This book was somewhat predictable and maybe a little slow. There were some very funny parts. Poppy was trying to find herself again after being in an destructive marriage. Josh was jealous and petty. Poppy deserved so much better. The struggle and frustration the reader feels with Poppy is genuine. Will was such a sweet man. I am so happy he got the ending he deserved. Lola was a very unique and wonderful character and I felt sometimes her "tough love" with Poppy was maybe a bit to tough. However, the push Lola gave Poppy got her to a much better place.


Thank you to NetGalley and One More Chapter for the ARC of this book. All opinions expressed are mine.

Another heart warmer from Abigail Mann!
This rom-con is a slow burner, with an unpredictable plot and a cast of well-fleshed out characters. I enjoyed the subtlety of the romance rather than it being rammed down the readers’ throats.The timeline jumps worked well for me, exploring the history of Poppy’s relationships, giving context and depth to the current plot.

Whilst I didn’t find this book quite as funny as Abigail Mann’s other novels, I loved the drama of it all and I am LIVING for Aunt Josie.

Perfect for a chilled out holiday read!

Huge thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Summary
The main character of The Wedding Crashers is Poppy, a talented photographer with lots of promise, who gave up the prospect of a stellar career to marry Josh straight after university. When the novel opens she is getting divorced having finally realised that he is a vile, gaslighting, self-centered, narcissistic control-freak.

When Poppy heads off for a week's holiday taking photos of puffins on a remote Devon island to de-stress from all the divorce trauma, she bumps into her wedding-planner best friend Lola, who’s working on a top secret wedding for a seriously wealthy family with serious “Succession” TV show levels of dysfunction.

Lola is desperate as the photographer is sick, so Poppy is press ganged into standing in until he recovers. When Poppy gets to the island she discovers that the groom is more than a bit familiar, that the week-long wedding celebrations are more of a business conference than a family occasion, and the bride to be is avoiding everyone, living in a fisherman’s cottage on the beach.

As the day of the wedding approaches, Lola and Poppy turn themselves inside out to meet the increasingly bizarre and eccentric demands of the bride and the family, and the prospects of a happily-ever-after seems ever more remote….

My thoughts
The Wedding Crasher is quite an entertaining story and would make a good holiday read in many ways. The prose is good and Abigail Mann writes well.

Some of the characters are a little stereo-typical, whilst some can be unrelatable or unrealistic, but the character of Poppy is really well done indeed. There is real progression from her being a passive, people-pleasing doormat (almost a willing victim and architect of her own situation and unhappiness), into someone who finally realises the truth of things, making her own decisions, taking positive actions, assuming control and running her own life.

The novel takes in its stride some quite meaty issues including controlling relationships, (eventual) female empowerment, and family dynamics

All in all it is a far cry from the lightness and froth normally associated with a rom-com, which it is actually being marketed as, and I think this is my main problem with this book. It isn’t very romantic at all – in fact the focus is on the break-up of relationships and coming to terms with them – and there isn’t enough of a romantic build-up for its eventual ending.

Neither is it especially comedic. It has funny moments, but it isn’t laugh-out-loud, side-splittingly funny. It is a solid 3 star read, probably better described as chick-lit than rom-com. There is a definite mis-match between the text and the genre-label that has been applied to it for its marketing, which sets up expectations in the readers’ heads that it ultimately won’t meet.

Thank you to Harper Collins/One More Chapter for an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

This was the first book for me to read by these authors but definitely not my last!! The story and characters are so well developed and the book is beautifully written. This will stick with you long after you finish the book. Highly recommend!!!

Another light and comic read from Abigail Mann.

Poppy finds herself helping a friend out as photographer at a super posh, super rich wedding - but a surprise is unveiled when she finds she knows the groom of old.

As Poppy weaves her way through the cast of characters, photographing them all, she uncovers a thread of stories, and the wedding isn't going to end as expected!

Funny and easy to read, this is a refreshing read.

Poppy is navigating her way through a marriage that is not as ended as it should be, when she heads off to take photos of puffins on a remote island. But before she boards the boat, she runs into her best friend Lola, who’s a wedding planner for a huge, week long, top secret wedding. The problem is, the photographer is sick and Lola needs a solution fast, so Poppy agrees to attend as the photographer for a few days until the real photographer shows up. When she arrives, not only does the groom look awfully familiar, his father is turning the wedding into a business meeting and his wife to be is avoiding everyone. As Lola desperately tries to keep up with more and more crazy demands from the wedding families, Poppy wonders if the bride and groom really should be going through with it at all.

