The Spanish Wedding Disaster
by Karen King

A reasonably well written book. Steve calls a secret meeting with Maddies best friends having decided to arrange a secret proposal & wedding after she gives him an ultimatum as he never does any organising or effort to do anything in there relationship and she fed up with his attitude in general. So begins the journey to create a secret Spanish wedding.

A fun beach read great setting a little drama as you can imagine . Follow the journey they have with the task and the laughs and bumps along the way. 3.5/5

There was a good happy ending to this novel, which I really liked. I wasn't too sure about the not telling your best friend about organising their wedding, but that's likely just me. The writing and characters are just as great as I've come to expect from Karen. Next please.

Thank you NetGalley and publishers for the Arc for this novel. I really enjoyed it! I felt as though I was on a Spanish holiday myself, which was nice after the stress of wedding planning. I really liked the characters. Now I just need to stop googling trips to Spain…

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book. I have chosen to write this honest review voluntarily and it reflects my personal opinion.
The plot is unusual and the secrecy around the wedding plans provides opportunities for problems and disasters along the way. However, this is a feel-good romcom so a disaster never actually happens and the Mills and Boon style of novel means that the story meanders towards the expected outcome.
I thought Steve's character was thoughtless and selfish, piling all the work and organisation of 'his' surprise on Sophie, Maddie and Josh and Sophie seemed to be living in cuckoo - land about her relationship with Glenn. There were discrepancies scattered throughout the book and peculiar subplots that seemed meaningless, unimportant or unexplained (such as Maddie not remembering her father's accident but blaming him for not seeking help - if she didn't remember the accident how she did she know he didn't try to find help and support?). There were also quite a few mistakes in punctuation and grammar in my ARC, although I appreciate that these, together with the discrepancies, may have been resolved by the time the book was published.
This is the second book I have read by this author and I think this novel is typical of her style and genre. It is a pleasant, easy read and I am sure many readers will enjoy it more than I did because I prefer more depth to a story.

I struggled to get into this book because i found the entire idea very manipulative. How could best friends go behind the back of someone they cared about and organise a wedding she may not even want, talk about emptional manipulation. I had to separate my feelings about it to read it, but i cant say i did overly so.

Im glad it had a happy ending, but even so.

Karen King’s The Spanish Wedding Disaster is a delicious romantic treat sure to brighten up every reader’s summer!

When Sophie and Maddie are summoned to a top secret meeting by their best friend Kate’s partner and told that he’s planning to whisk her away to a secret wedding in Gibraltar and needs their help, it becomes abundantly clear that while florist Sophie is in her element, Maddie is definitely not. Sophie has made a career out of romance and relationships while Maddie prefers to give affairs of the heart a very wide berth. Planning a wedding in Spain is the very last thing Maddie wants to be doing, but as there is simply nothing in this world that she won’t do for her best friend, she decides to grin and bear it – and hopes not to be constantly assailed by her own memories of Andalucía and the people whom she had lost touch with.

Romantic Sophie is having the time of her life planning Kate’s surprise wedding. Confetti, tulle, wedding cakes and bridal gowns make Sophie’s heart sing – and the optimistic florist is hoping that Kate’s boyfriend’s romantic gesture will be the kick up the bum her own partner needs to get down on one knee and propose. Sophie is very happy with her relationship and with her man – even though lately she has found herself getting rather distracted by Kate’s gorgeous brother in law to be…

Kate has got no idea what is going on, but as the whole gang lands in Spain, it quickly transpires that it won’t be just the bride who’s in for a surprise!

A fun romance sprinkled with plenty of wit, humour and emotion, Karen King’s The Spanish Wedding Disaster is just the tonic we need this summer. A heartwarming, feel-good and compulsively readable tale about friendship, life’s unexpected surprises and Cupid’s arrow striking when you least expect it, The Spanish Wedding Disaster is a gorgeous romantic escape that I couldn’t get enough of.

Karen King never fails to deliver contemporary romantic stories that leave readers with a massive grin on their faces and she has come up trumps yet again with her latest novel, The Spanish Wedding Disaster.

