Wedding Night: A Novel by Sophie Kinsella

Wedding NightNarrated by Jayne Entwistle, Fiona Hardingham, Mark Bramhall

This is my first venture into Sophie Kinsella’s world. She’s a British author of books that I think, from my brief research, fairly define the Chick Lit model – contemporary young (chiefly single, generally urban) women struggling with all the First World Woes – men, jobs, family – told in a humorous, light-hearted way.

As I listened – not really sure what I was getting into – I kept an open mind about where the story was going. In the way of Chick Lit, this one was written in first person. But there wasn’t just one heroine, there were two: Lottie, tired of boyfriends who won’t commit, and Fliss, Lottie’s sister, suffering from an acrimonious divorce. Each character was given roughly the same amount of page/ear real estate, and each told her story in first person. The publisher chose to have 2 different narrators, one for each of the two women, with a man who voiced a short piece from the POV of an older man representing a pivotal moment in Lottie’s life.

Another attribute of Chick Lit – sometimes also in romance – was the use of several men as the relationship focus of the heroines. When the story opens, Lottie tells us about her upcoming special lunch with Richard where she is waiting for him to propose. The setup, which is extremely funny but does go on and on, makes you realize she has totally misunderstood what Richard was planning to propose; even the blurb announces there is a different man about to show up in Lottie’s life. When Richard is shocked to find out Lottie expects marriage, their relationship goes south and Lottie is ripe for what Fliss calls her “disastrous decisions” where she impulsively leaps into something she will later regret. In this case, it’s a boyfriend from 15 years before, Ben, who appears in her life and convinces her they were meant to be together.

Ben’s best friend, Lorcan, feels the same way Lottie’s sister Fliss does: it’s a disastrous decision that the two of them must stop before Lottie and Ben consummate the marriage. Per the publisher’s blurb, “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.”

Both of the narrators were delightful. I realized I don’t often listen to contemporary, humorous British books – much of my experience with British accents is historical, with the stiff-upper-lip, high class notes that underscore the story. This is sassy and young and there’s just enough contemporary slang to keep me on my toes. Because it’s in first person, all of the narrative part is in character – Lottie or Fliss – and the other voices done from her perspective. Entwistle voices Lottie with an appropriately flighty, impulsive tone, and Hardingham gives Fliss a slightly more down-to-earth sound, although Fliss also has moments of flightiness. Both of them differentiated all the characters well, more by accent than pitch. Bramhall just has a short contribution, so it’s hard to develop an opinion about his narration, but he did that piece well!

I’m not a convert to Chick Lit – there was enough romance in this one to make it fairly enjoyable but the story made me uncomfortable many times in many small ways that Chick Lit fans will probably find funny. Lottie was immature and impulsive and some of what she thought and said was downright cruel if you examine it too closely. In her post-wedding bliss, she kept thinking, “I’m married! I’m married!” but the name Ben never surfaced – did she even consider him a part of the marriage? However, the lengths that Fliss went to were also extreme, and I kept reminding myself it was meant to be absurd and often ridiculous. I’m not such a fuddy-duddy that I didn’t find myself laughing out loud several times, though!

Melinda


Narration: three As

Book Content: B-

Steam Factor: You can play it out loud

Violence: None

Genre: Chick Lit/Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Random House Audio

Wedding Night: A Novel was provided to AudioGals by Random House Audio for review.

 

1 thought on “Wedding Night: A Novel by Sophie Kinsella

  1. I’ll be buying this from Audible soon. I enjoyed I’ve Got Your Number so much and knowning that Jayne Entwistle (who narrated IGYN) is involved in this makes this a must buy. The romance is more subtle in these books I think but I find I can cope better with this on audio than in print and the humour hits me right in my funny bone.

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