Customer Reviews

Double Wedding

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OK, let's get the negatives out of the way: Scanlan is in the Binchy/Macomber school of writing: not bad, not great. She keeps the narrative rolling along but isn't what I would call a graceful or literary writer. Her books tend to be a bit long and repetitive. Her men come in two types: a-holes and angels. Her women: ditto. There's not a lot of nuance.

However: having said that, I like her books because I know what to expect. They're entertaining because we've all encountered the types of people she writes about, and we can feel for their problems and relate to their lives. (This is why I compare her to Macomber and Binchy, because I feel the same way about their stories and characters.) It's like literary McDonalds. You always know what you're going to get, and if you're in the mood for that, you'll be satisfied.

The two women in this book are similar to people we've all encountered, the emotionally immature, childhood-messed-her-up Carol and the nice if somewhat spineless Jessica. Sometimes when I read a book like this I think how if Carol were my friend I would have dumped her a long, long time ago, but then there wouldn't be a story to tell. Carol tries to get her reluctant boyfriend to the altar by horning in on Jessica's wedding, hence the title. Jessica's fiance is, predictably, an angel; Carol's boyfriend, not so much. No spoilers here, you'll have to find out for yourself the ins and outs of the drama.

Final analysis: great airplane/beach book. You'll keep turning pages, as I did, to find out what happens, and you'll probably forget the whole thing within a week of reading it, as I did.

I am reading the book and was unpleasantly surprised to find that around 50 pages are missing in the book. They have been replaced with part of another novel called The Wedding Day by Catherine Alliott. I don't see how this could have happened. But seeing that it was a used book, the sender must have realized it. Not real happy about this. Thank you.

While at the Dublin Airport I picked up a copy of City Girl by Patricia Scanlan. I was delighted with her descriptions of the country we had just visited. When I checked our local library, I found they did not stock any of her books. I ordered several of them through Amazon . They are not evenly written and some are better than others. However, if you have been in Ireland , (or hope to go there)you will enjoy reading her books which focus on the conflict of the modern mores of the country with the older traditions.