The Summer Wedding

By: Fiona Walker

Narrated by: Karen Cass

Length: 21 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

The hotly anticipated wedding of Iris Devonshire, ravishing teenage daughter of celebrity couple Mia and Leo, is to be held in the gardens of their grand Palladian pile alongside the Thames. But Mia and Leo worry that she's rushing into the marriage. Just ask their best friends since college, Simon and Laney de Montmorency, whose relationship is on the rocks again - and they've already married each other twice.

On the big day, Iris' hellraiser fiancé, Dougie Everett, is not the only one flying high. As Iris rides up the aisle on a white stallion, a hot air balloon appears over the woods, heading straight for the ceremony. Its arrival is about to transform the lives and loves of some of the wedding guests forever.

The Summer Wedding is a sizzling summer comedy set against the beautiful backdrops of the Chilterns, Spain, Africa, and LA.

©2013 Fiona Walker (P)2013 Hachette Audio

Good story.... Too much bedroom detail for me

It's a good story line and good characters, but way too much sexual detail. I think a little more left to the imagination would better suit the story

Loved! First by this writer…21 hrs went by fast!

The story was engaging… kept my interest and made me care about the players. Never a slow moving part of the novel. Great read, thanks!

Too much going on

The storyline was good, but a little too much going on for one book. It was more difficult to make some of the main characters robust, especially a single character that played a main role in the resolution of the story. Narration was great and there were some humorous moments.

Trying too hard

Boring sex scenes trying too hard to be enticing but never really become more than adolescent in it's feel.
The story is banal. I chose it because of the narrator who is usually excellent. And she was also good here, but of course unable to lift such a book higher than a banal read for horse loving adolescents

Disappointed

What would have made The Summer Wedding better?

I didn't hate the story exactly, it was interesting and I was starting to get into the main characters, Laney and Simon's love story. However, the explicit sex details and overall crude direction I felt the book was moving in by about the second chapter made me turn this one off. Maybe this is just the author's style, and I've never read a Fiona Walker book before so I can't really say much except that I had high hopes for this book because I love the narrator and the premise of the storyline seemed really fun, but in the end it definitely wasn't my cup of tea.

What was most disappointing about Fiona Walker’s story?

The details of Laney and Simon's "bedroom life".. over the top descriptions of both theirs and her friend Mia's love lives as well as excessive f-bombs and swearing was just a little much. I know it's a style, and some women enjoy a little erotica thrown into chick lit but I personally felt it didn't add much to the story and unfortunately made it pretty much impossible for me to listen to with kids in the car so had to turn it off.

Which scene was your favorite?

To be honest, I didn't really make enough progress into this book to have a favorite scene.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The author has a good writing style and if it hadn't been for the R-rated elements I mentioned before I would certainly have kept listening. The narrator did a wonderful job too.

Not really a fan

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

People who like this author would probably like it.

What was most disappointing about Fiona Walker’s story?

I thought the story lacked depth although the narrator did a really good job with characters and accents.

Have you listened to any of Karen Cass’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Cannot recall listening to her before but would absolutely listen to her again.