Review: 'The One with the Engagement Party' by Erin Lawless (2016)

For fans of romantic comedies like Bridesmaids and Four Weddings & a Funeral, and bestselling authors Mhairi McFarlane and Jenny Oliver, this is a hilarious new romantic comedy series of four novellas about one bride and her four best friends.
Nora Dervan is getting married... but her four bridesmaids are more full of secrets than champagne.
Bea has barely gotten past the fact that her two best friends are seeing each other, and now they’re engaged, and Cleo is rather distracted by the hot new colleague she absolutely, definitely must not sleep with. Daisy is dreading the singles’ table, whilst Sarah’s own marriage hasn’t turned out to be all she hoped it would be...
I love romantic comedies, both in book and film format. There's nothing like a rom-com to make you feel better after a crappy week and I can never get enough of a good dose of laughs and romance. So, when I read the blurb for Erin Lawless' new series, I couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy of the first part, 'The One with the Engagement Party' (anyone else who immediately thinks of 'Friends' when hearing this title?!). I read my first Erin Lawless novel a few weeks ago, 'Somewhere Only We Know', and really liked it (click here to read my review), so I was really quite excited to check out this new Harper Impulse series!
Nora Dervan is over the moon when her boyfriend Harry asks her to marry him and she can't wait to start planning her wedding with the help of her four friends and bridesmaids Sarah, Bea, Cleo and Daisy. First on their list is the engagement party, but it quickly turns out that all four bridesmaids have their own issues to deal with next to Nora's big wedding, so it's going to be quite an interesting few months for all of them.
Erin Lawless is treating us to a new romantic comedy series of four novellas about bride Nora and her four best friends Daisy, Cleo, Sarah and Bea, with 'The One with the Engagement Party' as the first part. In this novella the reader is introduced to the five main characters and what is going on in their lives, setting the scene for what is yet to come. Even though I felt there was quite a lot of information and different names to take in within just roughly 80 pages (I had to go back several times to double check something and make sure I knew who was who), I did really enjoy this read and am already looking forward to the second instalment of the series.
I was introduced to Erin Lawless' writing several weeks ago when I read her novel 'Somewhere Only We Know' and I really like her fun and well-paced writing style which is filled with dialogue. I also really liked the extra references to real wedding stories that were added at the start of some chapters; this was definitely a nice extra touch. Overall, I think 'The One with the Engagement Party' is a wonderful start to this new novella series by Erin Lawless and I already can't wait for the second part, 'The One with the Wedding Dress', which will be released in August!

Rating:9/10

  For more information about this book: Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Goodreads

Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a review copy in exchange for an honest review.