This was a fun, easy read with a couple of twists but it didn’t seem to fit into any category that I particularly enjoy. It was mildly funny, but not really comedy and the twists didn’t really work as a mystery because there was no lead up to the reveals. I guess it was supposed to be a contemporary romance? but the romance was barely there and I needed more humour for this one to really make an impact. Lola was by far the most interesting character in the story and the one I enjoyed the most. The situation between Poppy and her ex husband was just infuriating and made me want to shake her and there was very little chemistry between any of the characters there should have been.

I’m not condemning this one as a bad book, just a bit of a holiday read that didn’t leave a huge impact on me.

Abigail Mann is definitely a unique voice in this genre (with a bit of a Mhairi McFarlane vibe - which is a HUGE compliment!) - her writing is original, funny, clever - such wit!! - and her characterisation is brilliant. This story did go around and around a bit, but I was drawn in from the start and genuinely couldn't wait to go back to reading when I had the time. Not your typical rom-com, but that's not a bad thing. Ms Mann is definitely one to watch!! An up and coming star in this genre I suspect!!

Sadly, this was not a book for me. I always feel extra bad when it is arc but I have to be honest here. This one left a lot of confusion. In my opinion, this is a women's fiction book. That is not a bad thing. Just it is not a romance. Or at least romance is a minor side thing. I didn't find it overly comedic either. I couldn't connect with the characters. I read The Sister Surprise by this author and really enjoyed it. I guess we can't love every book by an author.

* Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the copy of the book

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for this ARC, which I was given in exchange for an honest review.
Where do I start... It took me a lot of time to find the logic of this book. And even though I finished it, I am still not sure if I completely understood it. The book is not a romance, and most certainly not a comedy. The moments between Poppy and WIll are brief and lack tension and spark. It wasn't a bad book, but it was not what I was expecting (a romcom)

Poppy is unhappy, her marriage is over and she is a bit lost. She heads off to meet up with her friend Lola and acts as a wedding photographer for The wedding Lola is the event planner for. What could possible go wrong?
This was a sweet story and plenty giggles and as always with Abigail’s books you feel joy and happiness reading them.
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

This was such a great and funny read, that I will be raving about to my friends. It is a tender story that will have you laughing one minute and I did shed a few tears at the end. I think the character Poppy is a relatable character, she got married young and put all her dreams on hold for the love of her life. Now we see her in a few years time regaining her dreams. Poppy heads to an island all by herself to have some alone time and compose what she wants to do with her life, until her friend has a major set to with her wedding and needs Poppy's help as a photographer. She finds she knows a certain someone and is trying to forget all the drama, but will the wedding ever go ahead and if it does will things run smoothly. I have loved all of Abigail's books so far but this one was the best. I would highly recommend this heart warming read.

This book was a quick and easy read, and I was able to finish it all in one sitting. I'm not a huge fan of "timeline jumping" novels - I always hate when I am reading and the chapter ends on a cliff hanger and then they jump back in time.. I always find myself wanting to quickly skip ahead to the present day.. Or in this case, jump ahead to continue on with the wedding rather then her past relationship with Josh.
The author is known for her "sardonic" humor which is prevalent in this novel, if you don't have a similar humor you may find that some of the jokes go over you head. I genuinely enjoyed it and found myself chuckling through out the book.
The "romance" in this novel is heavily lacking. I wish there was a bit more romance involved since it was classified as a "Rom-Com". This was more of a girly contemporary "chick-lit" then a rom-com. *Spoiler Alert* They do kiss at the end. But that is pretty much it. I wish there was a bit more drama with Will and Poppy yearning for each other and just more build up between the two. Instead the romance area was just a bit dull - and the book ended up just being a fun read with little to no romance.
There was a mistake on page 53 - the sentence reads "If he chose his name, why did go for one that makes him sound like a Dickensian undertaker?" I believe they meant it to say "Why did HE go for one...."
I was loving the tea near the ending of the book, I live for gossip and drama apparently hahaha.
I also wanted to punch josh in the throat so many times hahaha.
All in all, It was an easy quick read and enjoyed the playfulness, I would just like a little bit more romance!

OVERALL RATING: 3 STARS

A big thank you to HarperCollins UK and One More Chapter for providing me with an ARC. All Opinions are my own.

I liked the characters, and I like the story it was a good thing for poppy and will to finally get together in the end i kinda hoped they would have gotten together sooner however it just wasn't as captivating as I was hoping it would, I like it okay but i don't think I'd read it again,

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Poppy is guilted into helping one of her friends with a wedding that she is planning. When she gets their she knows the groom. With a week to go, everyone is unsure if the wedding will occur. I enjoyed the many characters on this book.

