( 6 reviews )
-
Posted: Aug 2 2007
I am really enjoying the Madeline Bean series, and I absolutely love the characters. They are real and likeable. The mysteries are not easy to figure out in this series, and this book is no exception. Maddie is trying to help a very famous marriage counsellor arrange a wedding for a happy young couple. When the marriage counsellor turns up dead at the reception, Maddie knows she's got to find out what happened. She becomes involved with two new men, and the old one also shows up. Maddie has more than she can handle. These books are wonderful, unpredictable and light and breezy. I definitely recommend this series.
-
( 2 of 2 found this review helpful ) Posted: Sep 12 2005
Madeline Bean is in a holding pattern. Her new event planning company should be swamped with business after the triumphant papal breakfast in "Immaculate Reception", but instead is in legal limbo. It seems the buy-out of her old catering business at the end of the first book (Sympathy for the Devil) included a non-compete clause; the fact that Madeline and her partners haven't been cooking is immaterial to the new owners. But Madeline isn't getting much time to stew over the injustice of the situation. Vivian Duncan, THE wedding planner in LA, has decided that Madeline should buy her business. That Madeline isn't interested is inconceivable the domineering Ms. Duncan. Madeline is initially railroaded into helping with a nervous couple, and then invited to the wedding, where the unthinkable happens. A murder certianly isn't in any bride's plan for their wedding day. Madeline is soon trying to pick up the pieces, and to solve the mystery herself. Once again, Ms. Farmer delivers an engaging tale. Madeline is a bit more introspective in this book, which helps to explain some of her actions. The plot moves along briskly, the style is clean and conversational, and the book retains the humor that characterized the first installments of the series. The book felt less "dated" than the previous books, owing I think to fewer cameo appearances from known celebreties, although this book very much retains a strong sense of Hollywood. The mystery was engaging, and while the setting for the climax was a bit cliched, I have the sense that this was an intentional nod on Ms. Farmer's part to tradition. Despite the familiarity, the scene was well handled and even funny. While it was possible to solve the mystery before the end of the book, I think a reader would have to be quite alert, or at least quite suspicious, to do so. Food and cooking continues to be almost another character in this book, and the descriptions made my mouth water. So why only 4 stars? I'd give it 4 and 1/2 if that were an option; I subtracted 1/2 star because I concur with previous reviewers that the end of the book was a bit too tangled compared to the rest of the book.
-
( 1 of 1 found this review helpful ) Posted: Apr 29 2005
I think this catches me up on all the prior Madeline Bean novels by Jerrilyn Farmer... Killer Wedding, the 3rd in the series. Once again, a fun read but rather hard to follow towards the end... In this installment, Bean's new event business is on hold due to a lawsuit over a non-competing clause from the company that bought their old enterprise. While she's marking time waiting for that to clear, a legendary wedding planner in the city decides that she wants Bean to buy her out and take over. Only problem is, Bean doesn't want to do that. She gets roped into "helping out" on one wedding for the planner, and as usual a dead body shows up at the exclusive wedding... that of the wedding planner. To top it off, the groom has completely disappeared and no one knows where he's at. There's a number of people who could easily be suspects, as the planner wasn't well liked. Bean decides to help figure out who dun it, just so she can close this chapter of her life and make sure she doesn't end up with the planning business (or get killed over it). Like the rest of her books, Farmer writes a great story. I really enjoy the characters and dialogue, as well as the pacing of the action. This one was a little more difficult to follow towards the end, as there were some character interactions that weren't obvious at the start and didn't seem to fit together very well at the end. Still well worth reading, however... a great deal of fun.
