Don't Tell the Groom (Don't Tell the Groom)

by Anna Bell

[Leah]

Anna Bell is someone who has been on my radar a while. I’m always reading her column for Novelicious.com and it’s a really great column about writing, self-publishing, and Anna offers a really great insight into books. So when I saw she was publishing her third book, Don’t Tell The Groom, I headed straight to her website to check out the cover (which I love) and to have a sneak-peek. I liked what I read so when Anna emailed to ask if I wanted to review the book I jumped at the chance because it sounded really, really good.

If you’re a fan of the BBC show Don’t Tell The Bride, you’ll be familiar with Anna’s novel Don’t Tell The Groom. The only difference is that the people on Don’t Tell The Bride are doing it for the TV show and Penny (whom I immediately imagined was Penny from TBBT) is doing it because she’s a bingo addict and it’s the only way she can plan her wedding on a shoestring budget without telling her fiance Mark where exactly all their money has gone. She resolves to deal with her bingo addiction (it sounds funny, that, being addicted to bingo, but I can believe it’s very, very real) as well as throwing the most fantastically cheap wedding, ever. But lying and secrets have a way of throwing themselves back into the fray, and who knows if Penny’s big day will go without a hitch.

I thought Don’t Tell The Groom was a good read. I read it in about three days, and it was a decent book. I liked Penny, and I thought the plot was well done, but there were a few issues. I absolutely hated the fact Mark and Penny’s relationship was done in stages. I’m sorry, but no. Just NO. It threw me, that did. There were also some editing issues. Some ‘brought’s instead of ‘bought’s which drives me to the edge of insanity. There was even a ‘your’ instead of ‘you’re’ (or the other way around, I can’t remember). It could have probably have done with one last read through, is all I’ll say, if only for the fussy buggers like myself. Penny was also just a LITTLE dim. Her best mate, Lou, starts acting funny and it’s glaringly obvious what it is that’s wrong with her, but poor Penny was oblivious. But those were my only issues, and they’re not even that big.

I’d definitely recommend the book. It was a nice spin on the whole Don’t Tell The Bride thing, but with a bit of added meaning what with Penny’s addiction to bingo. You don’t read about addictions or things in Chick Lit (except for Marian Keyes) and I think Anna Bell did a good job of showing that Bingo CAN be addictive, no matter what you might think on that matter. I personally thought it sounded a bit silly, as I’ve said, but it is obviously quite real. I’ll be on the lookout for Anna’s next novel that’s for sure.