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niinjah's review against another edition
4.0
Completely okay, but sometimes too many characters with stories that you don`t quite live in. I loved the part about Ruby and her family, though. Also Lila and her life!
kathykekmrs's review against another edition
3.0
This story of a recently engaged couple takes the reader from the proposal to the wedding, but stops along the way to add more characters. Somehow with all of these additional characters in the story the reader is slowed down. This makes the pace of the reading much to slow and creates some chaos in the reader's mind. The story is well written, excellent use of language and description. The biggest weakness is trying to figure out how all of these characters pertain to the lives of Katy and Michael. The reader is given the story of both sets of parents, Katy's best friend and sister of best friend, and the cake baker. All of these four stories introduces a slew of people to keep track of and it is quite complicated. It ties up really nicely and that may also be the book's problem as real life is by nature messy.
tremayna's review against another edition
3.0
By the end, I was enjoying this book quite a lot and couldn't put it down. The three main characters (as cited from the promo text on the back cover) were beautifully written and had depth. However, it was a tough read to get the hang of, for a couple reasons.
Firstly, although there were purportedly only four threads to this story, the author allowed nearly everyone to be a point of view character, complete with complex expositional back story and emotional stream of consciousness, such that you often didn't know whose story was being told, or whom to focus on in a given scene.
Second, in each of the three main storylines (the first one isn't so much a story as a vehicle for the other three), events in fact bypassed any real climax and instead were brought directly to resolution, not by some decision or realization of the point of view character, but by some peripheral action or revelation by a minor player.
Real life can be like that, so it wasn't wholly unsatisfying - but I did miss the hinted-but-never-delivered drama.
Firstly, although there were purportedly only four threads to this story, the author allowed nearly everyone to be a point of view character, complete with complex expositional back story and emotional stream of consciousness, such that you often didn't know whose story was being told, or whom to focus on in a given scene.
Second, in each of the three main storylines (the first one isn't so much a story as a vehicle for the other three), events in fact bypassed any real climax and instead were brought directly to resolution, not by some decision or realization of the point of view character, but by some peripheral action or revelation by a minor player.
Real life can be like that, so it wasn't wholly unsatisfying - but I did miss the hinted-but-never-delivered drama.
cvak130's review against another edition
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
sterialm's review against another edition
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
arwenauthor's review against another edition
2.0
This is the story of a couple's engagement on top of the Eiffel Tower, then of three women: Vonnie, daring to let love back into her life; Leila, nursing a broken heart; and Grace, wondering if her divorce was a mistake.
Or, at least, you would be forgiven for thinking so if you believed the blurb.
Actually, the PoV is shared between a lot more characters than these three. There's: Katie, recently engaged; Michael, recently engaged to Katie; Birdie, Katie's mum; Howard, Katie's dad; Leila, who is also Katie's best friend and bridesmaid as well as nursing a broken heart; her sister, whose name briefly escapes me, also a bridesmaid and a single mum bringing up a child; Leila and her sister's mother Dolores, who has had a fall and it transpires has been hiding rheumatoid arthritis; Tynan, Leila's egocentric ex-husband; Devlan, Leila's sexy boss; Grace, Michael's mum; Stephen, Michael's dad, divorced from Grace; Julia, Stephen's new partner; Lorraine, a colleague of Grace's; Nora, Grace's best friend who runs the care home that Dolores ends up at; Vonnie, a widower who is baking Michael and Katie's wedding cake, has a son called Shane; Ryan, Grace's current husband who has two children of his own; Jennifer, Ryan's bitter ex wife; Ruby, 16, and Shelby are Vonnie and Ryan's children, though only Ruby is a PoV character; Lulu, Jennifer's mother; Andi, Ruby's best friend; Howard, Katie's philandering father; Birdie, Katie's nervous mother; Fiona, Michael's tom boy sister... I think that about covers it!
Anyway, you get the picture: there's a lot going on! The story lines all overlap quite nicely, with the exception of the Vonnie-Ryan-Ruby-Jennifer storyline; the single linking fact here is that Vonnie makes Michael and Katie's cake. This is a connection, but I kept expecting them to be joined up more than that before the end.
With this many characters, I have to admit that I was confused. I'm not sure whether that's to do with me or to do with the novel, as there are a lot of positive reviews. By about halfway through, I felt I knew who was who, but it was frustrating up until that point. There also seems to be a lot of 'padding;' perhaps Kelly had a specific word count she was aiming for? Maybe I'm being unfair.
