It's my turn on the BlogTour Five Wakes and a Wedding by Karen Ross.
As a former journalist, broadcaster and advertising copywriter, Karen Ross has followed a fairly traditional path into writing fiction. Five Wakes and a Wedding is her fourth book, and like its predecessors, the novel has two common threads: the setting is London’s Primrose Hill – Karen’s own neighbourhood – and one of the characters is a dog . . . this time he’s called Chopper and he’s almost the same size as a Shetland Pony
Karen has been self-employed for many years, and continues to work as a marketing consultant, in the absence of an offer to manage Tottenham Hotspur. By way of credentials, her other ‘job’ is trading profitably on the world’s first football stockmarket, a platform called Football Index, where you buy and sell players with real money.
Follow @ComedyKaren on Twitter, on Goodreads, on Amazon, Visit karenross.online, Buy Five Wakes and a Wedding
About the book
Undertaker Nina Sherwood is full of good advice. For example, never wear lip gloss when you’re scattering ashes.
Nina is your average 30-year-old with a steady job, a nice home – and dead bodies in her basement. As an undertaker, she often prefers the company of the dead to the living – they’re obliging, good listeners and take secrets to the grave.
Nina is on a one-woman mission to persuade her peers that passing on is just another part of life. But the residents of Primrose Hill are adamant that a funeral parlour is the last thing they need… and they will stop at nothing to close down her dearly beloved shop.
When Nina’s ‘big break’ funeral turns out to be a prank, it seems like it’s the final nail in the coffin for her new business. That is, until a (tall, dark and) mysterious investor shows up out of the blue, and she decides to take a leap of faith. Because, after all, it’s her funeral…
The perfect antidote to all those books about weddings, this book will make you laugh until you cry, perfect for fans of Zara Stoneley’s Bridesmaids, Four Weddings and a Funeral and The Good Place.
At the beginning I think there is this subconscious expectation of making sure there are five wakes and eventually even a wedding, but the truth is you get so caught up in the read that they pass by without you realising it.
Nina's business is making sure the dead get the send-off they want and deserve. She sets up shop in Primrose Hill with the hope that her investment will pay out eventually. What she isn't expecting is so much confrontation and determination to close her down and run her business out of the neighbourhood. They will stop at nothing to get rid of the upbeat business owner with creative ideas on the final journey.
She also wasn't expecting to meet a very attractive investor, who tries to sweep her off her feet. The question is whether he is too good to be true.
It's a snarky romcom - a fun introduction to life before death and death itself.
I wasn't sure about the motive for opposing Happy Endings - not wanting to be confronted with death, perhaps because I have a more relaxed approach to it. I loved the way Ross takes the opportunity to take away a little bit of the fear and uncertainty by introducing something more than just the bog standard goodbye.
Around that she creates a lovely story about a determined young woman who moves over, under and through all the obstacles in her way without even blinking.
Buy Five Wakes and a Wedding at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: HQ - One More Chapter; pub date 19 Sept. 2019. Buy at Amazon com.
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