A quick and easy read that I found myself picking up after a long day to unwind. The characters are beautifully written and I came to love them within the first few pages and was rooting for them all the way to the end. At times I wanted to stop reading because I just wanted the experience to go on for longer.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I hadn't read anything else by Abigail Mann when I picked this up, so I didn't know what to expect. I had seen it being described as a funny, rom-com - perhaps it's my humour, but I wasn't in 'stitches from start to finish', it was honestly a little heartbreaking with a few funny bits every now and then. It also seemed like quite a lot was happening, and sometimes I got a teensy bit lost in everything.

[Spoilers below! Continue at your own risk]

Poppy is the main character, she's currently separated from her husband and partner of 6 years (I believe), Josh. The story moves between time periods, going back to Poppy at key moments with Josh and Will. It's actually quite sad looking back into Poppy's life, she's been treated quite horribly and it just made me sad for her. It was good in a way, as I was able to get some additional perspective as to why people would stay in a relationship where it was clearly detrimental for them, as well as what the effects of that were on those closest to you.

The primary side characters all had a lot of personality though, and I quite liked Lola! She's the extremely organised, but also extremely frazzled best friend of Poppy, and wedding planner for Will and Ottilie. Will is the son of a high-profile businessman who wants Will to take over the position of CEO for a massive company (who also owns the island they are on), and his father is taking the wedding as an opportunity for good publicity. It's honestly quite a lot, and things get really crazy really fast. I honestly didn't know what to expect, it felt quite chaotic.

Overall, whilst it was entertaining, I wouldn't necessarily call this a romance, it's not one of those cutesy fun romances that you come to expect with these sorts of titles, but instead an examination of Poppy's experiences with a failed marriage, and her being forced to come to terms with everything romance, whilst being roped into picking up her old photography job/hobby at a high profile wedding. I think it would've been much better had I known what to expect, rather than thinking it was going to be a fun romance if that makes sense?

Thank you so much to HarperCollins UK and One More Chapter for providing me with an e-ARC via NetGalley, please note this does not affect my opinions and they remain my own.

The Wedding Crasher by Abigail Mann is described as "hilarious" and "moving and funny" in the publisher's materials but I have to say it unfortunately did not live up to those descriptions for me. Pitched as a romcom, this is the story of Poppy, a young woman who is separating from the husband she married too young, and who finds herself roped into helping an old friend who is trying to establish her wedding planner business. Agreeing to help her out by photographing her latest booking, a high profile society wedding, Poppy has no idea that the groom to be is her former college friend Will.
The book is slow paced, and far from the sparkling rom com that the cover, title and publisher's blurb imply. Instead the focus is largely on the disintegration of Poppy's marriage. Poppy comes across as weak and indecisive which made it hard to connect with her, or care about what happened to her.
This one just wasn't for me.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

I loved Poppy yes she has her flaws, but that just makes her all the more relatable. It wasn't quite the romance story I was expecting from the cover, but I enjoyed it all the same. If you're looking for a fun escapist read then this is definitely a perfect read for you.

Poppy is getting divorced but she still currently lives and works in the same place as her manipulative exhusbandtobe so she decides to take herself off to an uninhabited island to photograph puffins for the summer holidays. On her way there she is waylaid by her best friend Lola who is the wedding planner for the society wedding to end all society weddings, her fancy photographer has come down with Norovirus and can Poppy step into document the week long lead up to the wedding. Oh yeah and it just so happens the groom is Will - the one who almost was at university. Feelings ensue.
This is described as a rom com but there is very little romance it’s all about the breakups. Everyone in this book is a mess and they stay messy, there is no quick fixes. So it’s very realistic in that way. The comedy is mostly sourced from Lola, who is a boss, and all the mishaps that having a wedding on an island cause. I thought this was good I liked how complicated everyone was, I liked that we didn’t immediately hate Will’s fiancé. I also, somewhat controversially maybe, liked Lawrence. I loved that he was a shit, knew he was shit, apologised for being a shit and then ran away to continue being a shit. It was such a Hugh Grant move. Will is, of course, a cinnamon roll. The Wedding Crasher was more complicated than I was expecting no more interesting for it.

The Wedding Crasher by Abigail Mann has a sweet cover and a promising premise. But that’s where the fun ends. The book cover gives you the impression it is in the romance genre, and the opening of the book sounds like it will be a fun and flirty rom-com. The problem is it’s not fun and flirty, and it’s not romance, and it’s not even an excellent general fiction book. The book promises that the reader will laugh until they cry or some similar statement, but it is not forthcoming, and it is not funny. The characters in this story are pretty pathetic, including our lead heroine, Poppy. It just wasn’t good, and it wasn’t even enjoyable. I was hoping for more.