GRR Reviews All of Me (The Bridesmaids Club Book 1) by Leeanna Morgan

All of Me managed to introduce a new series by starting with just one of the founders of the "Bridesmaid's Club", with the rest serving as minor players.

Tess and friends have among them over 20 bridesmaid dresses, and when Tess heard that a couple had their house burgled and emptied anything of value, including four bridesmaid dresses, and their wedding only two weeks away, and mom in the hospital dying of cancer, she organized "Bridesmaid's Club" to donate the dresses to the worthy cause. However, to do so, she needed to befriend the local reporter who wrote the story, to find the unlucky couple. But Tess has a secret past where she was basically ran out of town and had to reinvent herself, and a reporter is really the last person she wanted to get close to. The reporter Logan was a do-gooder too, until an assignment to Afghanistan and a bombing left him with PTSD and he transferred to middle-of-nowhere Montana to get away from it all, and while he's rather fond of Tess (and she is beautiful) Tess won't let him closer, which only intrigued him more. When circumstances forced them together, Tess and Logan must confront their pasts if they are to have a future together.

While overall I like the idea of either FMC and MMC keeping secrets, and thus can't get involved, the transition from romance into romantic suspense was a fail for me in this book, and to explain this, I'll have to spoil the ending and the big secret.

WARNING SPOILER AHEAD

The big dark secret is Tess used to be a supermodel. Her bestie (also a supermodel) got involved with a senator and died from an overdose of drugs supplied by the senator. Tess knew senator supplied the drugs and threatened to call the cops, but before she can do so, senator's PR machine went to work and basically reversed the claim that Tess was the one who supplied drugs, and basically forced her to quit modeling, ran to Montana, and started a cafe/bakery. It was implied that the senator may hire goons who can do more than damage her reputation, but that part was never explained well, and when the secret was out, and the article was picked up by all the big national newspapers, senator's career was basically over and heading to jail as that wasn't the first model he had supplied. But the threat was so... third-party that it just never felt very dangerous or tense.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot:  Girl with secret past she does not want exposed must befriend reporter with PTSD to help a couple in need

Tropes: scars, secret, 

Overall Rating:  3/5 (rounded up from 2.5/5)