The Vintage Summer Wedding by Jenny Oliver

A Vera Wang dress, the reception at a sophisticated London venue, and a guest list that reads like a society gossip column are all the ingredients of Anna Whitehall’s perfect wedding that never was…

Spending the summer uncovering hidden treasures in a vintage shop, Anna can still vividly remember both her childhood dreams; the first was that she’d become a Prima Ballerina, and dance on stage resplendent in a jewel-encrusted tutu. The second was that at her wedding she would walk down the aisle wearing a collective-gasp-from-the-congregation dress. 

Years ago Anna pirouetted out of her cosy hometown village in a whirl of ambition…but when both of those fairy-tale dreams came crashing down around her ballet shoes, she and fiancée Seb find themselves back in Nettleton, their wedding and careers postponed indefinitely…

 Don’t they say that you can never go home again? Sometimes they don’t get it right… 

This one summer is showing Anna that your dreams have to grow up with you. And sometimes what you think you wanted is just the opposite of what makes you happy…

I loved the soft, cute cover of The Vintage Summer Wedding and after reading the synopsis it sounded like a light, fun and charming read and having enjoyed one of the author’s previous books before I wanted to give this one a try.

Anna and fiancé Seb have had to return to their childhood village after losing her job and losing a lot of money that she has spent on their wedding which has now been cancelled things are not looking good and she cannot share Seb’s enthusiasm at returning back to where they started.

I really struggled with the beginning of this book and I put that down our main character Anna, she really isn’t a likeable character in fact she was just a spoilt madam and although she has lost her job and had to cancel her wedding I had no sympathy for her at all and I struggled to see what the lovely Seb saw in her.

The second half of this book was when this book come into its own, the supporting characters were great and eventually Anna began to mellow thanks to them. I was surprised at the storyline because I was expecting it to be more wedding related but I did enjoy Anna’s involvement with the dance act and also her work in the little antiques shop especially when she was organising the hoard to find the beautiful garden which was hidden away behind.

This was an enjoyable read once it got going I just wished the main character would have been more likeable. I will still look forward to picking up another book by this author as she has a great style of writing that flows so effortlessly.