Wedding Date by Monica Murphy, Felicity Munroe, Stephen Dexter

While Kelsey has been a part of the series since the first book, we only met Theo in Rate a Date, the book right before this one. Kelsey is model gorgeous and has had problems in the past when men fall in love with her face without really figuring out who she is. The two of them have become friends and Theo needs help. His ex-fiancee is marrying his cousin (yes, the cousin she cheated on Theo with) and, in the way of romance novels, one of his cousin's groomsmen is in jail and he needs Theo to even out the lines. Theo needs a date so he and Kelsey decide to set it up. Of course, they'll need to attend a few family events first to really sell it. 

We do get to see Kelsey fall in love with Theo and with his family and we also get to see Theo finally confess his feelings but it's all sort of low stakes and I kept wondering why Theo said yes in the first place. And why Kelsey worked so hard to encourage him to say it.

Three stars

This book came out December 1, 2020

Follows Rate a Date

Borrowed as audiobook from Audible Prime

Opinions are my own

Rate a Date by Monica Murphy, Emma Wilder, Patrick Zeller

What would you do if your friend set up a profile for you on a dating account? Would you keep dating, even if you weren't sure that meeting people online was the way to go? Eleanor Murray is trepidatious but goes for it. And she meets this guy Mitch. He's evasive about his job and never gives up his last name. He is also moving from California to Las Vegas. But he's hot so she's all in. 

There is not a lot of relationship development in this book so if that is your catnip, this is not going to be the book for you. Eventually it does come out what Mitch does but they get over it faster than he deserves.

Three stars

This book came out March 16, 2021

Follows Hate to Date You

Followed by Wedding Date

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

Hate to Date You by Monica Murphy

Another book where the best friend isn't a dick about their best friend and a sibling falling in love. It makes the story so much better. In this case, Stella Ricci's best friend has a brother. This is the man with whom Stella had one hot night and then he walked out never to be heard from again. 

Carter knows he was a dick, leaving early after his hot night with Stella. He knows that living with her (his sister's idea) isn't going to go over well but, well, he is trying to figure out his life. He just moved back to town after living the high life as a real estate agent. He made a lot of money but he spent a lot of money too so the cheaper rent will come in handy. 

Stella isn't at all delighted but she endures. Then, somehow, Carter starts to become wrapped up in her family, working on updating her grandmother's home and giving her father advice. They were just supposed to be having something light. What is going on?

Four stars

This book came out April 3rd 2020

Follows Holidate

Followed by Rate a Date

Borrowed as audiobook from Liby

Opinions are my own

Save the Date by Monica Murphy, Ava Lucas

Okay, the first maybe third of this book is about Caroline Abbott discovering that her newest bridezilla at the stationery store is engaged to Caroline's first kiss, then discovering that bridezilla is cheating on the hotel scion, and then telling Alexander. And that's all before they even decide to fake date so that Alexander's family can close a business deal in France. 

And it's all nuts but... somehow Murphy makes it work. And the narrators definitely add to the story.

Four stars

This book came out June 14th, 2019

Followed by Fake Date

Borrowed as audiobook from Audible Premium Plus

Opinions are my own

Holidate by Monica Murphy

An heiress, Candace Gaines doesn't have to work and she doesn't. But she volunteers, a lot. And that's what puts her in the path of Isabel Sullivan. Her family  tree farm is getting into the big leagues and Isabel wants to start donating time and money to various charities and she wants her oldest son, Charlie, to be the face of the company. However, Charlie isn't all that personable, nor does he want to be. He wants to help the family though so he agrees to go with Candice for... reasons, I guess.

Her original schedule includes something almost every night (she really loves Christmas and going to ALL the Things). But Charlie just wants to work. He likes his routine and this... is not routine.

There is not a lot of sex in this book. I wouldn't normally have noticed but the second book in the series had quite a bit (at least in my memory) so it felt like this book was from a completely different series.

It's a great holiday romance but I wish there had been more relationship development between Candace and Charlie and I didn't love the way the Big Misunderstanding unraveled (though, major props to Ms. Murphy for one of her characters actually articulating that it could have been fixed had two of the characters just talked to each other.)

Three and a half stars

This book came out October 15th 2019

Follows Fake Date

Followed by Hate to Date You

ARC kindly provided by Social Butterfly PR and NetGalley

Opinions are my own