Customer Reviews

Amanda's Wedding

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

There is obviously no shortage of Bridge Jones-like books about single women in London, and many of them tend to blur together. Amanda's Wedding, however, stands out for the sheer enjoyment and satisfaction of it. I breezed through it in a day, loved every moment of it and think everyone looking for a great escape should do the same.

The book revolves around Amanda's wedding, but not Amanda. Amanda is the old childhood friend who suddenly became rich, started acting quite posh and then found her old friends not up to her new refined tastes. Our heroine, thankfully, is not Amanda but one of her castaways, still close to the other desertee. Occasionally Amanda deigns to contact her old friends, and the catalyst for the story is news of her engagement.

I don't want to include any spoilers here, so I will be very basic - the plot entails the experiences of our herione and her friend leading up to, during and after Amanda's wedding. There are men, jobs, disasters, good times, bad times and so on. And while Amanda herself is quite the stereotype, she's also somehow real and believable, the perfect foil to the others. Along the way, a slew of good characters are introduced, all of whom are charming and funny.

This books is definitely one to be enjoyed and not one that teaches the meaning of life. But it certainly delivers, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a well-written, satsifying, fun and funny book. It's very much worth the investment and is a perfect way to cheer yourself up or just have a good time. I expected a cookie-cutter novel and was delighted with what I found - I unknowingly made a wise purchase, indeed!

Could this book be any funnier? I couldn't stop laughing at the hilarious dialogue and clever one-liners. Jenny Colgan has become part of my list of favorite British writers ... and that says a lot about this gem of a book!

Amanda used to be one of Mel's best friends -- till she became a major money-grubbing snob. To make matters worse, Amanda has become engaged to Fraser, Mel's old crush. Things take a hilarious turn when Mel, Mel's obnoxious best friend Fran and Fraser's brother Angus get together to sabotage the wedding. The novel goes uphill from there. I especially love the twist at the end.

Are you in the bargain for a hilarious romantic comedy from an up-and-coming author? Read Amanda's Wedding. You'll laugh your pants off!

OK, so this isn't great British literature. Or even really involved super British modern romance. Read Christina Jones or Katie Fforde (the best) for that. But I started this book yesterday evening and couldn't stop (darn, I have to work, but I did leave a bit early to finish it!) Really funny, cute - and despite what some might think, our heroine doesn't end up with the wrong man. Just one of the possible Mr. Rights. (Although, I do wonder how they make it all work out so everyone is comfortable. I know, I know, it's only fiction - but still, you always wonder how everything all works out.) Our Scots boys are full of charm, Mel is sloppy but sweet - and I actually liked Mookie the bridesmaid. Fran - well, I also wonder how that all works out. Anyway, the total cast of characters is so fun - annoying, but charming at the same time. Read this!!

As a Brit Lit connoisseur, I have read and purchased many novels in this genre. I've had my eye on Amanda's Wedding for quite some time, and now, having read it, I can confidently place it on my list of favorites. Not only is this novel good, but author Jenny Colgan has a distinct sense of humor that translates well onto paper.

Melanie, Fran and Amanda have been friends since elementary school. This bond of friendship should have lasted well into old age; however, since Amanda's father got rich off some invention of his, suddenly she is too posh for the likes of Melanie and Fran. And now, to top it all off, Amanda announces her engagement to Scottish Laird Fraser McConald -- the very same Fraser who Melanie had a major crush on back in college. Well, that just won't do! So Melanie and Fran form a committee with one goal in mind: to destroy the happy couple and make sure this wedding will never take place.

Yes, it's just another typical Brit Lit novel. But honestly, can one *ever* get enough?! However, with Amanda's Wedding, I was actually surprised at the end. I thought for sure I knew how it would end, but I was wrong, and that is such a refreshing change when reading these types of novels. Good job, Jenny Colgan! I am now a fan for life.

With the recent spate of novels of British 20-somethings (Bridget Jones, Confessions of a Shopaholic, Love:A User's Guide, Ralph's Party), I just had to check this one out. It's a fun novel, full of the usual girltalk over a curry and lots of shopping in trendy shops. This book, about the wedding of an annoying ex-classmate to a rich bachelor, has many funny moments, and the characters are charming. I especially enjoyed Mel's encounters with the over-large suitor. If you are looking for a fun, frothy read, then this one is for you.