Planning a surprise wedding can come with a whole suitcase full of pitfalls and potential disasters. Whilst hoping to be extremely romantic, the wedding is in danger of unravelling before they can say I do.
You can just imagine more and more problems cropping up and how cheated you might feel if someone else is in charge of organising the most memorable day in most people's lives. The brides friends are on hand to make sure that her wishes will be considered and that she gets the day she dreams of- but the secrecy concerning all the plans come with their own set of potential problems.
I really enjoyed reading this one.

Thank you to Netgalley for a pre publication copy. In return for an honest review #thespanishweddingdisaster #netgalley

Kate and Steve are loved up but she is sick of making all the decisions in their relationship! So she tells him and suddenly he decides he is going to plan a secret engagement and wedding but cannot do that without his brother and Kate's best friends. Are secret weddings ever a good thing?

I previously read another Karen King book called "Single all the way" and absolutely loved it so knew I wanted to read another by her when it was available.

The book is a lighthearted summer read. A novel you'd bring our on the beach and don't really need to concentrate for.
The concept of the story is great and particularly in the last quarter it provides many laughs and thoughts urging Sophie and Josh to get together.

However I found the book to have very little emotion involved in it until the last quarter if not later! I felt there was not enough detail which did prevent you forming bonds with some of the characters early on eg Steve. There are many opportunities for tears to be made and laughs to be had such as when Glen and Sophie split up. Instead we were told these things were happening but no suspense or emotion was provoked and suddenly you'd move on in the story. Almost like the characters had forgotten this big life event had happened.

Furthermore some parts of the story you were waiting for more. Particularly Josh and Sophie's relationship. This really could have been built up throughout the whole novel and it would have provided a lovely ending, like it did, alongside the success of the wedding. Instead it was only hinted at throughout the book and again we were told about it but no emotion felt, these scenarios could have done with being expanded to give a more romantic approach and help to provide understanding to each character

Unfortunately I was disappointed in this novel.

A good summer read, full of good fully-formed characters. However, I just couldn’t get myself to believe in the storyline, it just felt far-fetched and contrived. Perhaps that’s just me, as a bit of a control-freak myself I could never imagine anyone handing over the planning of a wedding to the unimaginative, unromantic groom-to-be in this story.
I was expecting a disaster, as heralded by the title, however, although there were some problems encountered all potential disasters are rectified. I found the run up to the trip away, which takes up a substantial chunk of the book, a bit monotonous and have to admit to skipping some pages here & there. However, when eventually in Spain I did enjoy it more as more seemed to happen.
A little unbelievable and rather predictable, but it is fiction so on the whole a decent summer read.

I really enjoyed this book and seeing where it ended up made me laugh. The characters are all very different, and planning the surprise wedding is an absolute challenge. Having been involved in planning a wedding recently, I both cringed and cheered in equal measure in what the friends and family were doing for Kate.

Let alone the side story of what Sophie, Josh and Maddie were doing with their own lives, and what they had to put down to plan the wedding of the year!

I would highly recommend this book!

Cute, fun, lighthearted read about friends helping to plan a surprise wedding and all the mishaps that ensue. Ms. King writes unique and interesting characters and I enjoyed their banter and interactions. Although the focus is on Steve and Kate's wedding, they're not the only couple who find a happily ever after. A good read overall!

I would firstly just like to give a big thank you to Rachel’s Random Resources, NetGalley and Boldwood Books who very kindly forwarded me an arc copy of this book, for my Kindle, in return for my honest review.

This book is a perfect holiday beach read, full of Summer sun and set in glorious Spain - also a perfect book for armchair travelling!
Kate’s boyfriend, Steve, is trying to be full-on romantic and not only propose to her but to plan the whole wedding too and all while they are on holiday in Spain.
He quickly enlists the help of his brother and Kate’s two best friends to help organise everything and so begins the constant will-they-won’t-they scenario, which I absolutely loved!!
The storyline is written really well and it was romantic and funny and I really enjoyed it…….

This was amazing book I loved the characters loved the chemistry between them all. A perfect beach read and full of fun and humour you enjoy. I smiled quite a bit in this story I nice fluffy read I enjoyed.

Everyone realises that a surprise wedding that needs to be organised has the opportunity to go wrong. When two friends get asked to help their friend’s boyfriend organise their wedding it sounds like disaster is around the corner. With the help from the groom to be’s brother they set about planning the event of the year with only weeks to sort it out. However with romance causing issues in other areas, will they pull it off? A great novel and one with aspects of tension but you need to read to the end to know Will it be love or hate?

