Once Upon A Wedding
Grade : C

The most interesting thing about Once Upon a Wedding is the pretty, pretty cover. Unfortunately, the actual story has the dubious distinction of being one of the most boring books I've read in quite a while.

Camille Delonga's daughter, Jordan, is marrying the man of her dreams. James also happens to be the son of one of Camille's best friends, Bridget, making the wedding a family affair. Despite having a few reservations about the wedding, Camille begins to plan it with her mother's and her friends' help. Then Camille's ex-husband, Creed, comes back to help and begins to become part of her life again.

Granted this is a work of women's fiction, and as such the story and plot movement center on the relationships: mothers and daughters, friends, and loves. This can be interesting when the relationships grow and change. The problem with this book is that there is little or no growth or change in any of the relationships. Camille is the center point of this book. She lives with her Jordan and her mother, Rosemary, who is dying of cancer. So for mother/daughter action we have two relationships to focus on. With Rosemary dying of cancer, you might think Camille has to come to terms with the thought of losing her mother. Or maybe she has issues to resolve with her before her death (although that would be terribly cliché). Nope, we're all fine here.

Camille and Jordan, on the other hand, do have issues, but nothing major. Camille is worried that Jordan is too young to get married. She also wishes Jordan would finish school. Despite that, she throws herself into planning the wedding. Camille does attempt to help/nag Jordan about her problems, but that does not lead to any major conflict between them.

Since her daughter is marrying one of her best friends' sons, Camille has the relationship with Bridget, the mother of the groom, to worry about. Camille and Bridget have very different tastes, with Bridget's being more upscale. While Camille is concerned, she steam rolls ahead and figures Bridget will adjust. Along the way, Bridget does have to deal with a divorce, so at least there's some change in her life.

Camille gets some change in her life when her ex-husband. Creed comes back for the wedding. Old feelings between them begin to come back to life. Camille admits that she never stopped loving Creed, she just couldn't live with him. So, in their relationship, there's a lack of conflict in that they just seem to drift back together. She does actually have to make a decision about him at the end, but that decision is not hard to make.

Readers get to see the wedding planned step by step. Yes, that's as exciting and interesting as it sounds - which to me is not at all. Camille looks at reception locations. Camille shops for a mother of the bride dress. Camille designs centerpieces. Jordan frets about her grandmother making her dress and it looking homemade. Jordan asks Camille for money to help buy a house. The wedding was almost anticlimactic.

I never felt any sort of emotional connection to the characters, and I never felt they had much emotion between them either. Quite simply, Once Upon a Wedding is one of the most boring books I've read in a while. It hurts to say that, considering all the raves I've heard about Kathleen Eagle. The technical aspect of the writing is fine - no purple prose, nice descriptions, and good grammar. There's just not enough of a spark to the story. I wish I'd spent the three weeks it took me to read this on something else.

Reviewed by Andrea Pool
Grade : C
Book Type: Women's Fiction

Sensuality: N/A

Review Date : November 16, 2002

Publication Date: 2003

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Andrea Pool

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