Customer Reviews

The Wedding Girl (Center Point Platinum Romance (Large Print))

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

There can be few people whose spines do not prickle with apprehension at the moment the preacher asks: 'Does anyone know any just cause why these two should not be joined together in holy matrimony....?'
Our heroine is about to be the centre of a society wedding which will hit every front page in the land. She's marrying the son of one of the world's richest men and her mother, a social-climber extraordinaire, is fussing and list-making 24 hours a day.
Everything is set, guests are being helicoptered in, the organist is flying from Geneva, ice swans are being sculpted.....there is just one small problem. Ten years before the bride married a gay friend for immigration purposes, and never actually got a divorce! When the photographer recognises her, she is thrown into a panic and tries, in secret to "put matters right". She has less than 4 days to find and divorce a man she hasn't seen in a decade.
Madeleine Wickham knows people so well and draws them beautifully. The set-aside father, bemused by his wife's tireless efficient anxiety, the dizzy bride who somehow thought that if she didn't admit to the previous wedding it would go away, the career-girl sister who is always so in control of her life (or is she?).
You know people like this - and if you don't - the author brings them to life on the page so vividly that when you reach the last page you have the feeling you are saying goodbye to old friends.
Intertwined in this desperate dash to save face, is a sadder story of how it is still not always possible to be proud of being gay, or to accept who you really are.

Why do I keep trying to read Madeline Wickham books? It's those darn book jackets that pull me in. I'm expecting a fun, frothy beach read (like her Kinsella books), and they are nothing of the kind. When she writes as Kinsella, she is funny, witty, romantic, and enjoyable. As Madeline Wickham, she creates unappealing characters and boring plotlines. In this instance, she makes Simon so unappealing that the reader never warms up to him. Why would I want him to get the girl? I don't. Molly, the heroine, is sweet, but frustrating. She is never honest with her loved ones. The "secret" theme has been done ad nauseum, and this sheds absolutely no new light on it. I think if the book jackets were more appropriate to the slower, more serious story lines, I would have the proper expectations when I buy one. However, this is nothing like the fun chick lit it appears to be and that I enjoy reading occasionally. It's bland and completely forgettable.

If you don't know, Madeleine Wickham is the real name for Sophie Kinsella (pen name). Yeap, the one who wrote the highly successful Shopaholic series. Under her real name of Madeleine Wickham, she wrote several books which have more substance than the frothy ones under Sophie Kinsella. That's why she used a pen name to keep her styles of writing apart.

The Wedding Girl is one such book with much meaty substance. She must have germinated her ideas for "Can you Keep A Secret?" which she wrote later under Sophie Kinsella from this earlier book, The Wedding Girl.

Are secrets better left unearthed or are they better off exposed to those that concern you? How would it affect relationships that have formed preconceived set values and change the dynamics? Will it be the same? That is the recurring fear harboured by Milly Havill who got married for a frivolous reason 10 years ago and now has to un-do that marriage in order to marry the person she truly loves.

Familiarity breeds contempt within the family. This is the ongoing theme in the book, you think you know someone too well and you begin to perform selective memory. You only bring up characteristics that you dislike about them which becomes all too consuming for you and bury their good points fathoms deep. That is until someone from outside your immediate family brings to you a new perspective on their characters.

The author deftly handles the multitude of secrets harboured by several characters. The secrets harboured here are definitely more grounded in reality than those in "Can You Keep A Secret?".

Read it or you will miss out on a much earlier Sophie Kinsella very sophisticated story telling skills!!!

This is the first Madeleine Wickham book I have read and I have to say that I really enjoyed. Milly is a very sympathic character and you really want things to work out for her. Some people will say that no one could be as naive as Milly who truly believes if you don't talk about unpleasant things they aren't happening. I know several people like this in real life and can imagine them acting the same way.

In some ways the story lines aren't anything new: Milly tries to behave the way she thinks Simon wants her to, Simon hates his father because he abandoned him and his mother only to come back into life when he was an adult, Simon feels inferior to his millionare father, Milly's mother acts like Milly is still 14, Milly's father prefers his "career girl" older daughter over flakey Milly. These are not new family dynamics. Etc...

