So, it feels a little weird rating this book so low. I flew through it, and it was obviously supposed to be a light and fluffy kind of read, which I tend to rate a little less critically than I do other genres. However, there was something about the writing style and narrative choices that were aggravating.

First of all, I felt like there were too many characters/subplots. None of them were particularly well-developed. It all felt very surface level to me. There was only one couple I really found myself invested in. I also thought this was going to be Chloe's story, but she was more a side character than anything.

Next, there was so much freaking repetition in this book. Certain phrases are used over and over ('particular gem' was something that was said at least three times that I noticed.) and characters have essentially the same discussions multiple times. Maybe a new tidbit will be divulged with each subsequent conversation, but for the most part, its exactly the same. Also, whenever one character meets another character, we hear their inner dialogue of their first impressions. And each character seems to have the exact same thoughts regarding all of the other characters. For example, one of the women at the hotel is 25 years old. Every single who meets her thinks: "She's so young. She must've been just a baby when she got married. Who gets married in their early twenties?" And this happens throughout the book. (Just a note: I was married at 19 and have been married for 17 years...just saying. It felt like the author personally has an issue with people marrying young and wrote that opinion into the personality of every other character in the book.) This book could've been a good 50 pages shorter if we didn't have to read the same conversations over and over again.

I think my biggest issue with this book was the attempt by the author to manufacture suspense and tension. There are three couples at the hotel that we are following, as well as Chloe, the hotel manager. All of them have had their marriages/engagements end, but we don't know why at the beginning of the book. That information is slowly (very slowly, molasses slowly) divulged to the reader throughout the course of the book. But it's done in a way that I can only describe as click-bait-esque. We would either have a conversation between two or more characters or be in one character's perspective. They would begin vaguely alluding to something that happened in their marriage. Usually they would become anxious and be physically incapable of talking about it. Or two characters would talk about whatever the problem was but the reader is left out of the conversation, only to be told something like, "I thought *my* marriage was a trainwreck!" and then we go on to the next scene. It felt very 'Four marriages end in different ways...number three will SHOCK you!'
So all this tension is building up throughout the story, and then when the 'secrets' are finally revealed, they are so anti-climactic that it made me knock an entire star off my rating. Chloe's is the most ridiculous. There is so much build up about the 'horrifying' thing that Frank did to her on their wedding day. Chloe has multiple anxiety-ridden moments at simply the thought of what he did to her...then we find out that the big reveal is that he got cold feet and told her that he couldn't go through with the wedding. That's it. He was a jerk and waited until the day of to break it off. BUT WE ALREADY KNEW THAT FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE FREAKING BOOK. There is literally no reason for it to be treated like some deep, dark secret. The author was trying to create tension that didn't actually exist, and it was really poorly done.

Also, I wanted to say that there are some problematic moments in this book with regard to LGBT characters and erasure. There is a bisexual character in the book. The fact that he is bisexual is treated as a shocking plot twist. Later, we are treated to this little bit of awfulness: "If that roaring eejit (idiot --they're in Ireland) is now claiming to be bisexual, then he's even more delusional than I took him for. Because as far as I'm concerned, bisexuality is just a halfway house until you're officially out loud and proud." This opinion is never challenged. In fact, the wife says that she would've felt better about him cheating if it hadn't been with another man, as if the fact that he is a cheater and kind of a creep all on his own isn't reason enough to divorce him.

I don't see myself picking up another book from this author in the future. I can see why there is an audience, but it's obviously not me.