The Wedding Party

The Rainbow Reader (October 2011)

The Wedding Party by Tracey Richardson

Book:  The Wedding Party

Author:  Tracey Richardson

Publisher: Bella Books

 

Any time two people make the lip-smacking, life-affirming decision to forge forward and formally unite into one all-encompassing matrimonial unit henceforth known as ‘us’, the Cosmic Comediennes begin to dance gaily, open their bedazzled bags of entropic chaos, and wantonly sprinkle handfuls of magic faerie mayhem upon each and every person, thing, and weather system involved. 

 

Seriously, make a quick checklist of every wedding you been to or taken part in: 

 

• A pesky and persistent low-pressure system parks itself directly over the tent of your long-planned outdoor wedding.
• The stoner that delivers the flowers gets the noon wedding confused with the 1 o’clock funeral across town, and the bride has to carry a hastily redesigned "So Long Uncle Morty” bouquet.
• The adorable twin 4 year-old flower girls share an entire bag of Skittles for breakfast, and then barf a glorious double rainbow on the minister’s white patent leather loafers. 
• The caterer is arrested by the ATF for using homemade Sterno in his chafing dishes just about the time the happy couple utters ‘I do’. 

 

And, yes, I have been witness to these very examples.

 

Weddings never go off as planned.  Ever.  It has nothing to do with love, commitment, planning, or the naughty officer that shows up at the bachelorette party with furry handcuffs.   No, it has everything to do with good, old-fashioned Fate.

 

The Wedding Party by Tracey Richardson proves, once again, that the Wedding Fates are cheeky little bitches.  Dani and Shannon have a special love, and they’ve decided to formalize their relationship.  The perfect wedding is planned, and the happy couple is taking their best friends Jordan and Claire, and Shannon’s niece Amanda to Las Vegas to bond, have some fun, and prepare for the wedding to end all weddings. 

 

Ah, but the Fates have been busy, and everything starts to list wildly out of control before any of their bags are even packed. 

 

Dani lost her high paying job weeks ago, and hasn’t told her bride-to-be; Shannon is scared to tell Dani that she’s infertile and can’t give her the baby she desperately wants; Jordan’s playgirl days suddenly catch up to her in humiliating fashion; Claire is unwilling to move past the painful loss of her longtime partner; and, little Amanda is all grown up, but working her way out of an impulsive, ill-advised decision.

 

It seems like everyone is hiding a little somethin’ somethin’ . . .

 

We’re all familiar with the old adage “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” and I’m sure there are plenty of tattoos out there to prove it.  However, The Wedding Party shows us that what happens in Chicago, bitch slaps everyone equally in Las Vegas.

 

Dani and Shannon both struggle mightily over going into the wedding with devastating secrets stuffed in every pocket.  But, why ruin the day for the other by telling the truth?  Claire, whose libido has been pretty much moth balled since her partner’s death, suddenly finds that young Amanda has the power to turn on a cascading waterfall of tingles deep inside her not-so-withered places.  Sweet little Amanda has an older soul than her physical age suggests, and she falls hopelessly in love with her Aunt’s butchy best friend at first sight.  And Jordan, who has left a lifelong trail of broken but sexually satisfied hearts is gobsmacked when she realizes she’s fallen head over heals for a Jazz singing angel with a painfully similar past. 

 

On the upside, everyone drinks way too much and one way or the other has lots of mind-blowing sex.

 

And, since Tracey Richardson is a romance writer’s romance writer, the femmes buy shoes, have massages, and confess almost everything to each other over their pedicures.  But, the studly butches smoke cigars, gamble, and find innovative ways to not have heart-to-heart talks while having heart-to-heart talks.

 

In my last two reviews, I’ve been on a soapbox about how authors and publishers need to push themselves into new directions.  Of course, I also said that sometimes a reader just needs what feels familiar.  Over the last few years, I’ve read a handful of Tracey Richardson’s books, and it’s crystal clear that she has a homing device for the familiar.  And, by ‘familiar’, I mean she writes beautiful, well-formed characters and strong, clever plots that are sprinkled with liberal does of angst and redemption.  We read them because they take us to a place we want to be.

 

And like those other books, there are so many delightful elements to The Wedding Party.

