Sunday, September 16, 2012

Marrying up by Wendy Holden

3 Star

Beautiful but broke student Polly and scheming social climber Alexa may have grown up in the same place, but they couldn't be more different. Polly's just fallen for Max, a handsome country vet. But Alexa can't be bothered with love—any guy with a pedigree will do, mind you, as long as he comes with a title, a mansion, and a family tiara.

Alexa wiggles her way into friendship with Florrie, a clueless aristocrat who could support entire countries with her spare change. Suddenly the grandest doors swing open for Alexa, and a new life is so close she can taste it. Polly could care less about Max's money, but his mysterious habit of disappearing scares her. What's he hiding?


Kathryn - 3 Star

Marrying Up starts off with an archeological dig which was exciting because for some reason I like reading about these things (not actually doing them but reading about them is fine) and we’re quickly introduced to Polly and her love interest Max-their relationship seems likely to work out.

A few chapters in we’re quickly moved on to a different sort of novel all together and though I eventually enjoyed what Marrying Up turned out to be I felt as if the start of the novel didn’t at all match what happened next- and although I suppose the site excavation gave us the introduction to our main character it actually had very little to do with the plot and took quite a lot of narrative space for very little end purpose.

My favourite character was Alexa and certainly not because I liked her- she was mean and self-centered, egocentric and disrespectful but she was funny and not the norm- her sidekick was great and they added the uniquely funny (if sometimes a little depressing) quality to the story. 

All in all I just felt like the story was a bit disjointed, all the elements were there to create a fantastic romantic comedy (with a fairy tale castle thrown in for good measure) but it was missing some of the flow to make all the characters connect and I really did find some of the situations so unrealistic that I couldn’t match it with the down to earth (literally) start. 

Marrying Up was fun though and I’ve enjoyed Holden’s novels in the past so I would certainly pick another up in the future- but now I would be prepared for a different type of read. 

Thank you to Sourcebooks for our review copy! All opinions are our own.

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