Helllllllo readers, hope you’re well! It’s time to review another couple of old favourites in terms of books. This is a book that I caught Charlotte reading when we took the train to London with the family. It’s one we’ve both read several times, don’t ask why – but after several reads since reading the book I thought it might be time to review it.
All you need is love. A wonderfully romantic novel from the No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling author of Recipe for Love, A French Affair and The Perfect Match.
Sarah Stratford is a wedding planner hiding a rather inconvenient truth – she doesn’t believe in love. Or not for herself, anyway. But as the confetti flutters away on the June breeze of yet another successful wedding she somehow finds herself agreeing to organise two more, on the same day and only two months away.
Luckily Sarah has two tried and tested friends on hand to help her. Elsa, an accomplished dress designer who likes to keep a very low profile, and Bron, a multi-talented hairdresser who lives with her unreconstructed boyfriend and who’d like to go solo in more ways than one.
As the big day draws near, all three women find that patience is definitely a virtue in the marriage game. And as all their working hours are spent preparing for the weddings of the year, they certainly haven’t got any time to even think about love. Or have they?
I’m not going to write too much about the blurb because it’s a bit of a long one and a lot of the plot is included. In terms of the book we do follow the lives of three very different women; Sarah who is the cynical wedding planner who struggles to believe in happily ever after’s despite her job, Elsa who is a very nimble fingered dress-maker who always dresses plainly in black and Bron, the gifted hairdresser. Very talented with many hidden talents but stuck in a possessive relationship with a bit of a nob. The brief professional relationships between these three women blossom into true friendship when they are given the chance to take part in the celebrity wedding of the year. But the wedding just happens to fall on the same date as Sarah’s sister Lilly – two weddings, one day, three women – will it all work out okay?!
So what did I think? I think I’ll start by saying there’s nothing wrong with this book at all. The writing is pleasant and draws you in, the characters have a little bite and depth; Sarah is a little cold despite her job and her experience with the romance business, I adored Elsa and her slightly shy but utterly adorable personality and the addition of the secondary plot-line with Bron helped to add a little adversity. It all moves to a slightly obvious conclusion and it’s nice. Really nice.
The problem is, which is a little expected with romance novels the romantic endeavor that Sarah ends up with (despite her hatred of happy endings.) appears in the first two chapters or so and was so obviously included you almost feel cheated. In terms of their relationship suffering from any type of adversity the author seems to put in a road-block and it feels so awkward and obvious. What follows is a series of awkward encounters, meaningful glances and not really communicating to sort things out. WHY ARE CHICK-LITS STILL DOING THIS. Why can’t we get a relationship that speaks a little truth.
Maybe I am sounding a little cynical and maybe that’s because at the moment I feel like I’m basically allergic to chick-lits. I think the problem is that this book works so hard to stay away from being depressing or boring. It’s so light and fluffy and darn nice that it feels like you never really GET INTO THE STORY. The ending is so neatly ticked off and each character finds a happy ending somehow (I won’t spoil how if you’re all for the cloying, happy, too-good-to-be-true ending,) but for me I wanted more. Why don’t authors understand that books that are so perfect with characters that have the perfect life don’t relate to us – that’s not how the real world works!
I’ll stop now because I’m probably getting a little annoying. If you like a reallllly like happy go-lucky books this will be perfect, fluffy and nice. For me, I liked it but as always was left feeling like I wanted more.
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It will be the fact that the author name sells, the has been a very good demand for such books in the past and small voices that say “I want something different” will probably be ignored. Time to discover a new author perhaps?
It’s why I’m become increasingly allergic to books where the romance is the centre plotline – from the moment their eyes meet, you know they are going to end up together. Then it’s just this dance to see how and where, which I basically find boring. Unless there’s a lot of fighting, aliens, or supernatural adventures thrown into the mix:)