First Dance

Author: Karen Kendall
Published: August 2, 2005 (Signet)
Series: The Bridesmaid Chronicles - Book 3
Category: Contemporary Romance
Quote of Choice: Klein was technically out of the picture, after he'd dropped dead at a urinal in the men's room three years ago. He'd left behind a spectacular courtroom win ratio and an exposed trouser snake that bent even farther right than his politics.

My proofreading class has gotten more unbearable than usual and I needed something absolutely fluffy and purely for entertainment value for today's class. I stumbled across First Dance this afternoon while cruising the company take shelves.

Vivien Shelton is a top Manhattan divorce attorney with a reputation for being a ball buster, but her mistrust in marriage and men in general stems from witnessing her parents' awful relationship as a child. When her heiress friend plans to marry a guy she's known for a month, she flies to Texas with ironclad prenup in hand to protect her friend. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) she'll have to butt heads with the groom's lawyer, J.B. Anglin, a man she's tangled with in the courtroom and in the sheets. Ooo, steamy!

With their opposing views on marriage - J.B. hates the ideas of prenups and divorces in general, despite the fact that he's divorced. He feels that lawyers like Vivien are the cause of many divorces when couples should work through their problems instead of jumping ship at the first wave in sight. Vivien saw how her father married her mother for money and felt that she'd rather avoid the pain of a possible bad marriage than start any relationship. I've noticed that I like romances where the girl and guy argue a lot, and who better to argue than a couple of lawyers? The characters and romance seem more real with arguing, because let's face it - a relationship where nobody has a difference of opinion seems a little plastic.

Thanks to the matchmaking bride, Vivien and J.B. are thrown into running errands together, like scaring the disreputable wedding band with their fancy lawyering (it didn't take much). They realistically talk through their baggage and discover each other's quirky, non-lawyerish hobbies. For example, Vivien rescues abused greyhounds, fostering 5 of them at a time in her Manhattan apartment and works pro bono defending displaced homemakers; J.B. makes furniture, but doesn't sell it, giving it away to friends and family instead.

I particularly enjoyed when Vivien chased after J.B.'s ex-wife, trying to give J.B. back to her. It was a lot of fun and made my class a lot less painful. I hope to run across the other books in the series soon.