So here’s the thing. As a long-time Sophie Kinsella devotee, I own all the books in her Shopaholic series. Set in London and Manhattan and studded with witty dialogue, the misadventures of retail addict Becky Bloomwood never fail to entertain. No matter how many times you read them.
Also lined up on my bookshelf are Kinsella’s stand-alone novels including The Undomestic Goddess, Can You Keep a Secret?, and the most recent until now, I’ve Got Your Number. All of them are well-written with a strong dose of humour and entertaining storyline; the perfect books for holiday reading.
All of the above is why I was so eager to read her latest offering, Wedding Night in which sisters Lottie and Fliss take readers on a wild ride to and around the sun-drenched Greek island of Ikonos. Lottie has bought an engagement ring and is determined to get a fiancée to go with it. Meanwhile Fliss is going through a divorce that is so bitter that she wears a flash drive around her neck to save the details of every encounter with her much loathed soon-to-be-former husband.
It comes as no surprise then that Fliss is determined to stop her sister from making the biggest mistake of her life. Or as she rather ominously refers to it, make any “Unfortunate Choices”. Their father leaving the family for a South African beauty queen was an “Unfortunate Choice”. Their mother dating questionable businessmen thereafter was an “Unfortunate Choice”. And Lottie marrying the wrong person is definitely an “Unfortunate Choice”. So in order to save her, Fliss makes an “Unfortunate Choice” of her own: “It’s impossible. And wrong. Anyone who did this to her own sister would be some kind of monster. OK. So I’m a monster.”
The kind of monster who will do anything to postpone her own sister’s wedding night. Just long enough for her to reach the runaway couple and knock some sense into them. Fliss bribes, cajoles, and when all else fails, begs the hotel manager to put every impediment possible in the path of conjugal bliss. He reluctantly obliges and with the help of his staff manages to devise the perfect honeymoon from hell.
Also along on this wild race are three very different men. There is Lottie’s boyfriend, Richard, who, according to Fliss, looks like a young Pierce Brosnan on some days and a young Gordon Brown on others. There is also Lottie’s old boyfriend, Ben, who contacts her at a very opportune — or is it inopportune? — moment. And finally there is Lorcan, the tall, dark, handsome lawyer who consistently dresses in a suit. With a name like Lorcan and a description like that much was expected of this particular man. Sadly, expectations were not met. Kinsella’s trademark humour is on display in Wedding Night. Take for example: “Yes! Here we are. A girl on rebound and a guy having a midlife crisis hurtling into ill-considered matrimony. I’m sure there’s a Disney song about that. It rhymes ‘kiss’ with ‘bitter legal battle’.” It’s too bad that these flashes of humour are few and far between. This is a good book to read under a sizzling sun at the beach.
Wedding Night
(Novel)
By Sophie Kinsella
The Dial Press, US
ISBN 9780812993844
464pp.
