Book review – The Accidental Proposal by Matt Dunn
9 Mar
Ed Middleton is ecstatic: he’s just got engaged to his girlfriend, Sam, and he couldn’t be happier. At least, he thinks he’s engaged. The thing is, it was Sam who did the proposing, and the more he thinks about it, the less he’s sure that she was actually asking him to marry her. She could have just been asking the question, you know…hypothetically. As the wedding day draws nearer, Ed becomes more and more uneasy. Sam keeps disappearing off for furtive meetings and private phone calls, and when he spies her going into a pub with a man he’s never seen before, all his old jealousies and insecurities threaten to re-surface. It’s the perfect time for Ed’s unhinged ex-girlfriend, Jane, to show up on his doorstep. Meanwhile, Dan – Ed’s best-friend and soon-to-be-best-man – is determined to throw him a stag night to remember. And when a severely hung-over Ed wakes up the morning after the night before to see a second dent in the pillow, it seems as if Dan has got his wish. Will Ed manage to find out the truth about his stag night as well as the identity of Sam’s secret man? Or will an accidental proposal lead them both down the aisle to a wedding neither of them ever imagined?
The Accidental Proposal is the story of Ed Middleton and his girlfriend Sam. Their relationship has been happily moving along for a couple of years. They’ve moved in together and Ed is content. Then one night, a slightly drunk Sam and Ed have a conversation in bed. Sam asks Ed if he’d like to get married and Ed replies ‘yes’. In Ed’s eyes he is now engaged. Ed tells his best friend Dan who points out that Sam may have been asking hypothetically. Cue much panicking and soul searching from Ed until he realises that yes, he really does want to marry Sam and had better get her down the aisle as quickly as possible lest she change her mind. The date is set and the book follows events up to the wedding day from Ed’s point of view.
The story is laid out like a diary, with each chapter being an entry for a day leading up to the wedding. The chapters are broken into time slots during the day which moves the action along nicely and made the book a quick read. I like Matt’s writing style – it’s witty and fun and parts of the book really made me smile.
Ed and best friend Dan are an amusing double act. Dan, an actor and (very) minor celebrity is the ditsy, uber-confident lady-killer, to Ed’s down to earth, happily settled but not very confident self. Dan sees marriage as a ball and chain and his first question on hearing the news of Ed’s impending nuptials is ‘Why?’ Think Joey from Friends but British and you get the picture.
Ed represents the other side of the coin. His views on relationships are traditional; he wants a big white wedding and for his wife to take his name. He looks forward to having children and to settling into family life. I liked Ed very much to begin with even if I did think it was a bit of a shame that he didn’t have the get up and go to propose to the woman he loves. As the book progressed though, Ed’s lack of confidence and trust in his relationship began to annoy me slightly. Ed is full of self doubt and when he sees Sam meeting another man, he assumes the worst. By the time it came to the stag night and Ed’s dilemma the morning after, my sympathy for him had all but gone and I was really wishing he had someone other than Dan to rely on for advice.
To me the reason for Sam’s secretive behaviour was really obvious but maybe I’ve just read too many books in this genre! The fact that I guessed the ending very early on coupled with Ed’s continuing doubts about the solidity of his relationship meant that I wasn’t as engaged with the story as I’d have liked for the second half of the book.
This is Matt Dunn’s sixth book and the first novel of his that I’ve read. After reading The Accidental Proposal I discovered that Dan and Ed have also been the focus of two of Matt’s previous books but having read this as a standalone, I would say that you don’t need to have read them to enjoy this novel.
I would like to read more of Dunn’s work and I’m intrigued to see what happened to Dan and Ed before they reached this point. Taken as a light hearted read, The Accidental Proposal is fun and funny but for me it didn’t quite have the ‘spark’ that I was expecting.
3/5
A version of this review also appears at www.libripopulus.co.uk
You can find out more about Matt and his books at: http://pages.123-reg.co.uk/mattdunn-1215226/
Beginning to think I’m the only person who really loved this. I discovered Matt Dunn a few years ago accidentally and like the twist of male chick lit (if that’s what it’s called. I read another of his recently, The Good Bride Guide, which I found lacking something but thought with the Accidental Proposal he was back on form.