Review: Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella

It's time to get back into the game, and who better than Sophie Kinsella to get me back into it!  Kinsella has such a great style and voice, that she can really suck you into one of her stories pretty quickly and pull you away from what's going on in your own life.  I love that about her novels.  Wedding Night is kind of like that, so let's see if I can get back in the "review-writing saddle"--so to say--and share her newest novel!

Synopsis:  From Goodreads, "Lottie just knows that her boyfriend is going to propose during lunch at one of London’s fanciest restaurants. But when his big question involves a trip abroad, not a trip down the aisle, she’s completely crushed. So when Ben, an old flame, calls her out of the blue and reminds Lottie of their pact to get married if they were both still single at thirty, she jumps at the chance. No formal dates—just a quick march to the altar and a honeymoon on Ikonos, the sun-drenched Greek island where they first met years ago.

Their family and friends are horrified. Fliss, Lottie’s older sister, knows that Lottie can be impulsive—but surely this is her worst decision yet. And Ben’s colleague Lorcan fears that this hasty marriage will ruin his friend’s career. To keep Lottie and Ben from making a terrible mistake, Fliss concocts an elaborate scheme to sabotage their wedding night. As she and Lorcan jet off to Ikonos in pursuit, Lottie and Ben are in for a honeymoon to remember, for better . . . or worse."

Review:  I love Greece so much that it kills me with every year that I stay away.  So what's not to love about combining one of my favorite authors and one of my favorite locations?  I have to say that the premise was all so very promising, with the backdrop of a Greek island, an old flame, and the comedy of a sabotaged wedding night, but somehow it just ended up being a bit tiring.  

Lottie was the single gal who desperately wanted her boyfriend to propose, and when he didn't, ran back to an old flame.  It made me cringe. 

Fliss had the flaky ex-husband who really couldn't be flakier, who you were dying to have meet someone fantastic.  She had me cheering her on, but she had this flaky single sister named Lottie, who made me cringe.  Poor Fliss.

Okay, I get that being disappointed repeatedly can make people do crazy things, but Lottie just made herself look beyond insecure and and unaware.  Her old flame was way too convenient, and holding off on sex for the wedding night (big spoiler there--see the title) which was just the universe telling them both that they were running off to marry one another out of desperation.  

I REALLY wanted to like this novel.  It had its fun moments.  It had its sweet moments.  But overall, it just wore me out.  Perhaps Kinsella should have backed off on the old flame "comedy" bit in the story and just let Lottie mourn the loss of her boyfriend, and let her go off to Ikonos on her own?  I don't know, but everything wore me out and made it difficult for me to care.  I liked Fliss, but I had even lost interest there in the end.  

Overall, I would still recommend it because it's a Sophie Kinsella novel, but it's not one of my favorites of her stand alone novels.

*FTC Disclosure:  This review was based on an Amazon Vine ARC.