Title: The Wedding Gift
Author: Kathleen McKenna
Genre/Audience: Mystery, paranormal, adult
Publication: 2010
Source: For review, Crazy Book Tours
Leeann is a Southern small town girl who just happens to be the “prettiest girl in Dalton,” Oklahoma. At 17, she’s just become pregnant and married into the richest family in town, to 27 year George Willets, who she doesn’t really love. She lavishes in all of the gifts and things he buys for her though, until, for her wedding gift, they move into the long ago abandoned Willets House – a mansion which was the site of a grisly crime 30 years prior, in which Robina Willets, George’s aunt, killed her husband, her five children, and herself. It’s also the site where Leeann’s brother died a few years after the murders while sneaking around the deserted property. Leeann’s hesistant about living here, but even more so when the ghost of Robina begins to haunt her…
I really liked the premise of this story. It was spooky, intriguing, and definitely creeped me out. I also thought Leeann’s character was really quite funny. The story is told through her diary entries, and she’s both incredibly vain and dumb… not to mention a golddigger. She really reminded me of the character Lorelai in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. They both thought very highly of themselves (too highly, even), and were ridiculous in their antics and stupidity, chasing after rich men, and always manipulative. That said, Leeann was definitely the high point of this novel for me. Her voice was realistically that of Southern princess, and she really cracked me up, though she’s certainly not intentionally trying to be funny… she’s just plain ridiculous. I also really liked Jessie, her tough and vulgar best friend.
While I liked the storyline a lot, I was a bit put off by some of the mechanics such as misspellings (one character I saw spelled as both Donny and Donnie), awkward writing, and grammar. I think the book needed a lot of editing and cleaning-up of errors. The writing was a bit amaetur and somewhat inconsistent. However, the story itself was entertaining and interesting. Just keep in mind, it’s not the best edited or best written book ever, but it is quite fun.
My Rating: 3/5
