Day: August 18, 2022

My Big Fake Wedding by Jessica Hatch is a rom com that has great bones but suffers from having a fairly unlikeable main character. That makes it difficult for the reader to get behind Bea in her quest. However, there are some good things to mention as well.

Let’s start with the good.

I liked the premise. Who hasn’t gotten caught up in a “dream wedding” scenario, thinking about the future with the person they think could be “the one?” And who hasn’t suffered when they found out that the person most definitely was NOT the one?

It just so happens that Bea goes through this cycle in spectacular fashion, because she actually wins that dream wedding scenario. But has no potential groom in her life. So, she does what any logical woman would do, right?

No, she doesn’t say no to the wedding so that some other person who may actually HAVE a fiancé could benefit. She keeps it and decides to find a fiancé. That does resolve itself, but I’m not going to say how.

In writing this review, I realize that this is why I had a hard time with Bea. Although the plot line could be great, Bea makes it seem like a selfish choice. Again, making it difficult to get behind her decisions.

I don’t know if the author intended it, but I got a very “Bridget Jones’ Diary” from the story. No spoilers, but in the quest to find who she thinks is the perfect partner, she overlooks the person right in front of her who is, in fact, her better match.

The root of everything that makes this less successful than it should be is that the reader doesn’t get much opportunity to see interactions between Bea and her “rightful partner.” The scenes that do involve them spark, so it is easy to see who she should be with.

Unfortunately, there are far too few of those scenes, which makes the inevitable (you know it’s going to happen) still seem very abrupt. The same goes for the person who Bea picks as her target. He’s tolerant and goes along with her crazy plan…until he doesn’t.

Bea also doesn’t seem to have a lot of regard for the people around her. This is off-putting. I so very much wanted to root for her. But it was hard. The comedy part of the rom com is apparently from Bea trying to make everything happen. Okay.

I know this review sounds like I didn’t like My Big Fake Wedding, which isn’t true. It was fine – I just think it could have been better with a few different choices. Jessica Hatch created some moments that really worked (the to-do lists at the ends of chapters were a nice touch).

But Bea needed to make more of a connection to the pertinent characters. That would have made My Big Fake Wedding a winning rom com.