Will you…date me?
Delilah James, singleton and smoothie-addict, has six months to find a date for her oldest friend’s wedding. Oh, and to prove to her ex, best man Ben, that she has totally moved on since he dumped her out-of-the-blue nine months, eight days and seventeen hours ago…
So, with her two BFFs playing Cupid, Delilah launches herself into the high-tech, fast-paced and frankly terrifying world of dating. Luckily there’s the hot new guy at work, Adam Sinclair, to practice her flirting on – even if, as a colleague, he’s strictly off-limits!
Yet time’s running out and date after disastrous date forces Delilah to tell a little white lie – and invent a fake boyfriend! But will her secret crush on Adam ruin everything? Does she even care about Ben anymore? And is it too late to untangle her web of lies and take a real date to the wedding…?
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The Wedding Date is the first of Jennifer Joyce's books that I have read. It proved to be a lovely easy read full of laugh out loud moments providing the reader with a feel good atmosphere. This book is definitely a romantic comedy as the balance between the humour and love is nicely achieved. I hate using the term chick lit but this book does fall into that category and to be honest there really is nothing wrong with that. Sometimes you just needed that nice easy read which will take your mind away from things for a couple of hours as you become engaged with the characters and the ups and downs of their lives. What makes this book stand slightly apart from the rest is the inclusion of text messages at the beginning of each chapter. They were hilarious and I found myself looking forward to reading them. They are so typical of texts sent among friends or to parents and couldn't be more blunt or to the point if they tried. The book was a quick, light read, if a little predictable, but it did have all the elements of this genre that we have come to know and love. Jennifer obviously enjoyed writing this book as it showed in the storyline and the cast of very varied characters.
The opening scene where we meet Delilah James begins with a series of calamities and lies and doesn't really let up for the entire book. Delilah seems to be a person who gets herself into situations others wouldn't wish upon themselves. Delilah is suffering from a raging hangover and running for the bus when she trips and falls cutting her knee leaving her late for at Brinkley's biscuit factory. So begins a day of lies as she lets on she was mugged and that's why she was late. She feels too much of a fool to say she had fallen. Delilah never expected to be still working in the factory office after a number of years, she had wanted to move on to bigger and better things. Instead she finds herself working with an unusual cast of colleagues mostly from the managers family with the one exception the gorgeous Adam. Paired with the fact she doesn't like her job all that much – (what fun is it when you can't test all the biscuit to your hearts content?) is that she still lives at home with her parents and younger brother Justin and also she is still reeling from the break up of her relationship with Ben some months ago.
Delilah still believes herself and Ben will get back together. After all didn't they have something good going that was leading towards marriage? Or so Delilah thought? Really Delilah needed to gather herself together, come to her senses and realise she should just move on with her life and find a more suitable man. So we come to the whole crux of the book as mentioned in the title as Delilah faces her biggest challenge yet. Francesca her friend from childhood is getting married .The only problem is Ben will be best man at the wedding and he also has moved on rapidly with a girl called Eden. Delilah is devastated and her strong characteristic rears its head once more when she lies to Francesca and says she too has a boyfriend who she shall bring to the wedding. The only problem is she doesn't but now she needs one and fast.
Delilah along with her friends Lauren and Ryan make up a strong trio who are always up for a laugh and support each other through any rough patches that come their way. They love nothing more than going to the local pub quiz even if they do come last on a regular basis. Their evenings together lead them to form a plan for Delilah to find a boyfriend she can take to the wedding. Operation find a wedding date begins with disastrous of consequences. I did think this was all over the top couldn't Delilah just have confessed the truth instead of digging herself deeper and deeper into a hole that would be very hard to climb out of. But on the other hand if she had done that we would have had no book at all and I suppose it's all part and parcel of the genre. With so many books having been published in women's fiction over the years it must be challenging to bring something new to the table. The author did that here even if in my mind it was a bit incredible that someone would go to that much trouble. Delilah seemed to think that people would judge her for having no boyfriend where as I think telling the truth would have been a lot easier. Her family and friends wouldn't have passed any comment on her single status.
Delilah embarks on a slew of unusual and weird dates needless to say the man she is looking for is harder to find than she thought. There were lots of cringeworthy scenes that gave the reader plenty to laugh at but I can't say Delilah found them as funny. The book moved along nicely as we got nearer and nearer to the wedding. I guessed from the start how everything would pan out therefore that's why I thought it did become predictable. There were a few twists and turns which did have you thinking oh is it going to go the way I thought it would and that kept you on your toes fora little bit. But the major part of the plot involving Delilah and a certain man did fail to impress me as I really didn't think this would happen even if this was fiction. There is a certain point where you have to think would someone really do this all to pretend they have/ need to find a boyfriend for a wedding. I did find Lauren's storyline was just thrown in and came out of nowhere. If she had featured a little more heavily or maybe even a chapter from her point of view it would have made things a bit more clearer for the reader.
Overall if things were a little bit foreseeable The Wedding Date is still a nice read perfect to curl up with for a few hours.
I'd like to thank Emma for reviewing The Wedding Date which we received from the publisher via NetGalley.
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