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A Lowcountry Bride

A Novel

ebook
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"I absolutely adore this book...love story begins slow—like a delicious lowcountry boil—but heats up to the perfect ending." —Kathleen Y’Barbo, bestselling author of The Black Midnight

A heartwarming Avon debut of love, forgiveness, and new beginnings set in the beautiful South Carolina Lowcountry.

Maya Jackson has worked for a renowned New York City bridal gown brand for years and dreams of becoming Head Designer. She has the talent, she just needs a chance to showcase her unique style. Due to an illness, she’s always prioritized her career over her personal life until Maya’s father fractures his hip and she returns to Charleston, SC. While home for only a few months, she’s thrilled to find an opportunity at the local bridal gown boutique, never expecting sparks to fly with its owner...

A military veteran and widowed father, Derek Sullivan hopes to save Always a Bride from bankruptcy in order to preserve the legacy of his family. He also wants to reconnect with his estranged, twelve-year-old daughter, who is still recovering from the loss of her mother. The last thing he needs is a relationship with a beautiful, smart, complicated woman who will be leaving soon.

When Derek begins to fall for the lovely Maya, he knows there’s no future. But destiny has its own plans, and these two lonely people with big hearts discover that coming home to love is the best gift life can give.

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    • Kirkus

      April 1, 2021
      A wedding dress designer learns to trust her professional instincts after returning home to Charleston to care for her ill father. Maya Jackson has a dream job in New York working for Laura Whitcomb, one of the most prestigious wedding gown designers in the world. Although Maya has been told she's in competition for a promotion, Laura denigrates every single one of Maya's designs, which are inspired by her Filipino and African American background. Maya also hides her sickle cell disease from her boss, recognizing Laura's pattern of discriminatory behavior and fearing retaliation. Nevertheless, Maya continues to hope that becoming Laura's junior designer will open future opportunities in the wedding gown industry. When Maya's father becomes ill, Laura agrees to let her take an unpaid leave of absence to care for him. Worried about her loss of income, Maya takes a job at the first Black-owned wedding boutique in Charleston to make ends meet. Having inherited the boutique from his mother, Derek Sullivan is struggling to keep the business afloat while also raising his teenage daughter. Three years earlier, his wife was killed in a mass shooting at their church, which is presented as a muted backstory rather than an active emotional factor for Derek. Maya's original designs and her knowledge of the bridal business breathe new life into the boutique. Derek and Maya go out on a few sweet, bland dates, but the barely-there romance feels like an afterthought; their relationship lacks chemistry and is woefully underdeveloped. Maya is torn between hoping for Laura's seal of approval and honoring the legacy of her heritage, and this dilemma drives the plot and timeline of the novel. Williams' choppy, stilted prose is not strong enough to carry the emotional weight of the novel. A simple story about learning to trust yourself to achieve happiness.

      COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Booklist

      Starred review from April 15, 2021
      Time is running out for Maya Jackson to make her mark as a bridal-wear designer. Maya believes that working for Laura Whitcomb--New York City's premier purveyor of wedding fashion--is the best way of achieving that goal. However, when Maya's father needs help, she packs her bags and heads for Charleston, South Carolina. Derek Sullivan has a limited amount of time to turn things around at Always a Bride, his late mother's beloved business. Hiring Maya to help out seems like a good idea at the time, and it isn't long before Maya is making headway with the shop's customers and with Derek's teenage daughter, Jamila. But how long will Derek have Maya in his life before she decides to head back to New York? With superb character development and great emotional depth, Afro Filipina writer Williams stitches together a quietly powerful love story that is beautifully enriched by the deft and insightful incorporation of weighty issues such as grief and medical conditions into the compelling plot and brightly enhanced by glimpses into the vibrant culture and history of Charleston.

      COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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