Josie Gray is a thirty-something woman living an idyllic life in the small Lancashire village of Neatslake.  She lives in her grandmother’s old cottage with her childhood sweetheart, Ben, growing and trading for as much of their produce as possible, and supplementing their income with Josie’s weird wedding cakes, her column for the cult magazine Skint Old Northern Woman and Ben’s occasional artwork sales.  When Josie’s oldest friend Libby returns to the village and decides to launch a wedding business in the nearby manor house, Josie becomes drawn in to help.  However, Ben is spending more and more time in London and soon it transpires that he has been less than honest with Josie, leaving her disillusioned.  She vows never to believe in love again, but photographer Noah Sephton seems determined to change her mind.

There are no surprises in this book but, to be honest, I didn’t expect any.  The plot was formulaic but then it usually is in this type of book, and that was exactly why I read it when I wasn’t feeling up to much mental exertion.  It’s a book which just requires to relax and enjoy being entertained.  Because entertaining it is, for all I knew what would hapen before I opened the book.  Ashley may follow a preordained plot, but the setting in which she chooses to place it is rather lovely.  I enjoyed reading about Josie’s homely life in the country with her chickens, her bartering and her gardening.  Her kitchen activities, making jams and wines and various cakes and biscuits are particularly appealing and the recipes at the back of the book make this aspect of the novel seem particularly real and important, enabling the reader to follow suit if they so choose.  Baking is something that I love doing, given half a chance, so I was able to relate to that and it engaged my interest.

The society surrounding Josie is also rather sweet and pleasant to read about.  The secondary characters all have individual personalities, from the three eccentric Grace sisters who knit, crochet and embroider for all they’re worth to womanising soap star Rob to Josie’s loyal uncle Harry who takes great delight in outliving his friends.  Although none of them are particularly realistic, they add colour and interest to the story.

If Josie herself were any more dense she would have her own gravitational pull.  Even if this hadn’t been the sort of novel in which it is a truth universally acknowledged that the seemingly perfect boyfriend with whom the heroine begins the book will turn out to be an utter bastard by the halfway mark, I could have guessed that Ben was having an affair long before Josie does.  In fact, she never does manage to guess, despite a number of hints to that effect which are as subtle as being hit with a brick, and eventually has to be told.  Later on in the novel she proves equally dim when new romantic opportunities present themselves.  Had she not been such a likeable character for other reasons she would have been very annoying, but as it stands she is saved by her sweetness and by the charm and wit she displays in the excerpts from her magazine column which begin each chapter.

I’m not exactly sure what Ashley was trying to add by introducing a subplot of potential incest.  It doesn’t add tension because this is clearly the sort of pastel covered book in which everything works out for the best and no one gets hurt (except ex-boyfriends, who get what they deserve, naturally), it isn’t treated sensitively and seems to be a sort of throwaway plot device which is resolved so quickly and effortlessly that it seems pretty pointless.  In fact, I found it rather distasteful and an incongruously serious subject for such a fluffy novel.

Incest aside, I rather enjoyed the distraction from dental pain provided by this light, fun, quick read.  It’s a good, solid example of the genre and a pleasant way to spend a lazy afternoon when you don’t want to think too much.

Wedding Tiers by Trisha Ashley.  Published by Avon, 2009,pp. 414.  First edition.

Title:

Author: Patricia Warren

Published: Hodder & Stoughton, 2006, pp. 248.  Originally published 2003.

Genre: Memoir

Blurb: Since she founded the Farmers’ and Country Bureau from her farmhouse in the Peak District more than twenty years ago, Patricia has been helping love to blossom the length and breadth of rural England.  She has hundreds of marriages to her dredit and numerous babies including one set of quads.

A born matchmaker whose warmth, patience and humour have literally changed the lives of thousands of people, here she brings us the real life stories of love and romance she has helped to create.  Tales from the Country Matchmaker is pure delight and a heartening reminder that there really can be a happy ever after.

When, where and why: I picked this book up from a local charity shop to add to my collection of wedding reading.

