The Wedding Night by Kati Wilde

Series: Standalone

Release Date: February 5, 2019

Format: Kindle

Rating: 4.25/5 stars

The Wedding Night is such a romantic book; the novel perfectly encapsulates the winter holiday with a sweet, charming romantic story. I adored this book’s unique twist Wilde put on the marriage-for-convenience and ice queen/dirty mechanic tropes. This twist was that there was actual *gasp* logic behind these tropes; this gave the story that much more depth (which, to be honest, wasn’t something I was expecting). The Wedding Night was super sweet and so good, and it wasn’t just about the sexy times either, which is always nice with these types of books (that being, a balance between the romance and erotica).

The novel’s premise is that Caleb has inherited the land of a wealthy family in their small town, as he is the bastard son of the deceased heir to his paternal families’ fortune. His father’s family is trying to contest the will in court, and even though the will is sound, they just might win with their power and money. Caleb’s plan is to pitch business mogul Audrey Clarke to help him take the land away from his father’s family: she pays for the legal defence, and if they win, she gets the property at a reduced price. However, to ensure that his pitch captures her attention, Caleb pitches a marriage-for-convenience… except he never expected her to say yes! What results is a story of two characters who start to realize that they’re not so different as they first appeared and that there might be something real to this relationship they’re pretending to be in.

Both Audrey and Caleb are framed in societal stereotypes: the dirty, poor, mechanic and the rich, blunt, ice queen. But, Wilde does an amazing job of delving beneath the surface of their personas. Through the narrative of the main characters, we understand both of their perspectives and assumptions, but they’re quickly challenged once Wilde flips the POV. Not everything is as it seems, and Caleb, in particular, becomes aware of this once he begins to understand Audrey better.

The conception of Audrey’s character is perhaps the best ‘ice queen’ rendition I’ve read (which says a lot considering I’ve read quite a few ‘Snow Queen’ retellings). The trope of the ice queen is always accompanied by the frustrating characterization that for a woman to be successful, she must also be frigid (i.e. sexually repressed). Of course, the ice queen is only ‘melted’ once meeting a guy that can ‘tame’ her; it’s so paternalistic, it’s vomit-inducing. I love how romance writers are still sticking to these successful tropes and recognizing that being a business shark does not have to be mutually exclusive to sexuality. Audrey also has quite a unique personality in that her behaviour lies somewhere on the Aspergers spectrum, except Wilde’s composition of her is not Aspergers in its totality. Essentially, Audrey is sensory-sensitive, has a tad bit of OCD, and has difficulty with social situations – she, therefore, is prone to taking people literally. Despite all this, she is the definition of a strong, independent woman who is just so freaking awesome!

The relationship between Caleb and Audrey was so freaking cute. I love how Audrey’s bluntness constantly threw Caleb off initially, but his love for honesty – which is also important to Audrey – is what put their relationship into high gear. Caleb also learning Audrey’s quirks made this novel so heartwarming to read, as it allowed both of them to navigate misconceptions through blunt communication… and nothing really festered. As I’m sure most romance readers agree with, lack of communication is a trope not many people can stand for anymore. It’s overdone and almost feels like an easy way out for authors to create tension. This was definitely not the case in The Wedding Night. Now, that’s not to say they didn’t have miscommunications, but the main characters were also fast to discuss and learn from their mistakes. It is true that both were rather slow on the realization both had feelings for the other… but that’s kind of the whole point behind a marriage-of-convenience trope, so I can’t really complain.

If you want a really sweet romance, with an amazing heroine, pick up Kati Wilde’s The Wedding Night now!

Buy The Wedding Night

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