Book Review: A Vintage Wedding by Katie Fforde

"In a small Cotswold country town, Beth, Lindy and Rachel are looking for new beginnings.

So they set up in business, organising stylish and perfectly affordable vintage weddings.

Soon they are busy arranging other people's Big Days.

What none of them know is that their own romances lie waiting, just around the corner ..."

Rating: 5/5

You can buy A Vintage Wedding as a hardback or an eBook now!

I'm a big fan of Katie Fforde's novels, and the past few that I have read I have really enjoyed. They've been really good stories, with fab characters and an easy-going story that has kept me wanting to read on until the end. I received a copy of Katie's latest book A Vintage Wedding through NetGalley, and recently got around to reading it. I had heard good things from other bloggers, so I was really excited to finally start this one.

This book is based around a small town in the Cotswolds, and 3 inhabitants of that town. There's single mum to two young boys Lindy, a talented seamstress, but who is bogged down in the care of her own children, and her family commitments as well. There's newly single Rachel, someone who likes everything to be perfect and in its place, but is very unsure about letting anybody new into her life, let alone a new man. Finally, there's Beth, who is planning her own sister's wedding away from the controlling hands of her mother - she's unsure she can pull it off until the three new friends pull together and start their own wedding business... Vintage Weddings! But little do they know, it's more than a few wedding waiting around the corner for them...

I have read a few less positive reviews for this book, saying that the women were able to pull off their newfound skills far too easily, that everything seemed to happen too perfectly for them, and yes, while that could be true, it is a story and every story is allowed a little bit of sensationalism to make it that bit more enjoyable to read. Beth, in particular, seems to gain a cake decorating skill literally overnight which was a tad unrealistic, but again needed to happen for the pace of the novel. I liked the wedding business, the way it came together quickly and each of the women used their skills to bring something new to the business, whether it was dressmaking or perfecting the venue.

Each of the women had a different story in the book. The one I could relate to most of all was Lindy. She's a young single mum to her boys, and struggles to make ends meet, with the boys father being pretty absent from their lives. I really liked her, you could see she worked hard to be a good mum, and let her own talents fall to the wayside while she was busy being a mum. Rachel was a bit of a hard one to like at first, obsessed with her perfect house in shades of white (one called wevet, can't say I have ever heard of that haha!), and it seemed a bit off how she was desperate for no-one to come into her showhome. As the book went on and she comes out of her shell a bit more, I did warm to her but she wasn't as likeable as the others.

Beth on the other hand I couldn't work out. She's never been particularly lucky in love, her mother is a bit controlling and not all that positive towards Beth, but I struggled to understand some of Beth's decisions in the book. She put a band before her own sister's wedding, something I found a tad unforgivable personally, and I couldn't understand why the other Vintage Weddings employees let her carry on regardless of the strike for everyone else! As well as the three main women, we meet the residents of the village; Lindy's family, her boys uncle Angus, Raff and his mum, and finally singer Finn. There's a mix of characters in there, and I loved what they all added to the book - there was a real village feeling to the book and I very much enjoyed picking up the book of an evening.

There's only 2 weddings in the book that Vintage Weddings organises, and it's fun to read about what goes on behind the scenes for the three women, and what they have to do to pull off the wedding of someone's dreams as well as juggle their own love lives too! I love reading about weddings, so this was a perfect novel for me, and I did enjoy it from beginning to end. It was a lovely story, easy to read and as usual, Katie Fforde's writing is excellent and brings the book to life as you read. It's a nice escapist story that was a joy to read, and despite a couple of very minor niggles, I enjoyed all of it! Great characters, weddings, a gorgeous setting - what more could you want?! I loved it.