Book Review - A Beginner's Guide to Saying I Do by Jennifer Joyce

Amazon UK

Title: A Beginner's Guide to Saying I Do

Author: Jennifer Joyce

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Author supplied review copy

Publisher: Self Published

Publication Date: 15th August

Rating: 5 Stars

Ruth can’t quite believe she’s managed to snag The One but when he proposes, she can finally accept that she’s found her happily ever after. But when Ruth finds herself booking her dream church for just six weeks away, she starts to panic. You can’t plan a whole wedding at such short notice. Can you?

Trina has only just walked down the aisle, but she’s already starting to question whether they can make their marriage work. Will they survive the honeymoon period, or have they just made a very big – and very expensive – mistake?

Erin has somehow found herself agreeing to be a bridesmaid for the tackiest wedding known to man. With drunk hens, ridiculous outfits and a terrifying wedding planner, just what has Erin signed up for?

Three women. Three weddings. But who will say I do – and who will say I don’t?

Three weddings and a...well thankfully not a funeral but an incredibly romantic surprise! 

I thoroughly enjoyed this story, there are plenty of moments to giggle at, some wonderful weddings to either gain inspiration from or to generally enjoy, and three very different, but equally fabulous main characters all of which feature in these weddings. 

First let me state this can easily be read as a standalone novel, although if you have read the previous book A Beginner's Guide to Salad you will know Ruth and Jared's full back story, and more of Erin's romantic history to. This one is set two years later and you don't have to have prior knowledge to be able to appreciate the fun of this book. 

We have Ruth who is madly in love with Jared, and after finding their dream church they need to plan a budget wedding in just 6 weeks. Cue calling in favours from her best friends and family. Best friend Erin is in a relationship with Richard, has no interest in marriage but has to be a bridesmaid at Richard's sister, Lindsay's wedding.  Then there is Trina, Ruths cousin who has a fairytale wedding at the start of the book, but then the marriage side of things turn out a bit trickier. 

With three different takes on weddings and relationships and all the characters interlinking it leads to a lot great situations. Anything involving Lindsay's wedding was hilarious, her hen party sounded a bit like a nightmare, at least for Erin, and when you get to the description of her wedding dress and bridesmaids dresses its laughable. 

On the other hand I loved the sound of dress that Ruth finds, and all her plans for the wedding seem great, even if there was some initial panic about planning of a short notice wedding, I really enjoyed seeing how it all came together. 

Yet Trina's story adds another dimension to this book, and I couldn't help but have a lot of sympathy for her. The family she marries into sounds like a nightmare for various reasons, while her new husband  - well the less said about him the better. 

If you are a fan of Jennifer Joyce, romance, weddings, humour, books with groups of friends, great characters and generally a whole feel good vibe from a book then A Beginner's Guide to Saying I Do is for you. I loved the writing, the story and was interested to see how Ruth had developed and changed since the previous book. I really hope this isn't the end of this series. 

Thank you so much to Jennifer Joyce for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.