 

From the first time we’re introduced to them, the women of The Wedding Party come to life, and we are invested – hook, line, and sinker.  Each of characters makes a painful personal sacrifice in the name of love, but the love goes beyond the expected romance and touches on platonic and familial love.   There are myriad relationships in the story – some old, some new, and some redefined.  Each is different, but equal - sometimes romantic, sometimes confusing, and sometimes, even, borderline pejorative.   It all combines into a well-conceived, well-balanced, and well-written tale of love, trust, and risking everything.

 

I truly appreciate the way Ms. Richardson constructs the flash flood of angst and libidos by showing each character’s perspective through chapters dedicated to their experiences.  For instance, the first chapter is Dani, the second is Claire, the third is Shannon, the fourth is Jordan, the fifth is Amanda, and the sixth is back to Dani.  This continues on, so that our time with each of the main characters and their journey is balanced and complete. A brilliant approach to managing five women and three romances.

 

As a reader, one of the most consistent complaints I have is that an author plops too many characters into a story.  In The Wedding Party, we have five main female characters, two important secondary characters, and a smattering of unimportant one-scene wonders.  The probability of things getting confusing quickly was certainly high, but I must commend Ms. Richardson for wrangling the potential mayhem with supreme skill and panache.  Each of her characters has a unique voice and personality, and I never once had to flip back a few pages or chapters to remind myself who was speaking.

 

If I have one complaint with the storyline, it’s that I don’t feel we really had enough time with Jordan and Dez to fully appreciate what they saw and felt with each other, and how powerful it was for both of them when they were together.  I’ll admit that my natural cynicism towards love at first sight is probably more at fault than anything the author did or didn’t do, but in the end, I needed a bit more emotional connection from these two women.

 

Tracey Richardson is a stellar, engaging writer and The Wedding Party is another solid, well-written winner for my bookshelf.  I’m giving it a 5.0 out of 6 on the Rainbow Scale – I’d originally considered giving it a 4.9, but the lady reading Ecclesiastes in the airplane seat next to me choked on a honey-roasted peanut when Dez took Jordan, in very graphic style, in the hallway. 

 

That right there, my friends, is a case for extra credit.

 

Heh, heh, heh . . .  

 

No Rules of Engagement:

Just About Write, (December 2009)

First Tracey Richardson gave us a strong leader in a story about a lesbian candidate for President of the United States (The Candidate). Then she gave us insight into culinary TV personalities and golf pros (Side Order of Love). Now she offers up a story about a medical doctor serving in a military hospital in Afghanistan. Canadian Dr. Logan Sharp is a woman with inner strength and perseverance, who, in spite of the ugliness of war that surrounds her, tries to be the kind of medical doctor that anyone could hope to have as their physician in the most difficult of circumstances.

In No Rules of Engagement, Sharp is assigned to escort and protect an award-winning American photojournalist on assignment to show the world what happens in a military facility in a war zone. Although not thrilled with the assignment, Logan accepts it as one of the duties that must be tolerated since the visit will result in good public relations for their work. However, when she finally meets Jillian Knight, she quickly changes her mind about the duty being a burden.

Jillian is a genuine, caring person who quickly sees the strain that Logan is under and wants to try to help. Jillian is feeling her own stress from the assignment, because it has taken her from her two-year-old daughter. Because of this, she wonders if she can continue with assignments that take her halfway around the globe, even for short periods of time. 

In spite of her struggles, Jillian's compassionate attitude quickly gets under Logan's skin. The more Logan tries to resist, the more futile the effort becomes—and the more the two women are drawn to each other. However, neither will acknowledge what is happening between them as any more than a friendship. At the end of Jillian's assignment, the two part company, but the feelings stirred up in Jillian cause her to begin to question her long-term relationship with her partner.

In the second part of this saga, Logan is working in a Canadian hospital just north of the US border, her tour of duty ended. She is unsure of her ability to battle the wounds and demons of war and what seems like an eternity without someone special in her life to help her in the fight. In a happenstance turn of events, Logan and Jillian meet again, forcing them to examine their lives and their relationships once more.
This story is filled with the angst of war, the strength of women, the staying power of love, and just the right touch of humor to break the tension now and then. The characters of Logan Sharp and Jillian Knight easily become our friends and we can't help but care deeply about them both. An enduring love story that will linger in the reader's thoughts long after the last page is read. This is Richardson's finest writing.
_____
Revie

wed by Anna Furtado

 

 

 

 

Reviews for Blind Bet:

 

Just About Write, Feb 2011:

How do you differentiate one romance from another?  The plot is basically known, so it must be character development or the story.  Blind Bet by Tracey Richardson is an example of how characters can make a book.

