A few weeks back I read my first (although her third!) Jenny Oliver book, The Little Christmas Kitchen, and thoroughly enjoyed it

So here is the second one from her back catalogue (although I now realise this is a sequel to her first and I’ve read them in totally the wrong order – but never mind!) – and this time I steered away from festive Christmas fare with The Vintage Summer Wedding.

Here is what Amazon have to say about it:

“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……..”

 

And again I really enjoyed it!  Totally different setting – and totally different feel to it  involving English countryside / amazing food descriptions / casual use of everyday bad language / antiques / Britain’s Got Talent / Bagpuss (my secret phobia!) / bike riding and my absolutely favourite reference ever – the lift from Dirty Dancing!  How can you not love a book with the lift from Dirty Dancing in it?!?  (I should point out that my husband and I *almost* managed to re-enact the lift at my 40th birthday party!  This is shocking for a number of reasons a) he managed to lift me – admittedly on to his shoulder and not above his head, but still pretty good going and b) that my boobs stayed inside my dress and corset – and here’s proof (mine are the boobs on the right) as to why that is shocking.  Sadly there is no photographic evidence of the actual lift …………)

 

But back to The Vintage Summer Wedding!  It’s a lovely, easy, quick read which I really enjoyed.  Now I need to read the book before (and I’m guessing which characters it involves already).  Here’s hoping to more in the Nettleton saga going forward.