A Very French Wedding by Maeve Haran: Full of gentle humour, romance, friendship and new beginnings - book review -

Continental getaways are teetering precariously this summer so head off to a magical destination courtesy of Maeve Haran, author of a string of warm and witty novels including Having It All, the 1992 bestseller which famously captured the dilemma of the working mother.

Haran, a former television producer and mother of three grown-up children, brings to her fabulous fiction all the drama of her career, the wisdom of her years and the human insight from raising a brood of youngsters, and she truly does have fun in the sun in this glorious celebration of women, friendship and the endless delights of France

Steph, Jo and Meredith have been friends since school. Their lives have all taken very different paths across the years, but when high-flying businesswoman Meredith buys a romantic château in an idyllic village in the Dordogne she finds she can’t run it alone… so who better to enlist for help than her two old friends?

Together they hope to bring the château back to life and create the most romantic wedding venue in France. And it seems that the nearby village of Bratenac has much more to offer than sun, wine and delicious French food when a handsome chef and his equally charming son, a vigneron from New Zealand, not to mention the local ladies’ luncheon club and a British bulldog named Nelly, all join the party.

Friends and lovers, old and new, come together and fall apart in deepest France, culminating in a very special château wedding.

If you’re feeling starved of sunshine, French cuisine, and maybe even a little romance this summer, A Very French Wedding is guaranteed to sweep you away to lush countryside, meandering rivers, and a magnificent château which only needs Sleeping Beauty waving from the battlements to make it a dream come true.

And Haran is certainly on her best form in this sunshine-filled odyssey, a perfect fit for discerning women who like their entertainment to come with a charismatic cast, a seductive backdrop and a storyline full of gentle humour, romance, friendship and new beginnings.

It would be summer madness to miss it!

(Pan, paperback, £8.99)