Ellen Turcotte is trying to recover from a divorce from her wife that caught her totally by surprise.  She thought they had been happy for thirteen years until she found her wife in bed with another woman.  Ellen decides to visit a friend in Vancouver for a change of scenery and meets Courtney Langford.  Courtney's life was turned inside out when she missed a flight and the airplane she was supposed to be on crashed, killing one of her s

taff members.  After dumping everything in her life, she took off on a motorcycle in an attempt to discover why she survived. 

Both women are trying to figure out what to do with their lives when they meet in a situation that casts Courtney in a less than positive light.  After more accidental meetings, Courtney realizes that Ellen might be the person she's been looking for, but Ellen isn't so sure herself.  Lady Luck has been Courtney's best friend in everything she's ever done, but that may have changed as Courtney tries to convince Ellen to risk her heart one more time.

The romance in this book is fairly routine; but it's the emotions that Ellen and Courtney go through that make it interesting.  Richardson uses these two characters to illustrate the effects that someone else's actions can have on a person's life.  Ellen has to face the issues of betrayal by a spouse and her own guilt in the situation.  Courtney suffers from classic "survivor regret" and a healthy dose of post traumatic distress.  Neither one of them is able to interact with other people in a personal manner.  These two are the least likely candidates to start a relationship, yet their shared emotional struggles allow them to reach out and help each other.  The dance they do, denying their feelings and each trying to isolate herself within her own form of grief, makes the book as much an exploration of personality as it is of romance.

Tracey Richardson's other books have shown romance against a variety of backgrounds, including war, politics and adventure.  Blind Bet takes a different approach and illustrates how negative emotions, left unaddressed, can ruin the positive that comes into a person's life.  It's an interesting book to read.
_____
Reviewed by Lynne Pierce

 

From The Lesbian News, Feb. 2011:

Tracey Richardson has become another bankable writer in the Bella stable; Blind Bet does not disappoint. It has all the elements of a good romance: a recently divorced alpha dog dyke at loose ends but determined not to fall in love again anytime soon; a cataclysmic event that serves as a huge wake-up call to said alpha dyke; a lost soul who has counted on Lady Luck for most of her good fortune, and is about to learn that Lady Luck never gives, she only lends; hot sex; seemingly endless amounts of money available for trips and trysts.

The story line is simple enough. Girl is divorced and wary, but vulnerable after the shock of not being killed in a plane crash because she overslept and missed the flight.

Girl is stressed and needs to get away for a while. Girl buys motorcycle. Girl meets girl. Much sex follows, and love is soon in bloom. Richardson tries to do some examination of how people deal with grief, loss, survivor's guilt, betrayal – some of the components of the human condition that everyone encounters sooner or later in one form or another. It's a romance novel, so I'm not sure there's room for much deep psychological introspection.

 

From Just About Write, March 2011.

Courtney Langford's a woman with a huge hole in her life's purpose.  Plane crash survivor by the mere chance of missing a flight, she's going through life's motions trying to get a handle on the guilt and aimlessness she feels as a result.

Ellen Turcotte is on holiday, visiting a friend and trying to retool her life after an unpleasant divorce.  Her friend, Sam, tries, mostly unsuccessfully, to get Ellen to live a little and forget Susan, her lying, cheating former wife of a thirteen-year relationship.

By circuitous paths, Ellen and Courtney end up in Vancouver—Ellen by choice and Courtney by chance.  And chance plays a big part in the meetings that happen, over and over, between these two.  The problem is Ellen is cautious and Courtney has thrown all caution to the wind, believing that cheating death has made her invincible.  This makes for an oil and water mixture that seems destined never to blend.

The story is told using chapter subheadings in the form of "Gambling Tips" that cleverly relate to the progression of the story.  Courtney, finally, is the one who puts up the "blind bet," a bet made before the gambler has seen her cards.  But the question remains: will Ellen let down her defenses and trust enough to play the game of love?  And Courtney's put up more stakes than she is willing to admit.  Her usual style of fast and loose relationships is starting to crumble as she realizes that Ellen is more than a fling to her.  So, who's going to win this game of love?  Who's willing to take a chance?

