Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE:  Matrimonial Merriment

SERIES:  Valor and Doyle, Book 7

AUTHOR:  Nicky James

NARRATOR:  Nick J. Russo

PUBLISHER:  Self-published

LENGTH: 10 hours and 19 minutes

RELEASE DATE:  December 8, 2023

BLURB:

Quaid Andrew Valor and Aslan Ronan Doyle cordially invite you to be an honorary guest as they join their lives in matrimony. The ceremony is set to take place at Strongwind Castle on December 23rd. Save the date!

Time is short. Quaid has less than three months to plan the wedding of his dreams. A wedding that happens to land two days before Christmas. Don’t be fooled. It is not a Christmas wedding—at least not if Quaid has anything to say about it.

The wedding binder is fat and the list of things that need to be done is long, so when the department decides to implement a mandatory team-building Secret Santa event that will take up every one of Quaid’s available Saturdays, he is livid. There is no time for nonsense on his tight schedule.

When Aslan sees what the stress is doing to his fiancé, he calls in the cavalry to help plan the wedding. What could possibly go wrong with Ruiz and Torin on their side?

Relationships grow deeper. Friends and family come together to celebrate. And Quaid and Aslan finally tie the knot.

**Matrimonial Merriment is the seventh book in the Valor and Doyle series. Unlike the other books, this one does not contain a mystery and is wholly focused on our two favorite detectives finally getting married. It was meant as a bonus book but somehow came in at over 100k words. Oops. More of them to love.**

REVIEW:

Matrimonial Merriment is the epitome of literary wish fulfillment.  Everything we could want for Quaid and Aslan comes to fruition in this decadent treat of a story.  Things are yet to come for these two in the next chapter of their relationship as husbands (like kids *fingers crossed*), but for now, James brings us full circle with the wedding of Quaid’s dreams.

All of the best parts of the series are here – the family relationships, the bromances (Quaid and his BFF Ruiz are a highlight), the humor (Aslan and Torin cake testing; Torin’s inability to complete a sentence without cursing), the off-the-charts sneering – Quaid’s completely ineffectual sneering that only turns Aslan on …  I won’t spoil the story by saying more, but trust me … have your tissues because there’s off-the-charts swoon coming your way, as well as so many tender, heartfelt, deeply emotional moments.  I’m not crying you’re crying…

I could read this book on repeat. Matrimonial Merriment hits all the right notes, and lets us visit with all of the characters from the previous books. Threaded throughout is the underpinning of James’ new spinoff series which focuses on Ruiz’s cousin, and also serves as an excellent vehicle to build out Ruiz’s character and his friendship with Quaid.

James maintains continuity by employing Nick J. Russo to narrate the Matrimonial Merriment audiobook.  Russo is an undoubtedly skilled vocal performer and I’ve noted his top-notch work on the audio titles in this series.  When he gets it right, he disappears into the background leaving only vivid character portrayals in our ears. Unfortunately, I think he missed the mark here.  This performance felt strained and I missed the effortless fluidity of some of the earlier audiobooks in the series.  The myriad cast of characters all in close proximity seemed to challenge Russo. His voices for the characters, even Quaid and Aslan, were not as crisp and distinct as has typically been the case.  I was most looking forward to his portrayal of Barnabus who’s absolutely adorable and hysterical in the text.  But in audio, it was overdone.

Notwithstanding, overarchingly, this is not a bad audiobook; it’s just not quite as good in comparison to Russo’s prior work on this series. Matrimonial Merriment, though, is a fabulous book and I will happily listen or read to experience Quaid’s beautiful, funny, heartwarming, uplifting, dream-come-true, it’s-not-a-Christmas-wedding Christmas wedding.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

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