Fans of the Three Girls series were introduced to Kiki Barker-Thompson in book #2. We know that she and Jen set up their own business and now in book #4 we begin with Jen's wedding. Kiki realizes that after being married for a couple of years to her husband Eric she is starting to think about having children. When she sees how happy Ginny and Josh are (with their now two kids) she really thinks that she and Eric are ready for even more happiness. However, things don't go as planned. Kiki and Eric start to have cracks in their marriage, and a lot of things that were left unsaid, become said. I really liked this one since it shows us the story of Kiki and Eric. And also we get to see how lonely Kiki was until she met Eric through Matt. 

 

"The Truth About Ever After" shows us how life is for Kiki Barker-Thompson. We know her as an over eager wealthy socialite that co-runs a business with Jen. Now she is taking on an old nemesis's wedding and doing her best to get pregnant. We never really heard before how hard the world became for Kiki after her father became wealthy. I am always amazed at wealthy people looking down on others who didn't inherit it. I wish that Schurig had included more stories in this one. We go back and forth between present day and past when Kiki meets Eric and goes through a shitty time at college. I wanted more of that up front and if it was going to go back and forth, I would have liked more set up with Kiki in before.

 

We still get the girls in this one, we get updates on Jen, Ginny, and Annie. Kiki is doing what she can to make sure the company stays afloat while Jen is dealing with a health crisis. I also felt badly for Kiki as she mentions the girls closeness and how she wishes she could be part of their close circle. It's not that they don't like Kiki, they have all just known each other longer. 

 

For once we get more insight into the male hero in this series. We get to see how Eric is hung up on how much money Kiki and her family have. His stubbornness on them using her inheritance to buy a house, and how he is doing a lot to show he is not getting by on being married to the boss's daughter. We do know that the two love each other, but this shows after HEA, there are always going to be some rainy days. I do wish we get more interesting love scenes. Schruig is a fan of the fade to black approach which just bores me to tears.

 

The writing is good and the flow needed slapped back a bit though. At times it felt like we were racing through the book. It's nice to just build up some backstory to people. I wanted more scenes with Kiki's parents, and even with Jen. 

 

The ending was great. I loved that we get to see Kiki and Eric entering a new phase in their marriage. 

Eh, this one didn't set my hair on fire. Annie and her dilemma was lame to me. She has the opportunity to become a big time actress, but you know love is the answer. I loathe romance books that do this mess with heroines. It also didn't really line up with what Annie wanted for herself either. And it doesn't say a lot about her friends and love interest if that she needs to give up what she wants to be in a relationship. 

 

"Three Girls and a Leading Man" has Annie and friends go off to Las Vegas where she meets her love interest, Nate. Annie is feeling a bit lonely since Jen and Matt seem to be more in love than ever and Ginny is married and happy. When Nate proposes still seeing Annie when they both return to Michigan, she says okay. Things change for her though when she gets a highly coveted role at the local theater. When things start to pop for her in her career, she is stuck between deciding to follow her dreams or stay and be with Nate.

 

I really didn't like Ginny that much in this one. She kept pushing Annie to be with Nate and I really wanted her to mind her own business. I think what irks me about the character of Ginny is that she stayed wrapped up in a relationship and could barely function after Josh broke up with her in book #1. And she seems to get all of her self-worth from being with him. We never hear about her working or what she does. Jen was okay, I liked seeing her with Matt. 

The writing was good, I was interested in the theater parts and was interested in how things were done. I wish that Schurig had added in more of that. The flow was okay, though I did get annoyed at Annie for playing games with Nate. Either be with him or not, it got old real quick for me.

The ending wasn't much of a surprise, I was just letdown at no sign of compromise. Either you give up everything for a guy, or you die alone. 

I felt meh towards the first book because I realized that Ginny bugged me. This one centers on Jen who is doing what she can to move up the ranks at her PR firm. Jen cares about Ginny and Annie a lot and honestly I was on her side the whole book. I thought that Ginny and Josh sucked and so did Annie towards the end. I don't know if I would have been so cool about forgive and forget. I did think it was weird though that Jen said she loved her love interest and all these two did was kiss I think twice in this book. I literally went huh. That happened way too fast with no real build-up so that's the main reason it gets four stars.

