I have mixed views about The Wedding Night. I found it slow to start, and then when I read chapter six (Lizzie) the story seemed to pick up with a bang. There were some moments in the book where I felt the plot had taken some twists and where I felt compelled to read on. The story is good - especially from Lizzie's point of view. I won't give away any spoilers but there was potential for this story to feel tense and scary, but it seemed to fizzle out in places. The main strength of the book for me was that I wanted to keep reading until the end to find out what happened. However there was something missing for me which I think was the lack of connection I felt to the characters. I didn't feel like I cared enough about their stories and the characters didn't feel distinct enough to have their own chapters. There was also a lot of backstory that I found I skipped over. So overall, great in places, but not enough for me to feel gripped and immersed as I want to with a thriller. I very much enjoyed the writer's debut The New Girl, but didn't enjoy this second novel as much.

A quick and easy read that I found myself picking up after a long day to unwind. The characters are beautifully written and I throughly enjoyed this book.

Thank you to the team at Hodder books for gifting me a copy for review!

Lizzie, Effie & Anna are true best friends for many years, from guy problems to university these ladies always have each other’s back throughout life. This was one of my favourite aspects of the story, the empowering friendship between these girls. Right at the beginning of the novel we discover that Lizzie is going through a difficult time with the end of her engagement. She was going to have a destination wedding abroad, so Lizzie and her close group of 6 friends decide to go on her wedding trip without the groom! All of them wanting to support the no-more bride to-be on a fun trip to an remote Chateau in France.

On what was supposed to be the wedding night at the Chateau, dark secrets of their relationships come to light. The girls find themselves entangled in a web of social media blackmail. The Wedding night exposes the internet's risks in modern society, how virtual blackmail is used against women who are subject to public scorn in attempt to tarnish their image. It is a female empowering read, these ladies show resilience and discover that together they are stronger to fight back

It should have been Dan and Lizzie's wedding - but the bride has cancelled at the last minute with no warning. The party guests, all old friends along with some newer partners, gather together anyway, and secrets and lies slowly come to the surface as they find out hidden secrets and a few buried strengths. An entertaining read, good for a bit of escapism.

Lizzie and Dan call off their French wedding a week before the big day. However, a group of their friends decide to still go on the trip, and persuade the former bride to come along. What is the reason behind the cancellation, and what will the friends learn about themselves and each other in their week away?

I was quite disappointed in this book. I feel thriller is the wrong genre, it's mainly just a very clear description of what happens if people don't talk to each other! I found the text irritatingly wordy in many places, however I actually quite liked the underlying story - I just had to skim past a lot of very unnecessary description to get to it!

An interesting concept, I was looking forward to reading this. Although not unenjoyable I found the story to be fairly predictable, the shocks and reveals of the book were overall quite simple. I found it frustrating in places as the whole premise was based around something that overall was easily avoided, I appreciate it is fiction but there were several elements that just seemed silly and foolish rather than gallant or loyal.

Lizzy and Dan cancel their wedding in France but Lizzy and her friends decide to still go and enjoy the holiday.

I really like the premise of the book but it unfortunately didn't really deliver for me. It wasn't consistent throughout and sometimes became confusing with the multiple viewpoints. It was slow at the beginning but did pick up again with a few good plot twists in it.
Overall it was an enjoyable summer read but not really a thriller for me. The story was more about friendship and love, jealousy, betrayal and blackmail. I would recommend others to try it.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

Character Driven Suspense…
A cancelled wedding has more repercussions than were possibly imagined in this entertaining, character driven suspense. Credible, well observed and well drawn characters together with nicely crafted twists and turns add well to the engaging storyline. A satisfying piece of Summer escapism.

This was a clever story, none of the characters are what they seem and the book unfolds in a completely unexpected way. Perfect beach read.

Why would a future bride calling off her wedding at the last minute would want to go ahead anyway and decide to spend some relaxing times with her friends on the property in Southern France where the ceremony was supposed to be taking place? Am I missing something? Wouldn't Ibiza, Mallorca or Marbella be more appropriate and much better places for the disappointed bride to go drown her sorrows and forget about her failed attempt at marriage??
The wedding night is an uneven novel with too many secrets, too many lies & too many unsavory voices that bored me stiff. Too many childish & insipid young women threatening to go hysterical at any moment while sharpening their manipulative skills & spreading their superficial and utterly boring emotional idiocies all over the landscape, a plot that made me yawn and struggle to stay awake and a denouement that is no great shakes, really nothing to write home about, more ridiculous than funny or even scary. Yes, Lizzie and her little friends managed to royally annoy the hell out of me from the first page and honestly it would have been so much better if a deranged killer would have had the decency to spiced up that tedious novel by bumping all of them slowly but surely out of they irrelevant miseries and all over the castle. At least I would have stay awake.
Sorry but unfortunately this one wasn't for me.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for this ARC

Lizzie and Dan had the perfect wedding planned in France; however, just before the big day, they inexplicably cancel it via email. Lizzie's uni friends convince her to still go and stay at their all expenses paid venue for a holiday. Once they arrive, things are not as they should be: somebody is causing trouble. This twisty novel will have you asking plenty of questions... Why did Lizzie cancel the wedding? What really happened on the Wedding Night? Who is leaving messages?

