This is a cute read. However, I couldn’t connect with the couple that much. The writing was really good but the story felt flat in the end.

It's Annie's wedding day but the groom, Alexander doesn't turn up. She's naturally devastated low in self esteem which isn't helped by her mother constantly doing her down. Fortunately she has a good group of friends who support her and who encourage her to take up her (almost) mother in law's offer of the honeymoon which is already paid for. She refuses at first but then after meeting someone she used to know, she decides after all to do it. What happens next is predictable but the novel is nicely written with good characterisation and lots of welcome nods to the diversity of the society we live in.

Romantic comedies are not the first genre I turn to but I enjoyed this and would read more from this author. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Annie is jilted at the church. Her would be in-laws insist she still goes on her honeymoon, a dream holiday to Australia. After meeting an old friend, Patrick, theyboth go . The inevitable happens but is it true love, what will happen when they return to normality. ?? Really enjoyable and not totally predictable, loved it.

Thank you to Net Galley & Avon books for gifting me an early release of this book, written by Laura Jane Williams.
I was already lucky enough to be gifted the audiobook version which I have listened too, enjoyed and reviewed below.
The Lucky Escape follows Annie, who’s just been left by her fiancé Alexander, of nearly 10 years - on their wedding day - by a text to the wedding planner!?
We see her navigate the next chapter of her life as a newly independent woman, with her learning who she really is and who she wants to be with, now she’s free of the constraints her relationship with Alexander unknowingly had on her. But with the help of an old friend Patrick, who she convinces to join her on what should have been her 3 week honeymoon in Australia, her eyes are opened to the possibilities her future can hold.
This is a lovely story with lots of lovely characters, I really enjoyed the narration by Carrie Hope Fletcher giving each character a different voice.
This is the only book of Williams I’ve read, but I think she has done a great job of adding different curveballs to Annie’s life, giving her options and making us - the reader, ponder over how it’s going to end; it can be boring to read some romcoms which are so cliche and obvious, this however does not fall into this category.
I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this book and would recommend it as a great holiday book to read or listen to!
I’m also going to look at Williams other books as if they are like The Lucky Escape, if sure I’ll enjoy them too!

I was really looking forward to this book, so I'm super disappointed that I didn't like it. It had a ton of potential, but for some reason, I never connected to it.

I think most of that is because I was expecting a light and fun romcom. I expected to laugh, and to be shipping the characters. Instead, I just got a lukewarm relationship. There was no chemistry between Paddy and Annie, so the scenes between them were repetitive and boring. I wanted some connection, but there was nothing.

I also didn't love Annie as a character. Every once in a while, she would make a super random comment about the patriarchy or the gender wage gap, and it felt so out of place. What's worse, is her actions didn't even reflect that statement, she said it, and immediately made actions that disputed it.

Finally, I didn't love the career plotline at the end. I was ready for the book to be done, but I just stuck with unnecessary angst and a midlife crisis. Considering I didn't even have a romance to root for, I wanted to be done.

The author and premise definitely have potential, but this book fell short. I was in the mood for a romcom, and sadly, this book didn't deliver.

Thanks to Netgalley and Laura Jane Williams for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

Laura Jane Williams is quickly becoming an auto-buy author for me, and I was thrilled when I heard that she had a new book coming out. This book follows Annie when, on the morning of her wedding, she was jilted by her husband to be Alexander. His parents are desperately embarrassed about the whole situation and let her go on the paid-for honeymoon with whomever she chooses. On a drunken night out Annie bumps into an old friend Patrick, with whom she has an instant attraction, and a drunken decision leads them to go on the 3-week honeymoon to Australia together and in typical Laura Jane Williams style everything blows up from there. I loved most of the characters in this book, especially Annie's 13-year-old younger sister Freddie, I found her so cute and so well-rounded. The plot although a little insta-lovey between the two main characters was super fun to follow and I really loved hearing about all of the holiday antics. Although this is quite a fluffy romance novel it does follow some harder-hitting topics and I enjoyed their presence throughout this book. I think I will probably read anything that Laura Jane Williams puts out from this point onwards - even if they are not all going to be 5-star reads, they are all so enjoyable and honestly so much fun.
4 out of 5 stars.

After Annie gets jilted at the altar she decides to go on her honeymoon with an old friend Patrick who she has just recently met up with again.

This is a cute story it's a quick read that is funny in parts and emotional in others. Annie and Patrick's characters were likeable and realistic and you couldn't help but root for them.

Thank you to Netgalley and Avon Books for the ARC

Annie is due to marry Alexander today but arrives at the church to find he's texted the wedding planner to call it off.
Fast forward and Annie is heading off on her honeymoon - with another man! Old drama camp friend Patrick Hummingbird bumps into Annie at a boot camp and after some fun times catching up, becomes her lucky travelling companion on the luxury honeymoon to Australia.
Their story developes with adventures, a new self awareness, lots of fun and enviable locations.
I had mixed feelings about this book. At the start I thought the characters were a little affected. I then loved the section of the book set in Australia. Back home I found the story a little contrived. Without spoiling the ending, I would have preferred to end the book feeling that the right decision had been made for the right reasons rather than the rapid yes/no about-face that took place.
This is a decent light summer read.

This was a nice, lovely read. Very much about escapism and self-discovery in the wake of an emotional disaster. I would have preferred for the first part to go by faster (come on, get to the good stuff!) and it is fade to black in the bedroom (boo). I thought Patrick was a lot of fun and a good pairing with Annie, who had some good growth.

A feel good story, ups and down, delights and disappointments.
When Annie is jilted at the church, she was devastated, but fairly quickly realised that it was, indeed, A Lucky Escape! Over the next weeks she begins to find herself at last.
A lovely summer read, and I really enjoyed it.

