Wedding Night

by Sophie Kinsella

[Leah]

I love Sophie Kinsella. She’s my favourite author, ever, and there’s no one that compares to her. Yes, there are other authors that write like her (Paige Toon, Jane Costello to name two and they’re both fabulous!) but you just can’t beat a new Sophie Kinsella novel. I was so excited when I saw a new novel of hers up for pre-order on Amazon and as soon as I heard the synopsis for Wedding Night and saw the beautiful cover, I fell in love. I was so pleased to receive a copy to review – I nearly died of happiness, that is how much joy comes from receiving a Sophie Kinsella book and I dived in as soon as I had some free time.

Wedding Night is the first Kinsella novel to split the narration. Instead of just being from the point of view of one character as with the rest of her novels, Wedding Night is told from the viewpoint of two sisters, Fliss and Lottie. Lottie thought she had found the man of her dreams and is convinced he’s about to propose, and when he doesn’t, she realises he doesn’t want what she wants and they break up. When old flame Ben comes back into Lottie’s life and reminds them of their pact to get married if they were both still un-wed at 30 (or 33!), Lottie jumps at the chance. Her sister, Fliss, however, couldn’t think of anything more horrific. Marrying someone you haven’t seen for 15 years? She knows what Lottie is like after a break-up and suspects this is Lottie’s mad-cap reaction to the break-up and will stop at nothing to stop this wedding going ahead, knowing first hand what divorce is like and how awful it can be. When Lottie and Ben head off on honeymoon, Fliss isn’t far behind, but can she stop Lottie and Ben before they make the biggest mistake of their life or is Fliss about to make the biggest mistake of her life in chasing them down?

I absolutely loved Wedding Night! The dual narration was awesome at letting us follow each sister, as Lottie and Ben try to consummate their marriage and as Fliss does everything in her power to stop that happening, whilst chasing them down to their Greek honeymoon in Ikonos. I found myself alternatively rooting for Lottie and rooting for Fliss, but mostly, I was rooting for Fliss if only because her ways of stopping Lottie were inventive, and that’s being mild! What Lottie and Ben go through in Ikonos seems as if it’s come straight out of a Carry On film and it was brilliant. Utterly brilliant. I was totally ensconced in the book and I didn’t want it to ever end. Kinsella’s plots are always so much more than most Chick Lit novels and this is one of her most inventive yet. She must have had such fun plotting what Fliss would do to stop Lottie and Ben, she must have had a cat on her lap as she did it and kept laughing evilly! Honestly, it was mad-cap but it was so, so good.

The characters were ace. I was never truly convinced about Ben, he seemed to have some hidden, sneaky depths and I never felt we got to see the true Ben. Lottie and Fliss were fabulous, I loved Fliss, even if her methods were unorthodox. One character I did absolutely adore was Lorcan! Lorcan was ace. I adored him. Wedding Night is just totally Kinsella. I just adored it. It had me chuckling on numerous occasions, as only Kinsella is capable of doing. This book will be a hit and rightly so. I absolutely loved it and I’m looking forward to the time when I’ll read it again. I’m so sad it’s over, so sad I’ll probably have to wait another year for a new Kinsella, that’s the thing, I always want to savour Kinsella books because once you’ve read it, that’s it! You can’t read it again for the first time, sadly. I loved Wedding Night and you will, too!