Portia's books never fail to amuse! In this story, we have a woman who is unexpectedly engaged, with a short time to plan the wedding. As she travels to the location and begins that process, her eyes open to many truths around her...which provides both hijinks and drama. The plot is fairly obvious, but entertaining nonetheless.

This is a really funny lovely read. Set between London and Cornwall . It’s about falling in and out of love. An unexpected proposal, a joint wedding, a very interesting sister in law, a beautiful wedding setting, a very funny wedding competition and a great ending. Loved it. You can also throw on great family bonding.

Oh my word Portia, I love your stories and this superb telling was no exception, another stunner exploring human nature at it's finest, Olivia and Hugo's meeting was wonderful and Liv's family are awesome, add to that the stunning Cornish coast and it's a winner

⊰ 3,25 stars

Happy publication day!

First of all, I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Better Off Wed tells the story of Olivia, who is a comedian. Olivia’s boyfriend of 9 months, Teddy, proposes to her out of the blue and, even though she thinks it is very sudden, says yes. There is a tradition in Olivia’s family to marry in the gorgeous barn her grandfather built at the Cornish coast. There is however a big problem, there is only one more date available for the venue and it is only a few weeks away. During these weeks, Olivia starts to second guess her decision of accepting Teddy’s proposal. Are they marrying for the right reasons? And why is Teddy in such a rush?
When Teddy fails to help with the wedding planning and preparations, Olivia gets help from an unexpected stranger.
Will Olivia go ahead with the wedding, or will she find her future happiness somewhere else?

The plot of this book is quite obvious, but that doesn’t make it any less entertaining. The synopsis pretty much already introduces this other love interest, so I wasn’t that surprised when Olivia and Hugo started to get feelings for one another. I will say that in my opinion, jumping from one relationship into a new one isn’t the best. You mirror behavior from your former partner onto your new partner and they get the heat for something they didn’t cause. I know they mention taking it slow at the end of the book, but it still gives me an itchy feeling.
Something that really made me roll my eyes was the whole “everyone is rich, my parents weren’t rich but somehow now own a pile of money but I am a poor [insert profession]”. Yes, being rich was a character trait for some of the characters. But I never get why everyone but the FMC needs to be rich?

Something that REALLY annoyed me was Olivia being very naïve/dependent of others. Olivia literally sees the best in everyone, which is a good thing, but if I were to overhear my shady to be-SIL talking to my boyfriend about cheating? That would make me question things, even if he tells me it’s about my to be-SIL. Also, Teddy allowing his mother to let his ex tag along to whatever they are doing is gross, mayor red flag and douchebag behavior.
Besides being naïve, Olivia also depends on literally all of the people in her life to make a decision for her. There are quite a few times where it literally says people “jump to her defense”. ALSO: Oh, I am going to have a duo-wedding with my brother and his girlfriend? I should invite this random guy I just met to outweigh their vote. GIRL NO. It’s your wedding too, you’re allowed an opinion without bringing some dude that isn’t even in the wedding! The whole damsel in distress things was a bit much at times.
Hugo is… Hugo? I don’t particularly have something to say about him. He’s hot, kind, funny. What more can a person ask for? Getting deeper into his backstory was nice, because I felt like the backstory of some of the characters were kind of rushed.
Teddy is a douchebag, deserves nothing but the very worst and his company needs to go bankrupt. Is it obvious how much hate I harbor for the cheating, lying and gaslighting boyfriends in the world?

So I have quite a few irks about this book, mainly the FMC but oh well. This was still quite entertaining to read. This book stays true to it’s trope, which is something I can appreciate. I would have loved to see some more character development from Olivia as well as other characters.

Another one I could not put down and devoured in one sitting. I absolutely recommend this book. Be ready for an afternoon or evening of completely neglecting any chores as this one will have you hooked within the first chapter. I live for books that leave me speechless and this book did just that. I actually feel quite sorry for the next book!

On the whole, this is a solid and enjoyable rom com romance, albeit highly predictable. Some of the characters are a little annoying: Teddy is a selfish pillock, Eden is the worst kind of bridezilla and Olivia is a doormat. I tend to prefer a strong, feisty female protagonist over characters like Olivia, who often make me feel frustrated on their behalf, so this story had me wishing she would clap back at Teddy and Eden in the worst way. Annoying character traits aside, it is fair to say that after absolutely loving the Meet Cute Method (along with other books by this Author), I have been a little underwhelmed by Better off Wed. Chapter 1 is a real attention grabber, perhaps setting your expectations too high for what is to come - If the rest of the book had been as excellent as chapter 1, this would have been a five star read. Unfortunately, the humour petered out after the strong start, although it is still a worthy read for those looking for a light-hearted, fluffy romance, with a side of humour this summer.

Many thanks to NetGallery and Boldwood Books for allowing me to get a copy of the book - it's out on April 10, 2023 and if you are preparing your own wedding, this story may well amuse you this summer.

This is officially the 12th book of Portia MacIntosh’s that I’ve read, so I feel like that obviously shows how much I enjoy her writing. While this wasn’t my favourite story she’s written, I am so obsessed with both the love interest and Olivia’s parents, and I love a book with amazing characters.

There were a couple reasons why I didn’t rate this a full 5/5, but I do think they are more so related to my personal preferences and not something others may agree with.
I felt like there was a lot of judgment about the timeline of Olivia & Teddy’s relationship. I personally got engaged faster than they did, and all the comments in the book about it only having been 9 months, they had only been together for under a year, etc and being more about a socially accepted amount of time compared to what might be right for the couple just rubbed me the wrong way. I do feel like later in the book it focused more on their relationship specifically and why it may not be the right choice, and not just in general, but that was my thought when I was first getting into the book.

Having read a dozen of Portia MacIntosh’s books, I know that she often writes stories where it’s not always totally clear right away who the love interest is going to be. Sometimes it takes time for him to be introduced, or maybe there’s a couple interesting options. It can be fun and intriguing, and it’s interesting to see if a good connection can still be built between the main character and the love interest in a shorter period of time. I don’t personally love stories that have more of the trope where the main character has a partner (who is not the love interest) for the majority of the story, and going in I feel like the summary did make it clear that that was the case here. However with saying that, I feel like the connection built with the main characters was so strong, and I was totally on board with it.

I appreciate that Teddy was never really shown as a villain, just not Olivia’s best fit. He made bad choices, and his motivations were questionable, and I’m sure other readers will think differently than I do about him. But I liked that Teddy and Olivia had an open and honest conversation about their thoughts on marriage, and goals in life.

The ending felt super realistic to me. I would have loved an epilogue maybe a couple years later, but I do think it was a satisfying ending to the story and very fitting for Olivia.

Random side note before I wrap this review up, I love that so many of Portia’s books have a random reference to Michael Bublé (or in the case of My Great Ex-Scape, a lot of references), so of course I enjoyed seeing that included in this story too.

This was yet another enjoyable read by this author. I definitely would recommend it. I thought that it was a unique story, and was one that I didn’t want to put down.

Thank you to Boldwood Books & NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book!