The Dream Wedding, by M.J. Rodgers

The Dream Wedding, by M.J. Rodgers was yet another book I couldn't remember why I'd bought. Until I read it, that is.

Handsome psychiatrist Michael Sands specializes in patients' dreams, but he falls into a dream of his own when he finds beautiful Briana Berry sleeping under the Dream Institute's office Christmas tree late one night. Answers to the many questions that arise from this discovery--how she got there, why she's dressed in an expensive wedding gown, and what her real identity is--pose a giant mystery, one Michael has to solve. As he struggles to maintain a patient-client relationship with Briana, he's painfully aware that he has fallen in love with the fascinating mystery woman.

As Briana searches for the memory that eludes her, she falls more deeply in love with Michael. Why can't Briana remember what she's really like? Why does she remember a childhood far different from the one her mother describes? Why does she feel threatened by the man who insists he is her new husband?

A neatly constructed, intriguing little mystery. A B+.

Usually, if I'm expecting a romance and it turns out the romance is veeery slight and all the emphasis is on a mystery, I'm not happy. Here, however, the mystery was so intriguing, so fascinating, that I didn't much mind. I simply couldn't imagine how Rodgers would be able to give us a reasonable explanation of the facts, short of making Briana have split personality or making it all a dream she'd wake up in the end, and every time we got one more nugget of information, I understood even less.

So, I kept turning the pages like crazy and the solution, when it came, made perfect sense and tied every single thread neatly.

Oh, and as to why I'd bought it: it turns out this one was one of the books recommended to me when I asked for titles in which the protagonists voluntarily decided not to have children. This was a really nice touch, only unfortunately, it was the only remarkable thing about the romance.