serioualy romantic; always a bridesmaid by cindi madsen

violet abrams has a lot of history in uncertainty, alabama. most of it bad. but when her life falls apart she decides to take the lifeline her half-sister is offering and try something new to get her life back together. things get off to a rocky start for this always a bridesmaid. while trying to set fire to her wedding binder, she accidentally causes a fire in her sister's bakery.

the hot firefighter who comes to her rescue is town superhero ford mcguire, who also moonlights as one of those mcguire boys the town can't help themselves from looking down on.

when sparks fly between violet and ford, not literal ones, but those insane let's have sex right now ones,  they both try to run in the other direction. but the pull is too strong. and in spite of their misgivings they find themselves together and everything feels alright. until they don't, and while ford gets a lot of the blame here, i actually blame lexi and addie for being the ones to get in his headspace right when he was in a really good place in the relationship.

for all that they act supportive of violet later, the reality is that the trouble started with them putting doubts in his head when none needed to be put. you don't warn people off of hurting someone when everything between them seems to be at their best. if you do, you're really bad friends. and that's the thing that bothered me the most here.

otherwise, i really loved these two. other than his freak-out induced by a lot of external factors and completely understandable given the baggage ford carries around, they are just a great match.

**always a bridesmaid will publish on may 26, 2020. i received an advanced reader copy courtesy of netgalley/entangled publishing in exchange for my honest review.