A To Z Book Review: The Event By Whitney Dineen

My letter “E” pick for this year’s A to Z Reading Challenge was THE EVENT, a sweet but predictable romance by Whitney Dineen. This is book one of her Creek Water series, set in the charming small town of Creek Water, Missouri. Emmeline Frothingham left her small town for her dream career in NYC, only to lose it all after a night of tequila and bad decisions at her company’s big gala event that ends her career and sends her back to her small home town with a baby. Her exceedingly quirky (to the point of ridiculous at times) family rallies around her and makes up a story about a dead fiancé, hoping to throw off the town gossip and the mean girls at the country club, all of whom bully the living hell out of Emmie.

One bright spot in this new life she’s forging is an old flame from high school, Zach, who has a great big secret. I’d love to tell you the twist will leave you gasping, but the heavy foreshadowing at the beginning of the book has you figuring out the twist within those first few chapters. This was a light, sweet, predictable, and easy read. The banter between Zach and Emmie is fun (even if the author has a weird obsession with describing Emmie’s swollen post-partum boobs and breast feeding over and over again). Zach is a snarky guy with a great sense of humor, and her family was funny, if more than a bit outlandish. I’ll give this one three stars for trying.