It Happened One Wedding by Julie James

It’s Flashback Friday! One of my favorite audiobooks of all time, which I originally reviewed 10 years ago, for your Friday Flashbacking pleasure!

Narrated by Karen White

Originally reviewed and posted in 2014

It Happened One Wedding is the epitome of everything I love about romance audiobooks. It’s a stellar story by Julie James rendered with perfect delivery by Karen White. James has such a way with effervescent dialogue, engaging characters, realistic emotions ranging from humor to grief – it’s the whole package in contemporary romance. No small town, everybody-knows-everybody stuff here – her heroines are motivated, successful professionals in the primes of their lives, living the urban dream. They have it all – great careers, supportive family and friends – except Mr. Right. Sidney Sinclair is one such character, with a slight twist. She’s involved in her sister’s upcoming wedding plans which unfortunately mimic her own plans, dashed 6 months earlier when she discovered her fiancé was cheating on her. She has two goals: one, to help her sister realize her dream wedding, and two, to attend with Mr. Right as a date. She doesn’t realize the irony of having a 34-item checklist for the perfect man. When the groom’s brother makes the moves on her, she immediately eliminates him from competition because he fails the number one criteria: he admits he’s not ready for a committed relationship.

James’ followers will recognize FBI Special Agent Vaughn Roberts from the FBI/US Attorney series – in the prime of his career, he meets every other criteria on Sidney’s list. He is settled in his work life, he has friends who are already committed, and he fills out a suit better than any other man she’s met. He even gives her tips about men’s behaviors via text while she’s on dates with her Mr. Right candidates! It just takes a come-to-Jesus moment for Vaughn to realize the feelings he is experiencing with Sidney are real and worthy of serious exploration beyond sex-buddy status.

Two things I enjoyed in this story were revisiting lots of JJ’s previous characters and that she ramped up the heat in the bedroom a little. Okay, a lot! Wow – she’s come a long way from the practically PG Just the Sexiest Man Alive. Sidney and Vaughn give in to their shared lust long before they are ready to admit to any other feelings beyond tolerance. It seemed as though they both were relaxed and open about the sexual side of their friends-with-benefits relationship, perhaps because the connection was so deep and visceral. They managed to convince themselves that there was nothing more to it, and I found it a refreshing take on relationship building. Over the several weeks of wedding planning, being thrust together by their siblings allowed them to develop a sincere friendship in spite of their rocky and funny Meet Not-So-Cute (totally trademarked in this story). The funny moments – he gives her sex-buddy etiquette lessons and she offers tips on his wardrobe – had me smiling and laughing all the way through.

Once again, Karen White’s dead-on delivery enhances an already A+ level story. She gives it just the right dry tone for Sidney’s sarcasm, and voices the youthful exuberance of Sidney’s sister and Vaughn’s brother, so in love Sidney wonders when woodland animals will start winding around their ankles in tribute to Disney cartoons. White doesn’t have a particularly deep voice for the men, but she uses a lower pitch as well as a change in tone to differentiate genders. I was pleased to hear the slight Irish brogue for Vaughn’s mother – it was endearing and real and just right. While she doesn’t pile on the accents, you can hear a flat, Midwestern tone in the Chicago natives, with a small echo of lower-middle-class in the dialogue with the rogue cops. She uses hints of accents to imply characters, rather than whacking us over the head with Acting with a capital A. I know a criticism of her narration has been a perceived repeated pattern or rhythm, but try as I might, I didn’t sense it here. And kudos to her perfect delivery of James’ heated up bedroom scenes, too – no breathy gushing here, but interpreted with enough emotion to relay the budding feelings, as well as using the author’s voice tags to good effect.

As Sidney and Vaughn allow their friendship to grow, we feel it not only with James’ words but also in White’s delivery – and the ending, with Etta James’ At Last echoing in my head, was romance at its finest. I laughed, I cried, I fell in love with them all. Thank you, Julie and Karen, for making my whole weekend. Maybe my whole year.

Melinda