Book Review: The Betrothal: Or How I Saved Alan Edwards From 40 Years of Hell by Richard Raley

I was grabbed by the description of this book - "One night, Phineas Farraday is huddled over his keyboard when he receives a phone call from his best friend, Alan Edwards. Alan has spent the last two years doing missionary work in Chile and only just got back to the States. He’s got some great news. Alan’s getting married…in a week…to a girl he’s never met. You’ll be the Best Man, won’t you, buddy?

Phin agrees, but is unsure how this whole betrothal happened. Something smells fishy and he plans to get to the bottom of it, even if it means breaking up the wedding, breaking the heart of the only girl he's liked in years, or the bride breaking one of his bones." I've enjoyed other forays into lad lit and I love a bit of humour.

Narrator Phin, an impoverished writer, is already suspicious of the accelerated wedding plans, but becomes even more so when he arrives at the home of his best buddy's fiancee. She's stunning and her family is loaded, so he figures there has to be something going on. Friend, and lady-killer, Tad is there to help Phin get to the bottom of things and prevent Alan making a nasty mistake. The week up until the wedding is running strictly according to the bride's plan, but the boys still find time (and a little bit of support from the bride's cousin) to try and derail the wedding. By the end it's amazing Phin is still standing, but does he achieve his aim? You'll have to read it if you want to know.

This was a definite laugh out loud book that got plenty of chortles out of me. It is a bit madcap, and the characters are quite exaggerated. Emily is definitely a bit of a bridezilla. I loved some of the characters and hated others as required by the narrator, and enjoyed his sense of humour. There were some romantic sub-plots for additional interest and amusement, and plenty of references to the boys' previous escapades to set up the dynamics of the three men. It's not a complicated plot, which leaves the reader free to enjoy (or cringe) at the ride.

My one complaint was all the footnotes. I don't have a problem with footnotes per se but on the kindle and when there are nigh on 300 of them I nearly got RSI flicking backwards and forwards (and if you have to operate the 5 way controller you don't have a hand free for your cuppa or chocolate) If this had been a paperback with them at the bottom of each page they would have been fine but I wish the author had found another way to include them on the kindle. Had it not been for my footnote gripe and a sprinkling of typos this would have been a 5* book.

Format: Kindle, review copy
My Rating: 4*