Book Review: Wedlocked by Bonnie Trachtenberg

What it’s about:

On what should be the happiest day of her life, Rebecca Ross is panic-stricken. Rebecca has just wed Craig Jacobs, but she realizes she put more thought into choosing her florist than she did in choosing the man she’s just pledged to love for the rest of her life.

Before Craig, Rebecca, a talented Long Island girl, dreamed of following in her grandmother’s footsteps with an acting career. Unfortunately, she was cut down to size by years of disappointment, and by her first love-a Hollywood director. She returned to Long Island a lost and broken woman, and ended up in the last place she ever wanted to be: her old bedroom at her parents’ house.

But Rebecca’s mother, an overzealous convert to Judaism, has a long-held dream, too: marry off her three daughters to Jewish men. No one is more thrilled when Rebecca meets and marries bon vivant Craig Jacobs, the man who has won over the whole family. Too bad they’re all about to discover that underneath his charismatic shell, this Prince Charming is anything but!

Review:

This is my March read for Loveahappyending magazine and I am new to Bonnie’s work so was looking forward to this and I’d just like to add before I start how much I love the cover of this book! It sums up the entire story in one picture. Wedlocked follows the story of Rebecca, a level-headed, ‘knows what she wants and nothing is going to stop her’ kinda gal and her hilarious account of possessive Jewish mothers, an acting career that isn’t going to plan and her dream marriage turning into a complete nightmare. I did question where this story was going to go at the beginning, we open with a chapter set on Becky’s wedding day, she’s stained her shoes, a baby has made a footprint in her cake and the caterers are serving food which she specifically told them not to. Everything’s going a bit wrong, it’s not the perfect day she had planned and she mutters the statement every bride dreads, ‘I think I’ve made the biggest mistake of my life’. At this point we don’t know the story behind her and her husband but drunk relatives are spilling secrets about him and it’s obvious we have a lot to learn. The story unfolds and after a series of let downs, we’re left with the perfect but unexpected conclusion.

The structure and order of the book threw me a bit at first because after that initial chapter we’re taken right back to when Becky was a child as she explains her family life, love for acting and past relationships. I always say in my reviews that I don’t enjoy it when it feels like the narrative is telling us the story instead of letting us live it for ourselves but this book felt like Becky was sitting right in front of me – telling me her story and it 100% worked and I very much enjoyed being taken back in time to re-live her story with her and find out how she go into this dreadful mess. The first chunk of the story which focuses on her early adult years and trying to find herself as an actress I did feel were a bit slow but once Craig came into the picture – although a great raving lunatic – it definitely picked up pace. I really sympathised with Rebecca. At the beginning she was constantly under her mothers glare and trying to please everyone then once she broke free she had to deal with Craig – her angry, psychotic, lunatic of a husband. She constantly drew the short straw and her life really is like a soap opera. Craig is the complete opposite of your regular Prince Charming and I loved how much of a complete idiot he is. Michael, her sister’s boyfriend, also plays a big part near the end of the story and I absolutely adored his character. You can sense the growing attraction and similarities between Rebecca and him and I very much enjoyed the chapters they spent together. He’s so likeable and officially my new book boyfriend!

This was far from your conventional love story and I loved it. You know I’m not one for hard-core romance and this was the complete opposite. Who needs romance when you’ve got a lying, sneaky husband who punches police officers on your honeymoon? Although it was enjoyable and readable, it did take me quite a while to read considering it wasn’t even 300 pages long. The narrative could have flown a little better in the early chapters and I think some parts were a bit longer than necessary and could have been compressed down into fewer pages but all-in-all Bonnie is an extremely talented writer and Wedlocked really does showcase that talent. It’s witty, funny, unconventional and the perfect change of pace from your typical ‘boy meets girl’ story.

You can find Bonnie and Wedlocked on the following links:

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