There are many ways that I acquire books but the most common is from my Mum, Julie. She will often come back with a new purchase, and drop it onto my desk, saying she’ll read it if its any good! And 99% of the time they are brilliant! This is one of my recent favourites! Marrying Up by Wendy Holden.

Gold digger and social climber Alexa will do anything to climb to the top of the pile. Alexa wants the highlife and will stop at nothing but a Royal title, a Ferrari and a sparkling diamond tiara to match. After squandering her time at university attending parties, hunts and weekend soirees—all in search of a marriageable title—she is both without a degree or a husband.  To gain her dreams Alexa befriends Lady FlorenceTrevorigus-Whyske-Cleethorpe, a ditsy but extremely affluent aristocrat. The doors to royalty are finally swinging open for Alexa, however will Florrie’s suspicious mother, finally rumble Alexa’s grand plans! Contrasting with this is student Polly, a broke student, working as an archaeologist digging up the Lord of Shropshire’s estate when she stumbles across the dashing Max. This begins the start of a beautiful summer relationship. However does she really know who Max is? Is he really as ordinary as he seems? Just as Polly begins to fall in love with her rather dashing new man he has to rush back to the country of Sedona. Suddenly we find that Max is an heir to throne and his father is desperate for him to marry and take the throne for himself.

However this is not the end of the story. Sedona needs to attract tourism and there is nothing better than a Royal wedding! Here the fun really begins to start with Alexa, Polly, Max and Florrie and Barney, Alexa’s fellow socialite and hang-on begin to mix up in this brilliantly, mixed-up, gold digging romantic comedy! The story follows the two female characters as they struggle with money, difficult family and also incredibly confusing men! Alex’s character is brilliant written. She is not only money hungry, but sarcastic, incredibly desperate and extremely sneaky. Her desperate ways of acquiring money such as sleeping with a number of ghastly lords, and one Russian oligarch, even I was wishing her a little happiness by the end of the story. Polly is equally brilliant but contrasting. Her sweet nature and continually happy outlook is refreshing and distinct from Alexa’s catty undermining character.

I really enjoyed the book, the character profiles were brilliant and the plot line twisted throughout. At times I wished that Polly’s character had more dynamism and depth. Sometimes I found her as a character a little feeble, when I thought she could have been more intense. Florrie and her mother the formidable Lady Annabel were brilliantly written with a sense of snobbery and snootiness, which added to the story greatly.  Barney was my favourite character; who was more of a hindrance to Alexa’s climb to royalty, which created great comedy. I really enjoyed this book and wouldn’t know how to describe it as a genre; although it is a chick-lit, it was filled with humour and sarcasm that I really loved. Definitely a book for your wish list.