REVIEW: The Stand-Up Groomsman by Jackie Lau
A bridesmaid and groomsman put their differences aside to get their friends down the aisle in this opposites-attract steamy romantic comedy.
They say to never meet your heroes, but when Vivian Liao’s roommate gets engaged to her favorite actor’s costar, she has no choice but to come face-to-face with Melvin Lee again. He’s just as funny and handsome as he is on-screen…but thinks she is a snob and a sellout. It’s none of his business how she chooses to live her life, no matter how charismatic he is.
Mel is used to charming audiences as an actor and stand-up comedian but can’t connect to Vivian. She’s a smart, talented artist—which is why he thinks she’s wasting her life as a corporate finance drone. The only thing uniting them is their goal for the wedding to go off without a hitch.
As they collaborate on wedding cake and karaoke parties, Mel realizes he might have seriously misjudged this bridesmaid, while Vivian discovers the best man might just be as dazzling off-screen as he is on. With the wedding underway, maybe more than one happily ever after is in the future.
Review
I was excited to start “The Stand-Up Groomsman” because Asian rep and bisexual characters. Jackie Lau books tend to either work well for me or they fall flat. This, unfortunately, is a fall flat book. I didn’t read the first book in the series “Donut Fall in Love” and don’t think that’s necessary to try this one. What made me finally DNF this were a few other things. The first meeting between Mel and Vivian was supposed to be a “Not Cute Meet” but Mel really didn’t impress me with how he kept on at Vivian about her job. Okay, he had a bad experience with a corporate job and tells Vivian that she should ditch hers to pursue her art. She pushes back and Mel just Won’t Let It Go. Let it go, Mel. It’s not your life.
Mel is the stand-up comic of the book title. We get to see Mel at work, in comedy clubs, several times. There are pages of description of him doing his act. It’s not that funny and reading endless pages trying to describe something that works visually and audibly isn’t entertaining to me. Then there are the secondary and tertiary characters who come off as little more than “character actors” in a sitcom. Yeah, I get that’s probably what they’re there for but the sheer number of them started to feel as if I were watching a bad TV show with a laugh track. This book is getting great reviews elsewhere but it didn’t work for me.
~Jayne
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LOL. I have a family member like that. I can see where reading about a stand-up comedian wouldn’t work unless the comedy routine was really funny. Otherwise they must not seem competent at their job. Competency goes a long way toward making someone sexy and appealing.
@Janine: I’m crossing my fingers and hoping her next book and I can be friends.