Published by Headline Review
Publication date: 2011
There is no higher aspiration amongst a certain type of British girl than to marry a royal and no author better suited to skewer this ambition with wit and a lightning fast plot than British author, Wendy Holden. For my money, no one does chick lit better than the Brits. Maybe it’s because they use words we don’t and it makes everything even funnier (dosh, plonk, quiff, and what does it mean when a lampshade is “skew-whiff?). Whatever the reason, Holden is a master at the craft. Her characters are pitch perfect and her plots keep readers amused and engaged.
Marrying Up is Holden’s latest. In it we meet the usual cast of the spoiled, difficult, and self-absorbed pitted against the hapless, hard-working and misunderstood. Polly is an earnest archeologist who falls in love with the elusive Max while Allison (renamed Alexa) is a wannabe princess chasing any male with a title in front of their name. She befriends the wealthy, ditzy heiress, Lady Florrie Cleethorpe but ends up exiled when her mother, Lady Annabel, sees Alexa for the gold-digger she is and blackballs her amongst the aristocratic set. Alexa gathers her formidable forces (long legs and an ability to lie as easily as she breathes) and with the help of a new friend, expands her hunting grounds. Meanwhile, kind Polly is left behind when Max disappears without explanation. The mystery and mayhem pile up at a rapid pace that will keep even the most blasé reader entertained.
This is the kind of book you need when work is a heinous train wreck, the bills are piling up, and your only relationship is with your cat. It is soak-in-a-bubble-bath-drink-a-glass-of-wine reading because, while the plot is far fetched, you will be turning pages right up until the last one. There’s a time for Tolstoy (enforced convalescence) and there’s a time for fun. Marrying Up is perfect fun reading.
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