The Trophy Bride

Melly has the perfect life - that is, if you don’t count her rich, overly-controlling obsessive fiancé, Brent. He actually has the nerve to introduce her by another name, one much more suitable than the name her parents gave her. He chooses all her clothes, doubts her judgment, and basically dictates her life. Melly is content to let him take care of her, of everything, really, because she’s forgotten how to be herself.

Then the elite bakery doing her wedding cake burns down, and Brent entrusts her with the task of ordering their wedding cake from the bakery on the wrong side of the tracks. Melly meets the deliciously handsome baker, Herc, and he stirs something long buried inside her, something that rebels against the life Brent has mapped out for her. Herc’s precocious daughter Emily befriends Melly, and shows her the joy of the simple things in life.
But Melly’s getting married in two days...can she break out of the box that Brent is forcing her into, or will she lose her one chance at love?”

Alis Grey crams a TON of story into this 81-page work. The Trophy Bride’s Melly is artfully crafted, second-guessing herself and hiding behind Brent’s money and position. She’s suffered loss, she’s scared to really live, and, according to Brent, she’s not good at anything. Brent is a pompous and conceited jerk whom you will love to hate, all slicked out in smug snobbishness and Italian loafers; he likes having Melly around to feed his ego and make him feel like a big man. Herc and Emily may not have everyone’s approval, but they don’t need it to be fulfilled.

The Trophy Bride is a lovely piece of fiction, with little flashes of humor that draw a reader into the story. Alis Grey pens a winner with this one, and the surprise plot twist will make your romantic heart sing!

Reviewed by: Michelle