What I thought: Tales from the Country Matchmaker was a sweet book, full of stories of pleasant people, isolated by character or circumstance, being brought together for a happier future.  Patricia Warren, the eponymous matchmaker, was obviously a lovely woman who had a wealth of interesting anecdotes to relate, but unfortunately I didn’t think that the book was very well organised, so it quickly began to feel repetitive and muddled, although undoubtedly earnest, gentle and heartwarming.

One of Patricia’s clients remarked:

The trouble is, we’re all fed a diet of knights in shining armour whereas what I had in reality was this decent, good-looking, nice man who I was terribly comfortable with, but wasn’t fireworks and parties every night and travelling round the world.  Maybe the knight in shining armour was around the next corner.  But the guy who produces the fireworks is not the guy you want to spend your life with.  The comfortable alternative sometimes puts people off because lots of us want to live on the edge.  What I’ve learnt now is that companionship, trust and laughter are so important, and it can seem fuddy duddy — but it’s not, it’s real.  And we do have our firework moments. (p. 118)

This statement encapsulates the tone of the book for me.  It was steady, warm, quiet and sweet, at times touching and at others amusing, but sadly without any fireworks to provide a change of pace and mood.  I liked this book and thought that it had potential, but I wish that it had been written by someone else who could perhaps have brought the stories to life a bit more and made them seem more individual and exciting.

Where this book goes: This is definitely a BookMooch book.  It was an enjoyable quick read but it’s not one I’ll ever read again.

Tea talk: What else could I possibly drink while reading about such traditional country lives than a good, honest pot of strong English Breakfast Tea?

Title:

Author: Ariel Meadow Stallings

Published: Seal Press, 2006, pp. 219

Genre: Wedding planning

Blurb: Unenthused by a white wedding gown and bored by the hoopla of the Hollywood-style reception, Ariel Meadow Stallings found herself absolutely exhausted with the nuances of traditional nuptials. So, she chose to take a walk off the beaten aisle and embrace the non-traditional bride within. Through trial and error, Ariel and her fiancé managed to crank out a budget wedding with all-night dancing, guests toasting champagne in mismatched mugs, gorgeous gardens, no monogrammed napkins, no garter, no bridesmaids, and lots of lesbians. Shortly after her 2004 matrimony, Ariel began searching for other brides whose ceremonies defied age-old tradition and reflected who they are. From there, she developed the idea for a guide for the offbeat couple. (Goodreads summary)

When, where and why: I’ve enjoyed looking at Offbeat Bride for ages (quite probably long before I got engaged) and so I was really pleased to discover that there was a book too when I was browsing LibraryThing for wedding related titles which sounded readable.  I managed to get hold of this from BookMooch and started reading it almost right away.

What I thought: This book is just the sort of wedding book that I was looking for: it’s entertaining, insightful, useful and above all it doesn’t take itself too seriously.  It’s a great blend of anecdotes from Ariel and other similarly non traditional brides about their wedding days and the planning leading up to it and advice to brides who are in the process of arranging their own weddings.  As just such a bride, I found the book relatable and the hints and tips invaluable.  Unlike other wedding books and magazines that I’ve encountered, the advice in Offbeat Bride doesn’t concern how to fold your own napkins and the most politically correct way to seat people at the reception, but things like how to say “thanks, but no thanks” and how to avoid being talked into decisions because “it’s tradition”.  True, none of these things is particularly new or startling, but Ariel’s voice as she writes is so matter-of-fact and irreverent about the whole process that it’s like receiving a welcome, reassuring chat from a friend that everything will be ok, just stop fussing about the little things.  At the same time, she never loses sight of the fact that getting married is (gasp) important to people and that most people will go a tiny bit crazy over something completely irrational at some point during the planning phases.  This book presents a very balanced view, which is a welcome change from a lot of the wedding literature out there.

It’s worth noting that the Old English Thorn and I are having probably the most traditional wedding imagineable, complete with Catholic church, hall and buffet reception, taking his surname and living together for the first time after the marriage.  However, don’t let the title fool you; this book is an ideal read for any bride (or groom for that matter), whether planning a beach wedding with everyone in costume as pirates or a traditional ceremony in a white meringue of a dress.  Dilemmas like people disapproving, being offended by the guest list, or just wanting to help a little bit too much are certainly not unique to brides who favour black dresses and purple hair.  A wedding, it seems, is something on which everyone has an opinion, regardless of how unwelcome that may be.  Offbeat Bride recognises that and offers some great ways to either accept or ignore it.  It provides some much-needed perspective and entertainment at a time when it’s very easy to take things too seriously.

