Amanda's Wedding by Jenny Colgan

My new goal for 2006 is to read at least one book a week. So far, I have finished two books which means I'm on schedule so far. The first finished book of 2006 was Pride and Prejudice and I decided that it was too good to get the InCoHerEnt treatment. Plus, it was a book I had read before so it wasn't as if it was something I was going in fresh with. Not to mention, I had seen the movie... and before that, the BBC mini-series like a million times... and committed to memory Bridget Jone's Diary (the book and the movie...) it has all been said before.

Amanda's Wedding, by Jenny Colgan, is yet another blasted book borrowed from one of the women from work. Geez, at this rate, I will never have to visit the library again.... but then, the unread book pile in my living room is starting to look like some unorganized library stack. I swear, the next book I read is going to be one of mine.

Anyway, back to what I had come here to discuss... Amanda's Wedding is about ... Amanda's wedding. Basically, main character Melanie, who is your typical late 90's twenty-something person out and about London, gets a call from her old friend Amanda. Turns out she is marrying a guy Melanie used to have a crush on but he had no clue. Amanda is not a nice person. She is all about social climbing and looking for the guy to fill the role of husband to take part in the biggest wedding event to hit London society. Melanie and her friends band together to try and put a stop to this travesty.

Fun stuff does happen, and there were some laugh out loud moments. The author, Jenny Colgan, worked as a stand-up comedian to perfect the material for this book (as per the dustcover) and that does come through. Not to mention, there were a few times I wasn't sure what was going to happen. That does not often happen with this type of book. My only gripe is that she didn't end up with the guy I thought she should have. I'll leave it at that because I don't want to ruin that surprise ending for you. But then, I'm sure you can figure it out without any problem. Good luck with that. My only second gripe is that it didn't feel very UKish. You know how you can see something on tv or a movie or read a book and just know it is Canadian or British or whatever just by instinct. I didn't feel that vibe with this book. But then, I believe the author is Scottish so that might have thrown me off a bit.