Always the Bridesmaid: A Clean Friends To Lovers, Secret Crush Romance (Wedding Season in Ivy Hollow)

Twelve weddings. Twelve ugly dresses. Zero dates. Bree Nguyen is officially over it.

She's been a bridesmaid so many times she has a loyalty punch card (metaphorically). She's caught three bouquets and zero feelings from anyone who stuck around. So when wedding number thirteen rolls around and she's back in taffeta, Bree makes a deal with this is the last one. After this, she's retiring her bridesmaid shoes and focusing on herself.

Callum Reeves has been in love with Bree Nguyen for four years. Four years of being in the same friend group, sitting across from her at brunch, watching her light up every room she walks into, and saying absolutely nothing about it because Bree made it very clear after her last breakup that she's done with romance.

But this wedding throws them together more than usual. And when the Lantern Festival puts them alone on a dock at sunset, the thing Callum has been keeping quiet starts getting very, very loud.

Bree doesn't do feelings anymore. Callum has enough feelings for both of them. And somewhere between a ridiculous bridesmaid dress and a paper lantern carrying wishes across the water, "just friends" starts to feel like the biggest lie either of them has ever told.

A sweet, closed-door romance featuring a bridesmaid on her last tour of duty, a patient hero who's been waiting for his moment, and a lantern wish that changes everything.