The rash of British books to hit our coast are so refreshing!!! This is another in the lineup of funny, realistic stories given to us by the likes of Keyes, Jewell and Fielding. Mel and Fran are like the friends we all want to have and of course Amanda epitomizes the one with which we all went to school. Everything that Mel says, does and thinks is so familiar, it is like a window into our own lives. Except, with a comedic twist and lots of witty comebacks. You won't stop laughing and will be sad to reach the last page.

I'm a little confused as to why so many reviewers were expecting this book to be "another Bridget Jones." I loved Bridget, but certainly don't anticipate that every book about girls in London is going to be the same. Just as not all American novels are the same, neither are British ones. Yes, there are lots of Bridget clones, I for one was pleased that this wasn't really one of them.
Melanie, the main character, was someone I liked. (Honestly, having had a rotten-but-impossibly-sexy boyfriend of my own at one time, I sympathised completely with her.)
She gets involved in a plot to spoil the wedding of a girl she was childhood friends with, but who has now become an impossible snob. The friend, Amanda, is one of those people that you don't really like but agree to see occasionally anyway, almost like doing psychic penance. (At least, I do this.) To make matters worse, the man Amanda is marrying is Melanie's own secret college crush, Fraser.
So, when Frasers hunky brother Angus, Melanie,her slutty best friend Fran, and various other characters, decide that they cannot allow poor sweet Fraser to go through with this wedding, humor ensues. No, not hilarity. It wasn't hilarious. But it was amusing, and there were a couple of laugh-out-loud lines in the book.
I liked the incidental characters in this book as well. Melanie's lovestruck coworkers, "Mookie" the bridesmaid, and Melanie's Ralph Fiennes-obsessed roommate.
All in all, it was a fun afternoon's read. While I'm not sure if I agree with the ending, it still at least made some sense to me.
I did find that I enjoyed this book more on the second reading. I would definitely read another book by this author.

I made the mistake of bringing this book on a business trip. Instead of doing my work on the plane, I read this book instead. It was fun and entertaining and had a terrific surprise ending. Highly recommended to anyone who enjoyed Good in Bed, Bridget Jones' Diary, or other comic novels.

Based on others' comments, I thought this would be a fun beach book -- and it was, until the end. The ending was completely incongruous -- without giving anything away, characters that have been building throughout the entire book suddenly change without reason, and you have no idea why she ends up with the guy she ends up with. It was as if someone else wrote the last few chapters, and messed it all up. Other little things, like sloppy editorial errors (main character Fran called "Frank", for instance), took away from it for me, but it was the ending that made me rate it so low.

When Mel and Fran's old school chum and arch enemy - the super snob Amanda, (Satan's very own PR girl), pulls off the ultimate publicity stunt in getting herself engaged to a Scottish laird - they descend into a drunken binge (and Mel ends up a night with the 6 foot 7 accountant who is the most boring accountant in the world) - which constitutes the worst drop into despair in the world. It seems Amanda does not mind that Fraser McConnald wears the same pair of Converse trainers for years on end, and that his castle is a pile of rubble with one Calor Gas heater - Amanda wants to be titled - and what Amanda wants, Amanda gets - even if it means fake smiles, lots of white teeth and tight leather trousers.

Fraser, rather sweet and gentle, is clearly ignorant of her wiles (aren't all males though) so it is up to our heroine, Mel and her acerbic friend Fran, still smarting from the memory of Amanda's perfidy at school, to save him from mismatch of the century. To bring this all off and get her final revenge on her arch enemy Mel has to fight off an even greater and more pressing nemesis - the ardent attentions of the most boring accountant in the world, at the same time she has to keepg Fran's deadly manoeuvres with the opposite sex under control and try to win back the love of her life, the gorgeous, but fiendishly uncommitted Alex.

Walking with Mel through the wedding preparations which include hen night from hell are just wonderful, light fun.

This is a hellluva funny debut novel - well worth a read and definitely an author to watch out for. At times I thought it would tip over into self-concious joke telling - ah la most stand up comedians who end up writing books (Ellen de Generes, Paul Reisner et al) but this was great. Imaginative, funny and the characters seemed real no matter how eccentric things got. It reminded me very much of Jilly Cooper's early short romances (Octavia, Imogen) which I also loved. If you enjoy Jilly Cooper or Janet Evanovich I'm sure you'll love this.