The characters Richardson gives us in this story are as complex as the tale itself.  What Courtney experiences is about more than overcoming one tragic event in her life, it's about letting go of who she once was and finding a more authentic self.  As Ellen comes to terms with her trust issues, she must also learn to take a chance, to step out into the unkown and embrace the possibilities.  Blind Bet is a story about working through issues to gain the possibility of love and a vibrant life on the other side of misfortune.  A well-written story that gives us pause to reflect on what's important in life
_____
Reviewed by Anna Furtado



The Candidate
by Tracey Richardson

Description:
Presidential candidate Jane Kincaid -- gorgeous, dynamic and extremely driven -- is taking the country by storm, passionately outlining her blueprint for America. Voters quickly fall in love with her . . . and so, unwittingly, does Secret Service Agent Alexandria Warner. Jane soon begins to rely on the agent's humor, friendship and protection, all while denying her growing feelings for Alex. But the mutual attraction begins to take on a fiery life of its own, and Jane fears their intense feelings for each other are a tinder box that could destroy the landscape of her career and alter the history of the country.

Alex, aware of the growing effect she is having on the candidate, feels she must choose between protecting her own heart, and protecting the woman she loves from a force that could destroy her political future. Jane had always expected the road to the White House would exact a high personal toll. She just never knew how high until forced to choose between her heart and her political destiny.

---

Reviews:

Curve Magazine
Reviewed by Kathi Isserman
September, 2008

The romance in “The Candidate” is intense, captivating and, at times, heartbreaking. Jane Kincaid doesn’t believe she can run for president and have a lesbian lover too. The notion is challenged, raising very important questions about whether out and proud lesbians must sacrifice our personal lives for our careers, especially if we are in the public eye.
View PDF from Curve Magazine

From Lambda Book Report, Vol. 16, Issues 1 & 2 (Spring/Summer 2008), Page 17
By Cecelia Martin of Oscar Wilde Bookshop

The Candidate
Tracey Richardson
Bella Books / ISBN 978-1-59493-133-8
Paperback, $13.95

Tracey Richardson's new novel about a woman running for the presidency could not have come at a better time! A terrific storyline along with fun and lively characters make this politically charged book a great choice.
 
Jane Kincaid is running for President and nothing will get in her way, especially a personal life she has long ignored in order to advance her career. When Agent Alexandria Warner is assigned to watch over her she is immediately drawn to the mysterious, powerful and quiet agent. Agent Warner tries to ignore the attraction she feels for the dynamic candidate but with each passing day this become[s] harder and harder. When a dangerous situation pushes both women closer, a mutual attraction comes bubbling up to the surface that neither woman can deny. But if either acts on her feelings what will it mean for the campaign?
 
Richardson does a wonderful job with both Jane and Alex and their growing feelings for each other while balancing the realities of running for higher office. Both characters are put in an extremely difficult situation and the reader feels great compassion for them. I had wished for a little more detail about the pressure each deals with in their professions, but that small gripe does not distract from this wonderful romance.

Reviewed by Capital Xtra
Lesbian presidential candidate sparks 'what if' romance
May 14, 2008

We've all heard the adage that timing is everything. Well, Tracey Richardson certainly has a great sense of timing. The Windsor native has seized the day with her new novel The Candidate, deliciously premised on an unlikely romance between a charismatic female presidential hopeful and her achingly butch bodyguard. It's a decidedly queer diversion from the real-life US presidential primary season that is so dominating the media.
Read full review.

Just About Write
Reviewed by Lynne Pierce
March 2008

"...Tracey Richardson has written her story with considerable skill. The personalities of the characters are well defined in the beginning, but also are allowed to change as their relationship progresses and the women don't fall in love immediately, but grow into a realization of their feelings over an appropriate amount of time. The dilemma Jane faces is also handled very realistically. For someone who wants to be president, outing herself couldn't be more impossible. Readers shouldn't expect her to simply throw away her political dreams for an opportunity at "true love" and the way she handles her choices feels right. What makes the book particularly enjoyable is that the affair, though important, doesn't drive the plot as much as the situation in which Jane finds herself and the decision making process she goes through. The result is an interesting tale with some thought behind it. This book is worth reading..."

Just About Write
Reviewed by Anna Furtado
April 2008

"...Richardson has given us a fascinating look at a Presidential campaign and what it might be like if a charismatic, vibrant woman who was open to a relationship with another woman were to run for that office. It was especially interesting to read this work during the early Presidential primaries. The main characters in The Candidate are strong, compelling women and their story does not disappoint..."

OurChart
Reviewed by Julia Watson
April 2008.

"...Alex and Jane have undeniable chemistry, and this is the book's chief strength - you can't help but want these two to get it on. Lots..."