Even though I freak out at the mere idea of a surprise wedding myself, I admit that this should be a great core story. It envisages complications, awkward moments, funny twists, and the result is either utmost happiness or total disaster.

Unfortunately, there were no real disasters here, and apart from a few small bumps in the road, the wedding planning went quite smoothly. The book felt like running through the story, without going into details or digging deep. Everything clicked, there were no real issues to solve, and this made the story predictable.

A pleasant read for a weekend at the beach.

Thank you NetGalley and Headline for an Advance Review Copy.

It sounds quite romantic to have your wedding planned as a total surprise by your best friends. However, when your boyfriend hasn't even proposed yet, it could end in total disaster.
I loved the interaction between the friends and the secrets they are forced to keep. The reader is really sucked into the lives of Kate, Maddie and Sophie and the Spanish/Gibraltar setting later is the book is an added bonus.
This book is a real summer treat and sure to bring out the romantic side of anyone.

Steve is organising a surprise wedding for him and his girlfriend Kate. He enlists his brother Josh and Kate's best friends Sophie and Maddie to help him plan it, but will everything back fire on him.
As they all spend time together will opposites attract for Sophie and Josh?
I like how the story is told from different perspectives.

Anyone who is a fan of the TV show, Don’t Tell The Bride, is going to have some idea why the premise behind this book was appealing to me and sounded like it would make an entertaining plot. This book takes the premise a step further, however, as in this case the bride doesn’t know there is going to be a wedding at all; in fact the couple involved aren’t even engaged. Normally staid and predictable Steve, responding to a plea from his girlfriend Kate to do something romantic, goes from zero to sixty by deciding to arrange a surprise wedding for Kate in Spain before he has even proposed. What could possibly go wrong?

All of the trials and tribulations of trying to arrange a wedding in secret emerge in the book, as Steve tries to arrange venue, flowers, flights, guests, reception, bridesmaids, and even the bride’s dress, without her knowing anything about it. He ropes in Kate’s two best friends, romantic Sophie and footloose Maddie, as well as his brother to help him out and they all concoct a complex plan to pretend Sophie is planning a wedding to her boyfriend, Glenn, as a ruse to sound Kate out on her wedding dreams. Shame Glenn isn’t too happy with the situation. At the same time, in seems relations may be developing between the best man and one of the bridesmaids…

This book is full of great ideas, great characters and romantic tension. I really loved the fact that Karen made it unclear from the beginning exactly what romantic relationship we were supposed to be rooting for in this book, which is a refreshing spin on the average romcom plot, and she handles the whole scenario with consummate skill, milking the interesting premise for all of its comedic and uncomfortable potential. The book lived up to all of my hopes and expectations and entertained me from start to finish. This would make the perfect sun lounger read to accompany you on your summer holiday and you should definitely buy it in preparation for jetting off.

Karen King is in my all-time top twenty of authors, and once again has written an excellent book. I love her books and the characters that appear appear in them. This one was no exception.

When Steve decides to arrange a secret wedding for his girlfriend Kate, he enlists the help of his brother and her two best friends… With covert meetings and secret messages, what could possibly go wrong, especially when he still has to propose to the woman he loves?

Written from the points of view of Josh, Steve’s brother and friends, Sophie and Maddie, it’s fun and enlightening as they work together to create the perfect arrangements in Spain. As they all collaborate together, it highlights many issues overlooked as they realise Steve’s idea isn’t as easy to pull-off as they thought. Therefore, I laughed out loud at the quick thinking needed to avoid Kate’s suspicions. However, they do manage to get everything arranged just in time…

I enjoyed the banter and found the whole narrative a delightful blend of all things to do with a wedding, the interaction of the characters and drooling over the fabulous itinerary for the Spanish adventure. The author has written a carefully crafted novel where she has carefully considered the responses to Steve’s outrageous idea; in particular Kate’s. Everyone connected to the surprise doesn’t fully agree with it, so it’s interesting how someone else’s plans spill over into the lives of those trying to make a dream come true. The overall atmosphere created is romantic, yet there is an overall stronger message about the power of friendship.

To sum up, this is the second book I have read by Ms King and I’m looking forward to reading many more in the future.

***arc generously received courtesy of Headline Accent via NetGalley***