Where this book stays: I think I’m going to circulate this one to my mother and husband-to-be as I there’s stuff in it which will be useful for them too.  After the wedding circus is over (roll on September) it will be off to BookMooch again to find a new home with someone else.

Tea talk: I’m afraid I’ve been on the coffee again while reading this book.  I read it while I was at home in the evenings and so whenever the kettle went on (frequently in a house with no central heating) I was presented with a ready made cup of coffee by someone.  As tea would have required getting up, coffee it was.

Author: Donna Andrews

Published: St Martin’s Paperbacks, 1999, pp. 311

Genre: Contemporary mystery

Blurb:So far Meg Langslow’s summer is not going swimmingly.  Down in her small Virginia hometown, she’s maid of honor at the nuptials of three loved ones — each of whom has dumped the planning in hercapable hands.  One bride is set on including a Native American herbal purification ceremony, while another wants live peacocks on the lawn.  Only help from the town’s drop-dead gorgeous hunk, disappointingly rumoured to be gay, keeps Meg afloat in a sea of dotty relatives and outrageous neighbours.

And, in a whirl of summer parties and picnics, Southern hospitality is strained to the limit by an offensive newcomer who hints at skeletons in the guests’ closets.  But it seems this lady has offended one too many when she’s found dead in suspicious circumstances, followed by a strong of accidents — some fatal.  Soon, level-headed Meg’s to-do list extends from flower arrangements and bridal registries to catching a killer — before the next catered event is her own funeral…

When, where and why: In spite of my love of books, cats, tea and other traditional trappings of spinsterhood I am in fact getting married next year.  In the time between now and then I’ve embarked on a mission to find novels about weddings which actually have a decent plot and interesting characters rather than supposing that excessive amounts of tulle, lace and flowers are suitable substitutes for these.  To this end, I’ve been picking up a whole variety of wedding themed books and this one arrived recently from BookMooch (so recently in fact that I’ve not listed it in a Mailbox post yet).  I started reading it now because I’m not enjoying my main book very much (review to follow shortly) and I needed a quick read that I could be fairly sure of finding entertaining as a break from that.

What I thought: This is the sort of comfortable mystery which doesn’t make many demands on the reader: the murder victim is sufficiently unknown and unlikeable that the death isn’t distressing; the plot unfolds gently without any dramatic turns; and the solution, while not obvious, is easy enough to work out, even for someone like myself who doesn’t read many mysteries.  However, just because it was uncomplicated does not mean it was a bad read, and I thoroughly enjoyed the relaxation of reading this book.

Because the weddings serve as the backdrop for this novel rather than its raison d’etre, I found that it avoided the usual trap of losing plot and characters beneath enormous white dresses.  The story, while simple, was good fun and the characters were well-drawn and enjoyable.  Narrator Meg Langslow’s array of eccentric family and neighbours added a levity and humour to the standard mystery plot.  I was continually amused and how unfazed these residents of small-town Virginia are by the initial murder and continuing attempts on the lives of and her family and friends.  Her father is positively delighted at the chance for some amateur sleuthing, Meg’s mother seems oblivious, and Meg herself is more concerned with organising three increasingly demanding weddings.

In Meg herself, Donna Andrews has created a character with a very pleasant narrative voice.  She is wry and intelligent and her observations made me chuckle on numerous occasions.  Unlike the heroines of many chick lit books, she manages to be single without being either bitter or desperate.  She is exasperated by the various brides’ indecisions, demands and dithering without being scathing or dismissive, and the same is true of her attitude towards her family.  It makes a welcome change to read a book narrated by someone who is mocking and funny without being sarcastic and unkind.

Where this book goes: I’ve loaned this book to my mother, as I’m fairly sure she’ll enjoy it.  After that I think it will be back on BookMooch looking for a new home, as it’s not one I’m ever likely to read again after this year.