Don't Tell The Groom - Anna Bell
Published: 05/12/13
Publisher: Quercus
Pages: 384
Anna Bell is an author I have read novels by before, under her pen name Annabel Scott. I was over the moon when I’d heard she’d landed herself a publishing deal with Quercus and was SO excited to read her first traditionally published novel.
Don’t Tell The Groom tells the tale of a troubled bride called Penny who when her long-time boyfriend proposes to her can’t wait to start planning her ‘perfect’ wedding. However when she checks their joint savings account, she finds ten thousand pounds are missing. She cannot understand where all the money has gone until she remembers her online bingo habit and suddenly Penny’s dream comes crashing down. Too afraid to tell her fiancée that she’s blown two thirds of the wedding budget on bingo she decides to plan the whole wedding herself and not tell him anything…hence the name ‘Don’t Tell The Groom’.
With Penny struggling to admit she has an addiction, refusing to get rid of her fantasies of Vera Wang and Jimmy Choo and lying to her fiancée. Can her wedding day come and go without a hitch or will everything come back to bite Penny?
The plot for this novel was really quite clever and although I managed to get about ninety five percent of what was going to happen, there were still a few things that surprised me and caught me off guard. The protagonist Penny was easy to love despite her faults and I enjoyed watching her grow over the course of the novel. She changed her whole outlook on life and learnt some incredibly valuable lessons along the way which was perfect. Mark, her fiancée wasn’t a very present character but what I did see of him, he was a decent man and it was interesting to see him put so much trust into the woman he loves. Penny’s friend Lou was a character who at times behaved a little odd and I found her hard to warm to but she was a totally good egg and I enjoyed watching her change over the course of the novel too.
Anna’s writing is really involving and easy to read which meant I sped through the pages eager to find out what was going to happen next. I liked the first person narrative and I felt it was really effective in getting the emotion across to the reader. I think I would have liked a little more background about the main characters lives; I didn’t feel I knew that much about Penny or Mark by the end of the book. A few flashbacks or desfriptions about their past would have been very welcome. However this wasn’t a major problem and the book worked perfectly without it.
I am excited because by the look of the back page of this novel there is a sequel coming in 2014 called Don’t Tell The Boss which will continue to follow Penny. Exciting!
Publisher: Quercus
Pages: 384
Anna Bell is an author I have read novels by before, under her pen name Annabel Scott. I was over the moon when I’d heard she’d landed herself a publishing deal with Quercus and was SO excited to read her first traditionally published novel.
Don’t Tell The Groom tells the tale of a troubled bride called Penny who when her long-time boyfriend proposes to her can’t wait to start planning her ‘perfect’ wedding. However when she checks their joint savings account, she finds ten thousand pounds are missing. She cannot understand where all the money has gone until she remembers her online bingo habit and suddenly Penny’s dream comes crashing down. Too afraid to tell her fiancée that she’s blown two thirds of the wedding budget on bingo she decides to plan the whole wedding herself and not tell him anything…hence the name ‘Don’t Tell The Groom’.
With Penny struggling to admit she has an addiction, refusing to get rid of her fantasies of Vera Wang and Jimmy Choo and lying to her fiancée. Can her wedding day come and go without a hitch or will everything come back to bite Penny?
The plot for this novel was really quite clever and although I managed to get about ninety five percent of what was going to happen, there were still a few things that surprised me and caught me off guard. The protagonist Penny was easy to love despite her faults and I enjoyed watching her grow over the course of the novel. She changed her whole outlook on life and learnt some incredibly valuable lessons along the way which was perfect. Mark, her fiancée wasn’t a very present character but what I did see of him, he was a decent man and it was interesting to see him put so much trust into the woman he loves. Penny’s friend Lou was a character who at times behaved a little odd and I found her hard to warm to but she was a totally good egg and I enjoyed watching her change over the course of the novel too.
Anna’s writing is really involving and easy to read which meant I sped through the pages eager to find out what was going to happen next. I liked the first person narrative and I felt it was really effective in getting the emotion across to the reader. I think I would have liked a little more background about the main characters lives; I didn’t feel I knew that much about Penny or Mark by the end of the book. A few flashbacks or desfriptions about their past would have been very welcome. However this wasn’t a major problem and the book worked perfectly without it.
I am excited because by the look of the back page of this novel there is a sequel coming in 2014 called Don’t Tell The Boss which will continue to follow Penny. Exciting!
Laura