Multiple Names, Same Idea

Still enjoying the glories of Spring Break. Delightful. And my plan to spend it reading is progressing, although I have not had quite as much reading time as I had anticipated. But definitely more reading has happened than during the school sessions!

Following the Birth of Venus, I wanted to read another light one. I have long been curious about a particular author. Ok, well, not the auther, per se, because I have read and loved her stuff before. However, those were all published under a different name. I am speaking of the best-selling author Sophie Kinsella, whose Shopaholic Series is among my favorite for go to reads. However, this is not her real name and lately she has been putting out works under her real name, Madeleine Wickham. I was curious if I would see any difference between works under the one name and those under the other. So here is what I have come up with. Stats:
Book: The Wedding Girl
Author: Madeleine Wickham
Publisher: Thomas Dunne
Date: 2009
My start date: 3/21/10
My finish date: 3/22/10

For the most part, if you like the books by Kinsella, such as the Shopaholic series, you will like the books published under her real name. They are pretty similar for the most part, although they seem a little less literarily mature, almost as if they were written before she had the experience of the Shopaholics. Which, I suppose, is certainly possible.

My favorite aspect of this books were the stellar plot twists. For the first half I found the story mildly entertaining, but no more. And then, the plot twists started. With as many books as I read, it is hard to really throw me and I always appreciate when a book succeeds. This one did so not only once, not even twice, but there were at least three great twists that really pulled me in. I loved it.

Another great thing here was the handling of certain deep subjects. This book looks like it should be an airy beach read, and indeed it can serve as one. Yet Wickham manages to work in discussion and debate on a number of heavy subjects, and further, to do so without sacrificing the lightness of the book and turning it into political ranting or some sort of morality book. Be prepared to have serious thoughts about divorce, abortion, immigration, and homosexuality without ever leaving the beachy fun that the book promises. The best of both worlds. You can indeed think and have fun simultaneously.

Finally, the characters here are full and engaging. However, there are a lot of them and the perspective switches frequently, which was hard to keep up with, espeically at first. And while I ended up really liking most of the characters, I thought that the character of Alex could have been left out. He was rather flat and seemed superfluous. Also, there were so many characters that at times I would have to stopped for several seconds and cast about trying to remember which names went with which characters. Maybe there were a few too many? However, the abundance of people added to the fun twists I suppose.

So, that is about it for this one. Now that I know that Wickham's books and just as entertaining as those published under her pen name, perhaps we will see some more on this blog.

In the meantime,
Happy Reading!

Sarah