Reviews

This was a mystery who dunnit read, but not my favourite. Whilst there were a lot of twists and turns and I can appreciate that the mystery was well planned and thought out, there was something missing. There were lots of suspects which is always a good thing, but none of them had a whole lot of personality and the Trevs boys apart from Johnno all blurred into one. Whilst similar in the wedding mystery sense, it didn't have the heart and lightness that You're Invited had.

The setting was supposed to be haunting but it all felt very theatrical and overdone and never really unnerved me. It felt too much of a stereotype. Whereas I really enjoyed learning about Sri Lanka in you're invited, I really didn't care about this little Irish island. There's hints at lore for the island which never really developed into anything and I found that really disappointing too. It seems our author tried to go in one direction, then part way through decided against it.

I also didn't enjoy the characters (other than Olivia) as much. In terms of bride wars, Jules fell a lot flatter and was a lot more serious of an online influencer than Kaavi. She was a lot less schemey and air headed, instead we got a control freak with the personality of a sheet of paper. I'd take Kaavi any day.

Will and his boys were all icky lads lads lads and as much as the author tries to convince us he's a charming good guy at the start, I never really bought into that and it just didn't feel genuine. Whilst I'm a firm believer that authors should write about whatever they like, the bullying and private school elements of this story left the reader uneasy. They just felt gross to read about and hit a nerve with me. I couldn't feel any kind of empathy for Johnno after being part of that. I know the excuse was that he was naive/dumb, but at the very least he knew that he was causing hurt and taking advantage of a younger kid which doesn't make him a very good person.

Olivia was the best and most complex character for me. With the help of Hannah, you really get to explore her trauma and that makes a twist all the more shocking. Still we never really got to see any fall out or aftermath for that. It didn't really play out other than a quick hug end sequence which was really disappointing. Where was the drama? The confrontation? There was so much more that could've been done and again it fell flat.

I didn't care for Aoife or Charlie. It seems Aoife's entire role is to tell us the role of a wedding planner and keeping control. Yes she's another perspective, but it's an entirely skippable one for the most part.

I was not happy with the killer reveal. There were motives, sure, but it all seemed very elaborate but tagged on. I would have nailed one of the others. All in all this felt like a satire movie rather than a book from the slapstick 'and then the lights went out' sequences (cue the duh duh duhhhh music) to the setting itself. There wasn't all the detail, the aftermath or the deep understanding of the characters that you expect from a book.

From these types of books you expect to be kept on edge and have a real aha moment. I never got that and I felt like there were some good ideas/potential motives but ultimately they failed to get off the ground.