Sophie Kinsella, Wedding Night

Lottie Graveney is certain that her boyfriend Richard is going to propose, so when his “big question” for her turns out to involve frequent flyer miles, she’s absolutely devastated. Still reeling from the subsequent breakup, she gets a call from her ex-boyfriend Ben, with whom she once spent an amazing summer on the Greek island of Ikonos. Ben is still as gorgeous and fun as Lottie remembers, and he even says he wants to get married. So Lottie and Ben decide to have a quickie wedding and fly to Ikonos for a whirlwind honeymoon. But Lottie’s older sister Fliss thinks this is a terrible decision, and the only solution is to follow them to Ikonos and stop them from consummating the marriage. Can Fliss prevent Lottie from making the biggest mistake of her life without losing her own chance at happiness?

I normally enjoy Sophie Kinsella’s light, breezy brand of chick lit, so I was excited to get my hands on a copy of this latest book. It was a fun, fluffy read, but ultimately I didn’t like this one as much as I wanted to. Lottie and Fliss take turns narrating the story, and I think the novel lacks focus as a result. There’s just so much going on, between Lottie’s romantic turmoil and Ben’s questionable motives and Fliss’ difficult divorce and Richard’s change of heart…it was just too many threads to keep track of, especially in such a fast-paced novel. There are ultimately two romantic plotlines, and neither of them is sufficiently developed. Also, I had a lot of trouble with Fliss’ character; while her original intention of protecting her sister is good, she uses a lot of underhanded methods to get her way. Another character does call her out for this behavior, but that didn’t stop me from being frustrated for a big part of the novel. All in all, this is a decent beach read, but I’m glad I didn’t spend any money on it.