Scan barcode
A review by bananatricky
The Wedding Diary by Margaret James
3.0
This book reminded me a little of the film Sliding Doors, where Gwyneth Paltrow simultaneously lives two alternate versions of her life.
Cat works in an architectural savage yard as office manager. Her stand-up comedian boyfriend/fiancé has decided he doesn't want to get married and appears to have disappeared off the face of the earth. Which is unfortunate because Cat has won a dream wedding at a country house.
Adam is a builder/house restorer who proposed to his girlfriend at the theatre and was cruelly rejected.
Cat and Adam seem to be living parallel lives swirling around each other.
Despite their individual misery and heartbreak Cat and Adam are attracted to each other, or at least can't stop thinking about each other. Adam buys things from her yard, they meet at the country house where Cat's prize wedding will be held and Adam is converting the stables into a spa.
This was a fun, quirky English romance complete with loser boyfriends, friends who are more like frenemies, and self-absorbed ex-girlfriends, not forgetting the overbearing PR woman Fanny and her lovely dog.
There were just a few places which felt 'odd'. Adam and Cat's first kiss came out of nowhere, in fact I was convinced he was dreaming because it felt so out-of-context. There were other times later in the book.
Fanny felt overdrawn to me. How winning a dream wedding can be steamrollered into a reality TV show and sponsorship is beyond me - and whilst it was believable that Cat could be bullied into doing/believing these things I found the later stuff out of character and frankly unbelievable
I also thought the "surprise" was telegraphed too much.
But, those are the negatives. I enjoyed the book and would read another by Ms James.
Cat works in an architectural savage yard as office manager. Her stand-up comedian boyfriend/fiancé has decided he doesn't want to get married and appears to have disappeared off the face of the earth. Which is unfortunate because Cat has won a dream wedding at a country house.
Adam is a builder/house restorer who proposed to his girlfriend at the theatre and was cruelly rejected.
Cat and Adam seem to be living parallel lives swirling around each other.
Despite their individual misery and heartbreak Cat and Adam are attracted to each other, or at least can't stop thinking about each other. Adam buys things from her yard, they meet at the country house where Cat's prize wedding will be held and Adam is converting the stables into a spa.
This was a fun, quirky English romance complete with loser boyfriends, friends who are more like frenemies, and self-absorbed ex-girlfriends, not forgetting the overbearing PR woman Fanny and her lovely dog.
There were just a few places which felt 'odd'. Adam and Cat's first kiss came out of nowhere, in fact I was convinced he was dreaming because it felt so out-of-context. There were other times later in the book.
Fanny felt overdrawn to me. How winning a dream wedding can be steamrollered into a reality TV show and sponsorship is beyond me - and whilst it was believable that Cat could be bullied into doing/believing these things I found the later stuff out of character and frankly unbelievable
Spoiler
having finally got Fanny to admit that Cat doesn't owe her a lot of money for refusing the prize, Cat and Adam agree to almost non-stop promotion for Fanny in other matters, including carrying video cameras around 24/7 and having the video posted on YouTube.I also thought the "surprise" was telegraphed too much.
But, those are the negatives. I enjoyed the book and would read another by Ms James.