In this first book of a four-part series called The Bridesmaids Chronicles, we meet Sydney Spinelli, the bride's sister. Sydney, an accountant, is levelheaded and responsible -- the "smart" sister. Julia, the "pretty" sister and the bride, is flighty and irresponsible and has been banished to Texas to run one of their father's chains of seedy motels to prove herself. Sydney has been called home to track down her father's bookkeeper who, after embezzling money for 30 years, has taken off for parts unknown with Marv's hard and illegally earned money.

Hard at work trying to make sense of her father's cooked books, Sydney is forced to drop everything and hightail it to Texas after receiving an e-mail announcement of her sister's engagement. She must talk some sense into that girl; after all, how can it be real love when she's only known the guy for a few months!

Alex Kimball has returned to his Texas hometown to find that the world as he knows it has been turned upside down. His uncle, a lawyer with a thriving practice, has chucked it all to become an emu farmer, and his aunt won't allow the poor birds to be killed on her watch. What breaks Alex's heart is that his beloved mother, caught in the throes of early-onset Alzheimer's, barely recognizes him. Alex has enough on his plate helping his uncle market his emu-based face creams and hot sauces, as well as trying to keep his mother from taking her clothes off in public.

Sydney is driving Julia crazy, so Julia's fiancé, Roman, who's Alex's best friend, begs Alex to keep Sydney distracted. At first, he concedes because he owes his friend a favor, but he's quickly drawn to Sydney's honesty and vulnerability, and yes, even her bossiness. Things take a romantic turn, until Sydney finds out that all their fun is simply to keep her out of the way. Will Alex be able to convince her that the time they spent together was his choice, not duty? Will Sydney learn to trust and open herself up to love?

FIRST DATE is a fun, quick read, and I'm looking forward to the other installments in this series -- FIRST KISS by Kylie Adams (July), FIRST DANCE by Karen Kendall (August) and FIRST LOVE by Julie Kenner (September) -- to see what befalls Julia and her other bridesmaids.