Somehow I jumped from Book 1 to Book 5 in Jenny Colgan’s Mure series. Yeah, just call me precocious. I’ll probably go back and read Books 2-4, although I have a pretty good idea of what’s happening with the characters. đ
An Island Wedding
(Mure Book 5)
Jenny Colgan
June 21, 2022
Avon
Blurb: On the little Scottish island of Mureâhalfway between Scotland and NorwayâFlora MacKenzie and her fiancĂ© Joel are planning the smallest of âsweetheart weddings,â a high summer celebration surrounded only by those very dearest to them.
Not everyone on the island is happy about being excluded, though. The temperature rises even further when beautiful Olivia MacDonaldâwho left Mure ten years ago for bigger and brighter thingsâreturns with a wedding planner in tow. Her fiancĂ© has oodles of family money, and Olivia is determined to throw the biggest, most extravagant, most Instagrammable wedding possible. And she wants to do it at Floraâs hotel, the same weekend as Floraâs carefully planned micro-wedding.
As the summer solstice approaches, can Flora handle everyone elseâs Happy Every Aftersâand still get her own?Â
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Flora and Joel are finally getting married in Jenny Colgan’s An Island Wedding, but, of course, events cannot proceed smoothly. First Joel suggests that they have a small wedding with just the people they love (and who love them). Flora agrees, but then things start getting out of hand because people she’s known all of her life expect to be invited, some even invite themselves, which makes Flora realize that she really wants all of her friends at her wedding, that she wants a traditional Scottish party of a wedding. Contributing to the upheaval is the arrival of Olivia, the island’s most beautiful daughter who wants to have her wedding on the island at the same time Flora is having hers. Madness and mayhem, both, erupt.
Owing to the fact that An Island Wedding is the fifth book in the series, there is quite a substantial list of characters, some who’ve popped up since the first and only book I’d read in the series up until this one. So, no, this is not a standalone and I certainly wouldn’t suggest reading this one without reading the others first.
While An Island Wedding sometimes verges on the fun fantastical as Olivia’s wedding planner Jacinth creates a hen party to end all hen parties (bachelorette party for you Americans…or is that us Americans? shrug), the novel also weaves in magic with Flora communicating with whales as well as the bittersweet relationship between teacher Lorna and refugee doctor Saif, which almost had me sobbing, and you know that doesn’t happen often. There is a little something here for everyone.
Sometimes Colgan’s writing can be a bit talky and take some getting used to if you’ve never read her before and there were words my Kindle just couldn’t provide a definition for but I take that as local color and mean to Google later but will probably forget.
All in all an entertaining and satisfying read about a magical island and its inhabitants. Now I just need to find the books I’ve missed so I can fill in the blanks.
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
