Bad Brides by Rebecca Chance

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


If you are looking for a novel that’s a bit naughty but full of fun and frolics then look no further – Bad Brides has it in spades.
When Jodie, editor of Style UK decides to launch Style Bride she wants THE best celebrity wedding to have pride (or bride?) of place on the coveted front cover. There are two contenders; the first is sweet American Brianna Jade, former pageant princess and daughter of the famous Fracking Queen, Tamra, who has arranged her daughter’s wedding to the Earl of Respers in return for a huge cash injection into restoring his stately home. Then there is up and coming actress Milly Gamble, engaged to Tarquin, singer of a popular folk-rock band, who will do anything to get what she wants.
With Tamra running the show for Brianna, planning the most exclusive and tastefully expensive wedding ever seen at Stanclere Hall and Milly hiring wedding planner of the moment Ludo for a hippy-flower-child-vintage-look wedding, the competition is on. But with Brianna preferring to spend time with the pigs rather than with her future husband and Tamra suddenly running shy of the Earl, not to mention Milly being too busy trying to become famous to actually arrange her own wedding and stopping at nothing to get her own way in all areas of her life, will either actually grace the cover of Style Bride?
There are star crossed lovers, mishaps and all sorts of shenanigans to whet your appetite in this novel in the build up to what should be the greatest wedding ever to grace the cover of a magazine. From the bitchy self-centred Milly to sweet Brianna, from the put-upon-best -friend to the fierce, proud, determined Tamra; from lustful Ludo who will never properly have the love of his life and the set in his ways Earl who learns some new tricks the characters are larger than life and full of traits and idiosyncrasies that will have you laughing out loud, tutting in horror and quite possibly needing to cool off a little....
I found this an extremely amusing read which kept me riveted to the characters and the goings-on. Although it was easy to see where it was going and the ending no particular surprise the attention to detail of each character and the fluency of the storyline absolutely made the novel the excellent read it is. There were some quite surprisingly saucy bits to the novel (this is the first book by Rebecca Chance I have read and I am told part of her charm as writer and....she does do them exceedingly well!) as well as more tender moments – perfect for a soppy old romantic - and cram packed full of humour and wit that made it quite simply a really rollicking, rumbustious read.