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| Lottie just knows that her boyfriend is going to propose during lunch at one of London’s fanciest restaurants. But when his big question involves a trip abroad, not a trip down the aisle, she’s completely crushed. So when Ben, an old flame, calls her out of the blue and reminds Lottie of their pact to get married if they were both still single at thirty, she jumps at the chance. No formal dates—just a quick march to the altar and a honeymoon on Ikonos, the sun-drenched Greek island where they first met years ago. Their family and friends are horrified. Fliss, Lottie’s older sister, knows that Lottie can be impulsive—but surely this is her worst decision yet. And Ben’s colleague Lorcan fears that this hasty marriage will ruin his friend’s career. To keep Lottie and Ben from making a terrible mistake, Fliss concocts an elaborate scheme to sabotage their wedding night. As she and Lorcan jet off to Ikonos in pursuit, Lottie and Ben are in for a honeymoon to remember, for better . . . or worse. |
Here we go! A review of Sophie Kinsella's book Wedding Night.
I was pretty excited for this book. Kinsella usually has some really nice, lighthearted reads that are funny at times and all in all make for great chick-lit on a nice Friday evening. However, I have to say that I didn't quite like Wedding Night as much as some of Kinsella's previous works. It seemed to lack a certain charm and quirkiness instead bordering near chaos and a giant rush. Of course I acknowledge that the books is about a rather chaotic situation and the rush to stop the consummating of Lottie's marriage but it felt like too large of a hurry. Reading it left me rather impatient for the ending to play out so I could finally relax.
The first thing I will remark on is the large cast of main characters. In total there was six: Lotti, Lucran, Ben, Richard, Noah, and Fliss, along with some other sub characters sprinkled in the plot. I found this abundance of characters to be frankly too much. There were so many characters with their parts to play running in this novel at the same time that it was frankly chaotic. I felt no one's character ever had a chance to fully develop.
Now to specifics:
Lottie and Richard along with Lottie and Ben's relationship both heavily depended on a back story. Their interactions were very fast and dramatic, never really building the character up instead seemingly stating: this is the character and this is what she/he does. I guess because of this lack of built foundation in the actual course of the story I found Lottie to be the most stupid, idiotic, shallow, psycho character I've ever dealt with. She was just a bloody mess from the beginning of the book to the end. One moment super happy the another- super depressed. It was like she suffered bipolar disorder or severe mood swings all through out the novel. I believe it is the reason that this novel was a chick lit romance that she actually did end up with Richard and that Richard still loved her. If this book was in any way slightly more realistic I would bet money that Richard be running far, far, far away from the psychotic Lottie.
Lottie and Ben's relationship also heavily depended on their back story. Their relationship in the book can also be summed up very simply: sex. That was all they wanted to do and all they never accomplished. It was simply idiotic.
I found Fliss and Locran's relationship to be slightly more charming and closer in characteristic the books Kinsella has previously written. Their relationship was better demonstrated in the course of the plot and gave them better connections. Fliss and Lorcan are very clearly the more logical and grounded characters in the book. I believe Kinsella purposely did such a large contrast between her pairings in this books of Fliss and Locran vs Lottie and Ben/Richard and it was a good and classic idea; however, she did not seem to execute either of the pairings successfully thus I found them both to be rather bland and unsuccessfully developed.
Fliss also had a back story involving a horrid ex-husband that she is still a mist working on the divorce with and an adorable son named Noah. This part of the story could have definitely been expanded. There was only one conversation between Fliss and her ex-husband but I found it to be interesting. Throughout the whole book I kept on waiting for a confrontation between Fliss and her ex but it never happened. Instead Fliss just threw her USB with all her divorce hate in to the ocean. That was a great way of demonstrating letting go but I still wanted a confrontation for the sake of dramatics. I felt that would have played out in Wedding Night if there were less characters and the story was more centralized and focused.
Wedding Night was not a bad book. It just wasn't as good, to me, as Kinsella's previous works. It is like one of those romantic comedy movies that make you feel fuzzy and happy at the end of it, yet at the same time, you gain nothing from it.
I can almost parallel Wedding Night to Disney's Frozen. They both featured great ideas plot wise and had fun characters. However the too large cast of characters dried the plot and didn't allow for as much character development as desired to make the story better. It was an enjoyable read so I would recommend a read. However, as I stated before, it leaves you feeling rushed and slightly overwhelmed.
