The Wedding That Changed Everything by Jennifer Joyce

Emily has always been reluctant to "let people in" and the death of her mother has exacerbated the condition.  She pushed away her long term boyfriend, Edward, and her flatmate Alice is determined to find her the right man.  When Alice wangles Emily an invitation to a family wedding at Durban Castle Emily agrees to let her matchmake for the week of the festivities and then let it drop.  Cue a series of misunderstandings about men and a revelation of a secret.  Pretty much standard fare really.  Either I read too much of this kind of thing or there really are no shocks here with everything being flagged up well before it happens.

The characters are okay.  Maybe the best one is the incorrigable Archie who does manage to confuse both on the page and off as he very much works to his own agenda.  There is a stab at genuine depth with both Emily and Tom but it never really comes off and I was pretty much apathetic to the both of them.  Everyone else is really just filler and fluff with Alice, Carolyn and Francelia being extremely one dimensional stereotypes.  However, the fact I can remember their names a couple of days after finishing the book does mean that they are memorable in their lack of complexity and as I sometimes struggle to remember main protagonist names on the day of finishing that means there must be something right about them.

The plot trots along on it's merry way with the setting being more interesting than the machinations of the various people involved.  The options for misunderstanding and revelations about the past are flagged up in almost neon lights so it doesn't really have a page turning factor to it.  You do want to keep reading though as it is quite tender and life affirming in it's cliches. 

Not a book to set the world on fire but a perfect holiday read that will leave you feeling quite content and not feeling as though you have wasted your time reading it.