Thirteen Weddings, Paige Toon

Pages: 448

Publisher: S&S

Release Date: 22^nd May 2014

Edition: e-proof, review copy

Other Titles by this Author: Lucy in the Sky, Johnny be Good, Chasing Daisy, Pictures of Lily, Baby Be Mine, One Perfect Summer, The Longest Holiday, The Accidental Life of Jessie Jefferson

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...

A charming, bittersweet novel from the author of The Longest Holiday.

I worship Paige Toon. Her novels sweep me up effortlessly and I fall in love with her characters mere pages in; Thirteen Weddings was no exception.

Bronte is adorable. Toon is yet to write a heroine that I don’t want to be best friends with, but I really, really loved Bronte. I love her ambition and dedication to her job and her bravery of moving to the other side of the world for it; her sense of humour; her friendships; her insecurity about her home and childhood. I LOVED the way she was with the people in her office and with Bridget – I just wanted to be a part of their group, or at the very least, have my own version. Then comes Alex. The tension and chemistry between them was electric. I was shipping them so hard; still am.

The appearance of Lachie and Zara was definitely a complicated that made them sizzle even more. Alex’s relationship was incredibly frustrating and so was Lachie in a way. Though he’s cute and funny and clearly worships Bronte, I just felt like he was in the way and an added complication! The back and forth, the flirtation and the will-they-won’t-they between both Bronte and Alex and Bronte and Alex and Lachie keep my heart in my throat and staying up way later than I should on a school night to see how Bronte’s story concluded. I have to admit that the end result was unexpected, and I’m not sure how I felt about it, but I still loved the novel as a whole. I’m holding out hope that Bronte will pop up in a later novel and something may have changed.

I do love the older character cameos. We got updates on Lily and Ben from Pictures of Lily, Laura and Leo from The Longest Holiday, Alice and Joe from One Perfect Summer and Lucy and Nathan from Lucy in the Sky. I have to confess to squeaking with excitement every time they popped up – I just love catching up with characters I fell in love with years ago and seeing how their lives have developed outside of the pages. It makes them so real.

Although I was a smidge disappointed at the very end, I still absolutely loved Thirteen Weddings. So. Next one, please?

Thanks to S&S and NetGalley for the review copy.

Sophie