Anyway, it was okay. I liked the fact that it was set in Kelly's home turf in Ireland as she seemed to feel a real connection for the place. For me, it was not. There are a number of issues as I have highlighted; but it also isn't my kind of book.
I need to make some sort of pact with myself: I WILL NOT READ BOOKS THAT I DON'T LIKE. Now repeat seven times.
Or, at least, you would be forgiven for thinking so if you believed the blurb.
Actually, the PoV is shared between a lot more characters than these three. There's: Katie, recently engaged; Michael, recently engaged to Katie; Birdie, Katie's mum; Howard, Katie's dad; Leila, who is also Katie's best friend and bridesmaid as well as nursing a broken heart; her sister, whose name briefly escapes me, also a bridesmaid and a single mum bringing up a child; Leila and her sister's mother Dolores, who has had a fall and it transpires has been hiding rheumatoid arthritis; Tynan, Leila's egocentric ex-husband; Devlan, Leila's sexy boss; Grace, Michael's mum; Stephen, Michael's dad, divorced from Grace; Julia, Stephen's new partner; Lorraine, a colleague of Grace's; Nora, Grace's best friend who runs the care home that Dolores ends up at; Vonnie, a widower who is baking Michael and Katie's wedding cake, has a son called Shane; Ryan, Grace's current husband who has two children of his own; Jennifer, Ryan's bitter ex wife; Ruby, 16, and Shelby are Vonnie and Ryan's children, though only Ruby is a PoV character; Lulu, Jennifer's mother; Andi, Ruby's best friend; Howard, Katie's philandering father; Birdie, Katie's nervous mother; Fiona, Michael's tom boy sister... I think that about covers it!
Anyway, you get the picture: there's a lot going on! The story lines all overlap quite nicely, with the exception of the Vonnie-Ryan-Ruby-Jennifer storyline; the single linking fact here is that Vonnie makes Michael and Katie's cake. This is a connection, but I kept expecting them to be joined up more than that before the end.
With this many characters, I have to admit that I was confused. I'm not sure whether that's to do with me or to do with the novel, as there are a lot of positive reviews. By about halfway through, I felt I knew who was who, but it was frustrating up until that point. There also seems to be a lot of 'padding;' perhaps Kelly had a specific word count she was aiming for? Maybe I'm being unfair.
Anyway, it was okay. I liked the fact that it was set in Kelly's home turf in Ireland as she seemed to feel a real connection for the place. For me, it was not. There are a number of issues as I have highlighted; but it also isn't my kind of book.
I need to make some sort of pact with myself: I WILL NOT READ BOOKS THAT I DON'T LIKE. Now repeat seven times.
klndonnelly's review against another edition
4.0
Review at Beverages and Books
http://beveragesandbooks.com/?p=300
http://beveragesandbooks.com/?p=300
stacyroth's review against another edition
3.0
I received an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased opinion.
In the prologue, a man asks his girlfriend to marry him on the Eiffel Tower. The rest of the book follows the lives of their family, friends, and even the people involved in helping plan their wedding.
I was looking forward to reading this book, and I really liked the prologue, but the rest of the book just didn't really hook me. None of the story lines were bad on their own, but there were just too many of them to fit into one book. I feel like it would have been better if this had been split into 2 books, and then the story lines could have been fleshed out some more.
In the prologue, a man asks his girlfriend to marry him on the Eiffel Tower. The rest of the book follows the lives of their family, friends, and even the people involved in helping plan their wedding.
I was looking forward to reading this book, and I really liked the prologue, but the rest of the book just didn't really hook me. None of the story lines were bad on their own, but there were just too many of them to fit into one book. I feel like it would have been better if this had been split into 2 books, and then the story lines could have been fleshed out some more.
clss97's review against another edition
4.0
My Christmas present this year was a trip to Paris with my family to welcome the new year. As an avid all things French enthusiast, this book was the one that caught my eye in the bookshop whilst waiting for our flight. A deceptive title to match a wonderfully told story with so many wonderful aspects of the real world although it could often be deceptive and possessed a few unseen twists along the way. A truly magical holiday read.
stephreads44's review against another edition
5.0
Absolutely adored this book. Such a heart warming, unembellished story about every day family life. One of my favourite books of all time for sure.