TEST
Narrated by Jayne Entwhistle, Fiona Hardingham, and Mark Bramhall
Sophie Kinsella is a hit-or-miss author for me and this story is a miss. I enjoyed her last book, I’ve Got Your Number, a great deal and wrote at the AAR news blog about my excitement at discovering that Jayne Entwhistle was the narrator. While Ms. Entwhistle narrates parts of Wedding Night, she’s one of three narrators and I had problems with the tag-team narration.
The story is divided into sections told from the point-of-view of two sisters ,Lottie (narrated by Jayne Entwhistle) and Fliss (narrated by Fiona Hardingham). Lottie is the younger, flightier sister with a long history of making bad decisions after breaking up with men. The opening sequence is hysterical featuring a restaurant scene in which Lottie decides her current lover is going to propose. He doesn’t and within a matter of days of breaking up with her ex-lover, Lottie meets up with Ben, her lover from a teenage summer on a Greek island. Knowing nothing about each other as adults, Lottie and Ben decide to marry and honeymoon on the Greek island where they met. Ms. Entwhistle does a great job capturing Lottie’s spirit and flightiness in Lottie’s sections.
Fliss is Lottie’s older, controlling, supposedly more sensible sister. I say supposedly because Fliss does some truly incredible things over the course of the book. Fliss is opposed to Lottie’s marriage to Ben. Fliss meets up with Ben’s best friend, Lorcan, and they are both determined to stop the wedding. Fliss and Lorcan have sex the night they meet after drinking a lot of alcohol. While Ms. Hardingham’s voice is pleasant, the first chapter told from Fliss’ POV was disconcerting. When we’re in a Fliss chapter, Lottie’s voice sounds quite different than in Lottie’s chapters. While Lottie seems funny in her chapters, she comes across as completely flaky in Fliss’ chapters, and at times sounds whiny, weepy, and idiotic.
Much of Wedding Night focuses on Fliss’ efforts to make certain that Ben and Lottie don’t have sex on their honeymoon so their marriage can be annulled. At first it was amusing, but eventually some of the things Fliss does seem dangerous and potentially criminal.
The third narrator is the voice of Arthur, a very minor character who owns the hotel on the Island where Ben and Lottie first met. Arthur starts the story and makes an appearance about 10 hours in. By that point he has so little time on page that the introduction of another narrator seems gimmicky. I continue to like Jayne Entwhistle as a narrator and also like Ms. Hardingham. But I truly didn’t like this story; ultimately I didn’t care for either sister.
Breakdown of Grade – Narration: D+ and Book Content: D
Grade: D+
Sensuality: Subtle
Review Date: 13/05/13
Publication Date: 2013/04
My first memory is sitting with my mother on a blanket in our backyard surrounded by books and she is reading one of them to me. My love of reading was encouraged by my parents and it continues to today. I’ve gone through a lot of different genres over the years, but I currently primarily read mysteries (historical mysteries are my favorites) and romances (focusing on contemporaries, categories, and steampunk). When I’m not reading or working, I love to travel, knit, and work on various community projects.
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Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.