue between the hero Dr. Leo Fenchurch and heroine is highly emotionally charged. The heroine, Dr. Amelie Benoir, is so feisty that she instantly asks questions that almost anyone else would have the good sense not ask – at least not so early as the first day in a relationship.
These hero/heroine conversations are like lightening flashes on a very warm summer’s night. All I can say is ‘wow’! “Summer Seaside Wedding” offers a great case study in how to write dialogue that fires up the reader’s attention.
The Story:
The hero, Dr. Leo Fenchurch, is a handsome bachelor with no intention of getting married any time soon. The heroine, Dr. Amelie Benoir, is a brand new French doctor who arrives in Bluebell Cove on what would have been her wedding day. Only she was jilted! She’s come to England for a six month stay to get experience in General Practice. Amelie is an outspoken Plain Jane who usually says what’s on her mind and then wishes she could take what she said back. She believes in moving a relationship along in giant leaps! “Summer Seaside Wedding” is about as fast a moving story as you’ll ever read.
The story is really about fireworks. Nothing fancy just toally captivating storytelling!
I think everyone should read at least one Abigail Gordon Medical Romance!
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