Bridesmaids by Jane Costello: a shallow romance

This novel had a lot of potential but very meagre delivery, sadly. Its strap line is "Four Weddings without the Funeral" but actually having a funeral might have been a good idea - as it would have inserted some much-needed gravitas into the general veneer of fluff.

I think one of the main problems is I really didn't like the heroine, Evie, who's obsessed with appearances, not terribly bright and acts like a 12-year old most of the time. She's supposed to be 27.

The big motif of the book and the thing that's supposed to make it excitingly different is the fact that Evie has never been in love or been in a relationship of more than a few weeks, and wonders if she ever will. I'm sorry?? That's a key issue when one is 27 years old?? Hey ho, you can see what I mean about Evie's low intelligence rating …

Anyway, when she does finally meet Jack, who turns out to be The Man, it's really not much of a relationship and actually I found it both dull and unbelievable. Jack could very well do better. The cliched ending and the culmination of their 'love story' is teeth-grindingly bad and I groaned and skipped over it. There's also a friend Charlotte whose sole characteristic is that she's overweight, another friend Valentina, who is obsessed with money and appearances (but at least, unlike Evie, she's honest about it), and a couple of other friends whom I could never confidently differentiate between. Oh and the chapters are ridiculously short - so short that there are 121 of them, plus an epilogue! Lordy.

The only good parts of this book are Evie's wonderful mother who is a delight, and the very funny scene in the disco with the vibrator. That's it, really.

Verdict: 2 stars. Shallow nonsense.

Anne Brooke Books
Gay Reads UK
The Gathandrian Fantasy Trilogy