 

"Three Girls and a Wedding" picks up several months after the last book. Ginny is newly engaged to Josh and now Jen promises to do what she can to help plan Ginny's wedding. It's also the same time that Jen gets a coveted position to help co-plan the wedding of the year between Kiki Barker (socialite) and her fiancee. 

 

I always felt the most engaged with the character of Jen. Probably because she loves to cook and is the one always calming down her friends when they start fighting. Jen has some baggage though. Her father is a recovering alcoholic, and though her mom has moved on and remarried, she often pushes Jen to be the best she can be at her job. 

 

I didn't really like Ginny or Annie much in this book. I think that Schruig could have done something interesting here and focus on the fact that Jen has a job that will cause her to not be there all the time to just hang out with her friends. They put down her job and acted like she was obsessed. And I wanted to shake them. When I got my job in DC after grad school my friends who were still searching, or doing something that was okay, but they were not in love with acted like I was lame for not wanting to go out every night and get drunk. I finally realized I was going to have to think about my career and make sure I made time for my friends, but not to the detriment of everything else.

 

Jen has two love interests in this one, one is straight up a jerk and the other is okay. I just didn't warm up to him and kind of got annoyed that the character of Kiki kept trying to force them together. I already said the whole I love you thing was odd as hell when it came out. They had been on zero dates at this point. 

 

The writing was good, and the book moves at a fairly even pace. I think that we should have been given some more moments with both love interests and also have Jen have more dialogue with Ginny and Annie. 

 

The ending was a HEA for Ginny and a HFN for Jen. 

 

 

So I decided to re-read this series since I wanted some romance reads and wow, I do not think this series holds up at all. I am realizing the main character in this one was the height of being selfish. Other than that though, the ending didn't make a lot of sense since I for one didn't see that Ginny had really changed. I think if the book had focused more on Ginny and her two best friends who help raise her baby (Anne and Jen) would have worked better. Instead we just have Ginny obsessing over the end of her relationship with her boyfriend Josh and you end up not rooting for her when you find out what really happened. 

 

Ginny has just graduated college and is adrift right now. She and her long-term boyfriend broke up after she did something unforgivable (guess). She misses him and doesn't want things to be over. Instead of trying to focus on her and a career, she stays as a nanny and obsesses over Josh. When she finds out she is pregnant, there is a lot of Ginny ignoring the situation (which got old) and her being upset she has gained weight and isn't as hot as she used to be (that also got old). 

 

I have to say that re-reading this series, I found Ginny to be my least favorite of the girls. She is selfish and I didn't see a lot of her stepping up to help out her friends besides telling them what clothes to wear. If anything Anne and Jen give up a lot to help her out and even let her float on paying rent when they find out she's pregnant. 

 

Ginny has a love interest in this book that actually seemed okay but then Schurig has him have a total personality transplant and turns him into an ass (I saw some shades of Danny in the Mindy Project handwaving happening). It just seems a long way to set things up so that Ginny could try again with Josh (who wasn't written very well at all).

The writing at times felt stilted. I don't think that Ginny was that interesting. The flow wasn't great either. We know time passes, but there are a lot of Schruig telling you about something instead of just showing you throughout the story. it's almost as if she's afraid to let her characters talk to each other. 

I do love that this book take place in Michigan, near Detroit. I don't think I have read that many contemporary romances taking place in this state or in that city. So that was a welcome change. 

The ending is typical HEA, it just felt tacked on though. 

So to date I have read every Three Girls story, but one short story that is part of an anthology that I refuse to buy. I wish that I had skipped over this one and not paid the 99 cents that it cost. Honestly this 31 page ebook was not worth even 99 cents.

We really get three vignettes showing us Ginny, Jen, and Annie. It takes place between Three Girls and a Leading Man (Annie's story) and The Truth About Ever After (Kiki's story). I don't know what I expected, but it really wasn't this. We just get a behind the scenes peek at Ginny pregnant with her second child, Jen not yet engaged to who we know eventually becomes her husband, and also we see Annie and Nate settling into their home. The girls all miss each other and wish that they were going to spend Christmas together. Yes, they all live within a few miles of each other and so it doesn't make a lot of sense why in the world they had no plans to see each other Christmas Day. Heck I drove an hour and a half to see my family on Christmas. We know that these characters live a lot closer than that.

Frankly I rather would have gotten a glimpse of the characters celebrating Christmas and seeing how things were after the end of Three Girls and a New Beginning.