Wedding Night (Book Review)

Wedding Night


Author: Sophie Kinsella
Publisher: Bantam Press
Page Numbers: 368
Release Date: April 23, 2013


My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Stars


Synopsis from Goodreads:

Lottie is tired of long-term boyfriends who don’t want to commit to marriage. When her old boyfriend Ben reappears and reminds her of their pact to get married if they were both still single at thirty, she jumps at the chance. There will be no dates and no engagement—just a straight wedding march to the altar! Next comes the honeymoon on the Greek island where they first met. But not everyone is thrilled with Lottie and Ben’s rushed marriage, and family and friends are determined to intervene. Will Lottie and Ben have a wedding night to remember or one to forget?

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MY THOUGHTS:

 

I couldn't wait to start Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella. Even though I've started to drift away from chick-lit lately, there are still a handful of authors whose books I will always read. Ms. Kinsella being one of them. Honestly, her books have become hit or miss for me over the years. I loved Can You Keep a Secret? and Remember Me?; liked I've Got Your Number, Twenties Girl and The Undomestic Goddess; and find The Shopaholic series to be a bit of a mixed bag--I seriously got about 10 pages into Mini-Shopaholic before giving up completely. Regardless, I just find myself coming back again and again and I jumped at the chance to read an advanced copy of her new book Wedding Night.

Wedding Night follows two sisters: Lottie and Fliss. This is the first book of Kinsella's (that I can remember) in which the narrative is split between two women--which I enjoyed. Lottie is the little sister. She is dying to get married to her long-tern boyfriend, Richard, and believes he is about to propose when he takes her out for a "special lunch." When the meal ends and Lottie is still ringless, she dumps Richard and makes the impulsive decision to hook-up and marry her first love, Ben, a man she hasn't seen for 15 years. The two marry and fly off to the Greek island where they first met for their honeymoon.

Fliss is horrified by this decision (as most big sisters would be). Over the years she has watched Lottie make disastrous choices every time her heart is broken (from ill-advised tattoos to accidentally joining a cult) and decides to do everything she can to stop her sister from consumating the marriage so that she can get an annulment. Fliss is herself going through a painful divorce and wants to save her sister from the pain she is experiencing. She finds herself running after Lottie and Ben with Lorcan, Ben's handsome friend, and her son, Noah.

Lottie is a typical Kinsella character. Like Becky Bloomwood (from Shopaholic) or Emma Corrigan (from Can You Keep a Secret?), she makes outrageous choices, comes off slightly-ditzy, and seems trapped in perpetual youth. Her "voice" is Becky reincarnated. Fliss was a bit different. She's very bitter about her divorce (she keeps a log of interactions with her ex, for example, noting every ass-holish thing he does) and her "protective sister mode" takes a couple of crazy turns as her attempts to sabotage the honeymoon become more and more extreme. 

Overall, I enjoyed Wedding Night, but it is a typical chick-lit novel. The situations are over-the-top and would never happen in real life. The storyline is predictable and you know from the beginning how it will end and who will end up with who. But I found it enjoyable enough for what it is. Sophie Kinsella's writing is as warm as always and sometimes a girl just needs a chick-lit novel written by an old favorite.

*I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review*