What really made this book interesting was the story line between Allan and Rupert. Their love story is very believable and touching.

There were several character story lines that could have been omitted to make a tighter story. The whole Esme story line was un-needed as was the one between Isobel and Harry.

The main theme of the book is being who you are and not what you think others want you to be. It's a good theme for all of us.

I'm not usually drawn toward wedding books, but I'm a big Sophie Kinsella/Madeleine Wickham fan so I gave this a shot. This is not your typical wedding story; the first wedding takes place when Milly is only 18, and it's on a lark, as a favor to a gay friend who needs to be married to stay in the country. She forgets about it and goes on to live a very non-lark-y life...except for the fact that her fiancé thinks she's more erudite than she is.

What ensues is much familial havoc, including Milly's parents' unhappiness and her sister's unexpected pregnancy, not to mention a meddling wedding photographer and godmother. There is a lot going on and sometimes it's distracting, and I found the ending a little too neat, but like with her other work, I enjoyed Milly's predicament and that she stands up for herself and that Wickham manages to skewer wedding culture just a little bit as well. Milly is not the typical bride and even though she has dreams of a traditional marriage, she finds herself having to remake all of her relationships and discovering that many people, even those closest to her, aren't what they seem. While the gay characters could've had a happier ending, I still appreciated that Wickham included that story line and made them more than just a plot device for Milly. Bisexuality is never actually addressed but is lurking in Rupert's character (Rupert is the ex of the man Milly married) as he too struggles between a traditional life and a less traditional one.

What should have been an entertaining read became an exercise in disappointment.
The heroine is unbelievably slow. Like developmentally disabled. Her sister is the only character I had any empthy for as she at least seemed to be thinking and proactive.
These people manage to get themselves in situations that wouldn't rate on a third-rate sitcom. Everything would be easily dealt with in one or two adult conversations. But instead, everybody runs around, easily manipulated because they all apparently live in a world where nobody had any introspection or the ability to think of anyone but themselves. Ever.
The heroine is the worst of all. The mental level of a 12-year old and the emotional level of an infant.
Surprisingly, the possibilities of the interpersonal relatinoships are good. If only the characters had been as good.

I found the story difficult to get into at first, but I'm glad I stuck with it. I would have liked the main character to have been the sister Isabel instead of the actual "wedding girl," as she is not a likable character. All in all, I think the book is worth reading and Wickham does not fail to entertain.

It's interesting to me how an author can stereotype. The born-again Christians in this book are portrayed as rigid, holier-than-thou, and judgemental. Not to mention being fearful of gay people, which is just ridiculous. Christians, as far as I know, are not afraid of gay people. The Christians I know are loving, accepting human beings who honestly believe Jesus died to save them just like everyone else. They know they shouldn't point fingers because no one in this world is perfect, including them. It's portrayals like this that create anti-Christian attitudes in those who don't know any better and that's truly a shame.

Otherwise I enjoyed the story and the two unexpected twists. I would have given this story a higher rating had it not been for the one-dimensional portrayal of Christians.

While I've read every one of Wickhams books - including all the Sophie Kinsella. I must say this isn't my favorite, nor is it the worst. In true Wickham fashion you have the main character who like a lot of us out there, put off what needs to be done until it's almost too late. While there were parts that made me laugh, there were sections I wish I could jump into the book and slap a few characters. Easy read and recommended for any Chick-Lit lover.

Although the entire pretext of this story, Milly's impulsive marriage, is rather silly, somehow the whole story ends up working beautifully. Whether writing in her pen or real name, Wickham has an amazing ability to create characters who you care about despite the fact that they are often foolish, immature, dizzy, flighty et al. Milly is pretty much all of those, but she ends up being likeable because of the writing.

The Isobel and Harry sub-plot was far more preposterous, and could have been omitted without any harm to the storyline.

But all in all, I really loved this story!