About Books #42: The Little Wedding Island

There’s journalism, there’s love, there’s a handsome and overly sarcastic arch-rival There’s even an island that may or may not have magical powers where mariages are concerned. It’s Jaimie Admans The Little Wedding Island!

I was offered an ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for a review. All opinions expressed are strictly my own.

The book

“‘Will you… pretend to marry me?’

Bonnie Haskett loves everything about weddings. She loves her job at a national bridal magazine and even has a deposit down on her dream dress. The only problem? She doesn’t have a fiancé!

So when Bonnie is sent to Edelweiss Island, known as ‘The Little Wedding Island’, it’s a dream come true. She’s heard the rumours, every wedding that takes place in the tiny chapel ends in a happy-ever-after.

But there’s a catch! Investigating the story, Bonnie needs to pose as a blushing bride – and the only man up for posing as her groom is her arch rival (and far too handsome for his own good) journalist Rohan Carter…

A gorgeously uplifting summer romance. Perfect for fans of Holly Martin and Caroline Roberts.”

The opinion

Here’s the one big downside to reading a book about a journalist, when you yourself have studied journalism and have worked for a newspaper for a little bit: you get really critical about the “real-ness” of it all.

In this particular case, that kind of made me start off on the wrong foot with this whole book. My literal notes were: “How naive can you get? Does she not realise that what she does reflects directly on the magazine? That you don’t claim “you were right” in doing what you did to your boss when your behaviour resulted in two advertisers pulling their ads? Especially in a time when the printed press is barely surviving as is?”

This would be a constant throughout the book. In general, I don’t think you would necessarily get sent out on an undetermined amount of time-trip to a cosy island as punishment. You might get send back to the lowest starting point of the magazine hierarchy. That would’ve been plausible. This? Not so much.

However, when you get over that? When you give in to the “suspension of disbelief” and just go with the story? What remains is a  lovely story of people who are not that different after all. Oh, and a large amount of meddling to get them to that realisation. As you can expect, in a book like this.

The characters are relatively well-rounded, although they do appear to be more so left to the turns of fate than necessarily taking their story into their own hands. Again, that’s something that’s pretty typical for a book such like this. And sure, the final “dramatic turn” that will eventually lead to them being together may seem a bit conveluted. I mean, it is thrown in there pretty rashly and some solid thinking could probably have helped both Bonnie and R.C. Art. But again: that’s what you’re signing up for when you read a book liek this. And all in all, the whole is very well executed.

There’s just the right amount of annoying-ness in both of them to keep them realistic. The inhabitants of the island are – quite frankly – amazing. And I desperatly want to go see the Little Wedding Island now. Just sayin’ 🙂

The rating; 4/5

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, despite some little hick ups in the portrayal of “life as a journalist”. This is definitely, as it is advertised as well, a perfect summer read. The wanderlust that might come from reading the book? That’s all at your own risk, though 🙂

-Saar