I really enjoyed this book from the very beginning to the last page. The themes of change, finding yourself and learning to be a little braver are beautifully written with intelligence, warmth and humour.

I'm a huge Laura Jane Williams fan after reading this gorgeous book. A wrong marriage and best friends turned lovers had me tearing through the pages. After reading Our Stop, I was beyond excited to get started on the lucky escape!

Travelling to Australia on a non-honeymoon was the story I didn’t know I needed right now. Loving the travel element and the way that Annie found herself throughout the book really resonated with me. A great, fun love story with bonus travel thrown in, definitely recommend. Thanks NetGalley!

The Lucky Escape

This is the first book of @laurajaneauthor’s that I’ve read, although Kirsty read one of hers last year - Our Stop. I received an arc of this via the publishers @avonbooks via @netgalley.

This book is basically my life story, which I knew before starting but I guess if you’ve just been jilted it might not be the best time in your life to pick up a book with this plot!

I enjoyed the majority of the story, especially when Annie and Patrick were travelling around Australia. It’s a place I’m never likely to go so I like to see it vicariously through the eyes of characters.

My own personal experience did make me a bit skeptical about the timing and insta feelings between Annie and Patrick but that could just be me. I would have loved to see Annie rocking it on her own and keeping Patrick in the friend zone. I definitely connected with parts of Annie’s character and her response to her situation right down to the line “when life gives you lemons make lemonade”. If you’ve seen some of our posts recently about our Instagram handle you’ll know the significance of that!

I still have Love Square on my TBR so will look forward to picking that up at some point in the future.

Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me after the 24% mark. I really wanted to love this - charming cover art, promising storyline that gives off major The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren vibes - but I gave up after my third attempt at trying to keep going.

The pacing is dreadfully slow, bogged down by unnecessary details (mostly political/social justice remarks that don't add to the plot and were probably thrown in as sound bites or for a pat on the back) and repetitive or straight up unnecessary scenes that could be cut.

I also couldn't root for the heroine. After six chapters of her moping about how miserable her life is with no indication she wanted to change paired with her passive personality, I just felt bad for her and wished she'd go to therapy instead of a vacation.

The writing also feels inconsistent. Williams' writing style shines in some parts but the writing is mostly clinical and dry. It reads like a second draft.

Overall, I was expecting something light and fun, ala The Unhoneymooners as mentioned above, but it was dreary and a bit boring. Maybe I'll try it again in the future to see if it picks up halfway through and ends with a bang, but judging by the other reviews, it's safe to say I'm not missing out on much.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for providing me a digital ARC to review in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was a nice light beach read. I enjoyed it but wasn't as invested as I could have been. I found the in laws a bit too nice and the tension between Annie and Patrick a bit rushed, particularly when they returned to London.

It was light and fluffy and was yet another book that made me want to go on holiday!

Thanks to the author and NetGalley for the ARC copy of this book.
Since I read the blurb for The Lucky Escape, I couldn't wait to read it! I think the premise of taking someone else on your honeymoon after being jilted on the wedding day was great! I loved how Annie grew even if at times I just wanted to shout at her to just say it out loud! I think Patrick too had incredible growth, but have been more open to Annie than she was to him.
I think it was a great premise, the characters were great, but I wasn't fond of the last few chapters. It felt that after Australia when the tension should have been greater, it just went down.
It was overall a very pleasant read, just not my favourite.

Not a bad read, but not one of my favorites either. It is a good beach or lake read, one you can read when you are resting from the fun, then pick back up later.

The author's writing was good, her character building was good, however, I felt that the story which started out strong, fell flat in the end.

I loved this! When Annie’s fiancé doesn’t turn up to the wedding she’s understandably devastated. Her intended in laws insist that she goes on the honeymoon they had arranged and paid for. Annie just isn’t sure who to take. At bootcamp she stumbles across an old friend from her round and carefree teenage days, and Annie decides to ask them to join her. This is a story of Annie finding herself and finally realising what it is she wants in life to make her happy. I really enjoyed this book.

2.5 Stars. Well, I enjoyed this one more than The Love Square (same author). Overall this book was good not great. I genuinely had look at the blurb to find the heroine’s name while writing this review because I couldn’t remember what it was after spending 2 hours in her head, so safe to say it’s not going to have a lasting impact on me. This is one that I can see appearing on lists of summer “beach reads.” It’s easy to read, has an attractive cover, and I loved the idea behind the book (it brought to mind Christa Lauren’s Unhoneymooners), but it lacks a lot of substance.

I struggled with the pacing. It took too long for her to get to the honeymoon and then so much of what happened on the honeymoon was glossed over. I also felt like there wasn’t enough will they won’t they tension between Annie and Patrick. I don’t care if it’s a romance and I know they’re going to get together, I want to fell that tension and heat and be invested in their relationship. I genuinely didn’t care if they ended up together and I honestly think they both, but especially Annie, would have been better off finding a therapist rather than a relationship. There was also some weird details thrown in for no reason. For example the ethnicity of the wedding planner who is literally only in the first chapter or so was referenced. Also the fact that Annie got her period on the honeymoon was thrown in, but didn’t have any impact on anything else (usually when a period is referenced there is a pregnancy scare or something to make information like that relevant). I struggled with side characters, especially Annie’s family. The younger sister who was supposed to be 13 but acted like she was four. The mom was a narcissist and concerned with appearances to the level she could give Hyacinth Bucket a run for her money.

All that being said, I didn’t hate it and I read the whole thing, but it was just not at the same level as most of the books I read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.