By Proxy by Katy Regnery

Synopsis:
A favor for friends…

Stubbornly small-town Jenny Lindstrom has misgivings when she promises to stand proxy in her best friend’s wedding – misgivings that are fulfilled when tall, handsome Sam Kelley walks into the courthouse an hour late. In order to keep her promise, an afternoon favor turns into a weekend of startling but undeniable attraction, threatening the well-ordered world that keeps her heart at arm’s length from any more pain.

…turns into a whirlwind romance!

Sam’s plan is to fly to Livingston, Montana, take wedding vows on behalf of his favorite cousin, and return to Chicago as quickly as possible. But his plan is turned upside-down when he must spend a weekend with Jenny in Gardiner in order to keep his promise. He doesn’t want to fall for the prim, proper schoolteacher whose small-town life seems to him like selling out, but the more time he spends with her, the harder it is to say good-bye.

When a city boy and a country girl come together for a double proxy wedding, the unexpected gift is true love.

Find it on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18973187-by-proxy
Order it on Amazon: http://amzn.to/1Oky7sk

My Review:
2.5 stars — *sigh*  And so my reading slump continues.  Which is weird, b/c I thought this would be a sure thing since I love other works by this author.  I will definitely be taking the rest of this series off my wishlist, just in case….

I probably should have DNF’d this one from the first moment our heroine acted all judgey and rubbed me the wrong way.  But there were parts of the romance I was enjoying, and I wanted to see if she would grow up a bit.  Unfortunately, that just didn’t happen.  And then I thought about DNFing it at 60% when she was getting beyond judgey mcjudgerson and I still didn’t…I definitely regret that.

So yeah.  My main issue was with Jenny.  And it was a huge issue.  Sam kept talking about how kind she was, but she was only kind to *her* kind of people.  I mean, the guy has one beer with lunch and she gives him a dirty look and then says “men will have their vices”??  It wasn’t in a playful manner either.  She was really put out and just put up with it barely.  Sam was always feeling guilty for the life he led.  It would be one thing if he just wasn’t happy with that life anymore (which he wasn’t), but she actually made him feel bad for his previous choices.  For someone who is supposed to be so kind hearted and religious, that was awfully mean.  Example #2 — she was disgusted and heartbroken when she found out he lived with Pepper.  He’s a 29 year old man who was in a relationship!!!  For realz???  And then there was how she treated Tess (who granted, was making moves on Sam while he was with her, but holy hateful).  It just felt like everything about Sam and his lifestyle was wrong and evil and her only issues were supposedly her fear of leaving her family…because apparently no one else saw the other flaws in her character.

I just kept waiting for them both to grow up.  I understand that they were going to fight and have differences, but the way they argued was so selfish and immature…I guess I just wasn’t expecting that.  Or at least it would have been nice to see some growth.

And it wasn’t just Jenny that felt judgmental and holier than thou….the whole book had a judgmental feeling towards “big city life” and non-pure relationships.  I don’t mind if that’s not who *you* are, but I enjoy all kinds of romance stories, and I don’t appreciate being made to feel as though others are wrong.

My other main issue was the hugely drawn out ending.  It felt very repetitive and contained a lot of rehashing of the previous story from both of their perspectives.  It really wasn’t necessary, and made the book feel ridiculously long and boring.  Combine that with the judgmental feel of the book, and it just was a recipe for badness for me.

And there’s my not so nice review.  I hate reviewing books I don’t enjoy….it makes me feel like a mean person, and I don’t want to be a mean person.  Obviously I am in the minority in this opinion, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt.  But if you start feeling disgusted with Jenny like I was, then take my advice and DNF.  It doesn’t get better enough to make the little bits of fun and romance worth it.  (At least in my opinion).