Book Review of
The Wedding Dress
Lynn's Review
The Wedding Dress by Rachel Hauck was published in 2012. It is Christian fiction.
According to Amazon, I bought the ebook The Wedding Dress way back in 2016. I am guessing that I bought it when the ebook was on sale because that is how I buy almost all my ebooks.
I was reminded of the book when it was mentioned by The Christian Bookworm in a comment on my backlist historical fiction booklist. I instantly moved it to the top of my to-be-read list because I thought it would make a quick and easy read while not feeling well.
This book review might seem a bit harsh…but I am still glad that I read it and I am glad that The Chrisitan Bookworm brought it to my attention again.
The book is about Charlotte, a bridal boutique owner, who buys a vintage trunk at an auction. Inside the trunk is a wedding dress. The history of that dress and the people who have worn it changed Charlotte’s life.
Overall I enjoyed the book. It was a clean, Christian romance. The characters were interesting and it had a good, clean love story in it.
If you are looking for a quick, easy, clean romance book, you will probably enjoy this one.
However, this book is an example of exactly why I don’t read a lot of Christian fiction, especially Christian romance.
The book was unrealistic. I like to read fiction that seems like it could actually happen. I want realistic fiction. So many of the Christian fiction books that I have read are so unrealistic. They are more of a dreamy fairytale or Hallmark movie.
For example in The Wedding Dress, the vintage wedding dress fits everyone that wears it. The dress only “finds” people that were meant to wear it. That is kind of unrealistic.
Another example is that Charlotte is given one hundred thousand dollars by an anonymous person. The money just ends up in her bank account. She used it to redo her boutique.
At the end of the book, you find out who gave her that money, which makes sense. What doesn’t make sense is that Charlotte used that hundred thousand dollars without question of how or why she received it. To me that just seemed unrealistic and very unlikely to actually happen in real life.
I could go on and on.
I do occasionally enjoy reading books like this when I need a quick and easy read. However, a few of them a year is all I can handle.
I need fiction that has depth to its characters and I want fiction that is realistic. I see why so many people love books like this. I get it. On a regular basis though I need books that teach me something, challenge me, and that causes me to think. It doesn’t matter if it is fiction or nonfiction. I personally need a book diet of more than Hallmark movie-style books.