Reviewed by zooloo1983 on
Last week I was getting ready to go on my best friend's hen party and couldn't decide which book to start reading in our downtime, until I saw this little gem. I have recommended this to the whole hen party. It is such a fun, feel good, entertaining read especially as real life and the book at times crossed over!
This is a story of Nora and her four bridesmaids (Bea, Sarah, Daisy and Cleo), it starts with the announcement of Nora's engagement all the way to her wedding night. Although the wedding is about the bride, this book changed that and made it about the bridesmaids. You learn how the bridesmaids know the bride and their opinions of each other, and the focus was on them and their lives and perceptions. I thought I had a favourite with the bridesmaids but then I just kept changing my mind with each chapter and decided I loved them all equally.
Reading about Nora's wedding day, made me think of my own which in turn made me emotional. The morning conversation with Bea and the wedding speech by her mum completely reflected my own wedding morning and day, I did have to take a moment when reading that. (I won't spoil it here, but those who know me will know what I mean)
The book is written in a way where it flows perfectly and I was not bored at any point of the book, or wishing for chapters to hurry up so I coud move on. What I loved about this book (and told the author so) was how realistic it felt, the conversations that were held, the treatment of the bride when dress shopping, the nicknames they had for each other, we all felt could be applied to us. When I got to the hen party section of the book, we all had to giggle as we were in the same city!! (surely this book couldn't be based on us) I loved the references to Whats app chats and Instagram as we were all doing the exact same thing, and when reading this book you feel as though the author is there with you and is writing your story....or maybe we just thought that as we were on a hen party. (Side note not everything that happened in the book happened in our life!!) We spent our time trying to figure out who was Bea, Sarah, Cleo or Daisy, I think we have got it down to a tee! (I was Sarah by default) The inserts at the beginning of most of the chapters were lovely, reading true stories of other women and they set up the chapters perfectly.
The chapters were to the point with no long played out scenes that were unnecessary, however a couple of times i do wished they were a little bit longer but at the same time I viewed it that in real life you won't be there for every minute of the day so why would you in the book.
This book was an absolute delight to read, it had me laughing and crying and agreeing with everything all the way through.
Definitely a perfect read for anyone especially in wedding season!
*I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in return for my review*
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 7 March, 2018: Finished reading
- 7 March, 2018: Reviewed