Review: Thirteen Weddings by Paige Toon

Last year, Bronte left Sydney for a wedding in England, where she met newly single Alex. After a night of passion they parted ways, and Bronte returned to Australia.

Now working on a picture desk for a magazine in London, Bronte is about to meet her new colleague, who turns out to be all too familiar. Although awkward at first, as Alex is now engaged to the girl he was on a break from when they met, they soon become friends.

But as the two get closer, and the wedding day looms, it is clear that Alex and Bronte have unfinished business

Review: I was very excited about reading this book. I love it when a book comes out by an author I know I like and try and make time to read it straight away. This book got off to a great start for me. I find it easiest to get into a book when you are dumped straight in the action, getting to know the characters as you go along. This was definitely the case in this book and I loved the idea of starting off with a hen party coinciding with a stag party and two characters meeting that way. The rest of the story line was really good too but began to slow for me, towards the middle of the book. Thankfully there was a really long epilogue which wrapped everything up nicely, which again is something that I love. I thought the idea of someone going through life photographing weddings was fab and adds to my assurance that Paige Toon does escapism better than anyone else in her novels, but it just felt a little slow for my personal reading taste. This is not something that has happened to me with a Paige Toon novel before, let me reassure you!

I thought the characters in this novel were really interesting and the mix of personalities was just great, you couldn't get a more random bunch if you tried. I liked this though, because it is indicative of friendships that I have and those friendship groups that I see around me! Bronte was a great protagonist, if a little indecisive. If she had been more decisive, however, a lot of stuff in the book wouldn't have been able to happen. She was very brave to give up everything for a job in the UK and throw herself into the wedding industry too, that way that she did. I loved the two male leads in this book, but definitely favoured one over the other because of his free spirit and unconditional ability to love!

There was an interesting storyline involving alcoholism and another involving closeted homosexuals among the clergy which i thought were unique choices for a novel like this. I'm no sure that they fitted with with Thirteen Weddings persona but it was refreshing to have these issues dealt with with such honesty by an author who normally covers slightly lighter topics. Overall I did enjoy this novel, i just didn't get as much of the usual Paige Toon sparkle that i normally get from these books. Nevertheless, I will definitely be counting this up there with the others and it would make a super summer read whether you're lying on a beach or sitting in your own back garden!