By Milly Johnson

Reread on audible 09/08/2023
Additional thoughts upon re-reading. The 3 protagonists meet at a wedding shop (which gets mysteriouser and mysteriouser as the book progresses) and become fast friends. Max is a dynamic successful go-getter and workaholic. She loves the competitiveness of business. Unfortunately, she is mismatched with the nice and simple, unambitious Stuart to whom she is getting married. Max becomes obsessed with having the biggest, grandest “Big Fat Gypsy Wedding” she can after promising Stuart that she will keep it plain and simple to the point that it will be held in a registry office with hardly anyone present. Max’s story is comic and over the top. The farther she goes, the closer the happy ending is for both Max and Stuart as we know that when all is revealed, it will lead to a break-up and they both can end up with partners that are more suited to each of them.

Bel’s story is a little more complex. When she finds out that her fiance is cheating on her with her own cousin, she is so hurt and angry that she plans a wedding that will embarrass and horrify everyone for revenge. It goes almost too well and has some unintended consequences. We follow her after the big day when she escapes to a cottage on the moor and she meets her true love. When they part, Her fiance who is very handsome, high-society, charming, and very very contrite, re-enters the picture and tries to get her back. Will he succeed?

Violet’s story is very sad and frustrating. She is the “wet dish-rag” character who suffers to the very end smothered and manipulated by her vile fiance. He has convinced kind and compassionate Violet that he will commit suicide if she ever leaves him. He pretends to have agoraphobia and is dependent totally on her for everything. When she leaves the house to work on opening her own business, an ice cream shop, he calls her incessantly to make sure she is alright, what she is doing, and when she is coming home. Meanwhile, she is falling in love with the Polish Artist who is painting her ice cream shop. Although I couldn’t help but love her, Violet is a very frustrating character because there is no reason for being so trapped in the relationship. Even if it was true that Glynn, her fiance’s life was in her hands, she was an enabler. She could have insisted he get therapy, exercise, and stop his unhealthy eating or she would not marry him, forcing him to act and get better.
All ends satisfactorily with romantic happy endings for all. In Bel’s case, there is a bonus in that in learning some home truths about her family and her past, it results in better relationships with her family. Lots of good comeuppances all around in good Milly Johnson fashion.
original review

Listening to Violet’s story both her mouth and Bel’s had dropped open so much that they looked like two copies of Munch’s Scream.

Indeed. Violet is finally coming clean to her two friends about what a horror her fiance, Glynn, has been. Having read A Winter Flame and The Mother of All Christmases I have met Violet before and was interested in how she suffered before she found her happy ending in the subsequent books.

This one follows Milly’s go-to template of tracing the romantic and other relationships of 3 women friends, one of whom is usually a victim of a man and won’t stand up for herself until the very end. Generally, I’m fine with that for now because her writing is smart, both witty and comical, and her characters so interesting and likable. There are always some surprises and twists and some parts that are genuinely moving. **4 out of 5 stars**

November 12, 2019