Left at the Altar by Margaret Brownley

In Two-Time, Texas the local time depends on which jeweler you have decided to pledge your loyalty to.  Tommy Farrell and Meg Lockwood’s marriage is supposed to unite the two jewelers, turning Two-Time into a one-time town, but nobody sees it coming when Tommy leaves Meg standing at the altar.  Now Meg’s father is suing Tommy and his family for breach of contract and Meg’s pretty sure that nothing has ever humiliated her so terribly in her entire life.  Tommy hires Grant Garrison, a fancy Boston lawyer, to take his case.

Grant Garrison is supposed to take Tommy’s side in the matter, so why does he continuously find himself drawn to Meg and her unique personality?  Meg is trying to start over and wants nothing more than to forget the entire mess ever happened, but with the looming court case before her, and a handsome lawyer popping up at inconvenient times, she’s not sure she’ll ever get to move on.

Left at the Altar by Margaret Brownley is good, clean romance.  You’re not going to read any ravishing scenes or find the two characters having a private moment in a stairwell.  It’s innocent without being boring, sweet without being cliché, funny without being obvious about it. 

At the bookstore we’re usually brutally honest about books we’ve read.  There’s one sitting on our table in the breakroom with a note that says, “I will never get those three hours back.”  Left at the Altar wouldn’t have a note like that.  I would write something like, “Worth a read.  Adorable, witty, and quirky.”

I thought the idea of a two-time town was absolutely hilarious.  I would never have imagined something like that could exist, but Brownley did a wonderful job of really making the town come alive with her conflicts and secondary characters.  I loved the loyalty that the townspeople had for their jeweler. 

Meg and Grant certainly had chemistry.  I felt their attraction and their amusement; I suffered when they felt betrayal.  Meg’s inner struggle regarding the future she’d planned for herself and the future that was being forced upon her instead rang really true.  Grant’s conflict regarding his professionalism and his unexplainable draw towards Meg made me both giddy and reluctant to trust him. 

Left at the Altar was a wonderful, heart-warming romance.  If you’re the type of reader who prefers clean romance and innocent fun, with a dab of hilarity, then please check out Margaret Brownley’s newest novel (out November 2016).