This book is told from multiple perspectives, although in the third person, which gives us an insight into each character's strengths, weaknesses and feelings about the others. I really enjoyed slowly learning more about each character; particularly, I found Effie to be the most relatable, with deep self esteem issues. Things are kept purposefully mysterious about Lizzie, creating suspense and a few red herrings. This novel is very character driven, which I loved, although at times it felt less thriller-y due to this.

The ending was unique and something I didn't see coming, which is always a major plus! However, it was a little infuriating that the whole thing could've been avoided SO easily if people just... spoke to each other about things. I get it does happen sometimes but it felt like the resolution realistically would've been much simpler.

On the whole, I enjoyed this book because of the character driven plot and great twist. It took me a little longer than usual to read this as it takes a while to get gripping, but it is worth getting through the beginning!

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. Sadly I felt it was a bit of a let-down. It was slow and didn’t really pull me in. I found the characters a bit under developed and indistinguishable. I persevered to the end but probably won’t remember the book.

Lizzie and Dan call off their wedding due to take place in a secluded house in France. The guests are understandably disappointed but decide to go anyway and persuade Lizzie to come too. What changed Lizzie’s mind about the marriage? Only time will tell.

I really like the premise of the book but unfortunately the execution falls somewhat short. It’s long winded in places and not a lot happens. When it does it’s not actually particularly scary with the threats making you feel uneasy rather than tension and fear we should sense. All the assembled characters have either got disappointment in their lives, or are flawed or broken in some way. They aren’t easy to make a connection to and so you don’t especially invest in the storyline. The format of the book, which is from several perspectives with some sudden backtracking, is confusing at times and is disjointed.

On the positive side there are a few good plot twists and there are some entertaining events particularly in the first half, such as one morning after a bacchanalian mess of an evening there are a few headaches in more ways than one. There are some good themes such as friendship and love, jealousy, betrayal and blackmail. The pace is slow but in some parts of the book that does actually suits the unfolding narrative. Unfortunately the second half is not as strong as the first and the ending feels too neat as it doesn’t altogether help make sense of Lizzie’s decisions nor is it particularly believable.

Overall, it’s an enjoyable read in places but it’s a shame that’s not consistent throughout.

With thanks to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton the the arc in return for an honest review.

The first half was really slow, and confusing because all the characters have the same voice. The story picked up again towards the end and I was more interested in the intrigue. Lizzy and Dan cancel their wedding in France but their group of friends (+Lizzy) decide to still go and enjoy their holiday. Weird things start to happen, and the plot twist is quite good. A light summer book, not really a thriller.

I was really looking forward to this book but I was disappointed, not what I would call a thriller read it was just lacking something for me and never really got going.

Thank you to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton Publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

Nice story. I read it over a long weekend. Few twists and turns in the story and a few Characters that were both likeable and annoying kept me reading.
Highly recommended.

I was intrigued by the description of this book. Lizzie has called off her wedding to Dan suddenly but she and her friends still intend to take the trip to France to enjoy the wedding venue.

I was really hoping for much more of a story but this thriller lacked any excitement whatsoever. When the twist was revealed I wasn’t even very surprised.

A real disappointment, with so much unnecessary plot that just took interest away from the main story.

This is advertised as a thriller but except for a few suspenseful scenes, it just doesn’t fit this genre. I found this hard to get through as little happens and the writing lacks pace. A shame, as an interesting premise.

Thanks to NetGalley for my review copy.

Lizzie has called off her wedding - at a French chateau - to Dan at the last minute, without explaining why. Because everything’s booked and paid for, Lizzie and her friends - along with erstwhile best man Ben - decide to go anyway, treating it as a much needed holiday. But someone, it appears, has a different agenda...

We see events through the eyes of the three main women characters - Lizzie and her old friends Anna and Effie - as events unfold and more is gradually revealed about Lizzie’s reasons for cancelling her wedding.

I really liked Harriet Walker’s first novel, The New Girl. I’m not sure why The Wedding Night didn’t grab me quite as much - it took me a long time to get into the story, although I did enjoy it much more towards the end. Perhaps it was just a reflection of the mood I was in, because it’s undoubtedly well written.

It felt quite slow moving and as I said, it did take me a while to get into. The men all have names like Ben and Dan and Steve and James (honourable exception: Bertie) and I really struggled for quite a while to remember which was which, which probably didn’t help.

The end, though, was satisfying and even uplifting, and I very much enjoyed how this was done. Overall a good read with some valuable things to say about friendship and where true empowerment lies.