Matilda's Wedding Book

Matilda’s Wedding has a lot going for it, but I lose patience when Betty takes the martyred heroine thing too far. Betty tries hard to sell it—Matilda’s father has a heart ailment and the heroine is afraid that standing up to her toxic mother—or leaving—will cause him undue stress, maybe kill him, so she’s resolved to put up with her very crappy situation. But it’s too much! And it annoyed me the entire book.

Matilda’s horrible mother is a piece of work. I actually enjoyed how awful she was. She stands out as one of the worst parents in the BN canon, and boy is that saying something—there are some doozies! She’s so OTT awful that I was almost eager to see what she’d say next to the heroine in a “no she didn’t!” way. The ultimate Betty site, The Uncrushable Jersey Dress calls her “Poor Little Me (PLM)” and it’s exactly right. She’s super toxic and manipulative, and the poor heroine clearly sees it but feels obligated to stay home and help her parents since her father’s heart attack and subsequent retirement on a small pension.

Mom’s a profligate spender (and basically a selfish asshole); Daddy (also a selfish asshole, though Betty tries to sell him as gentle and absent minded) doesn’t see it or doesn’t care and sees nothing wrong with letting his daughter shoulder all responsibilities for the household and budget and dealing with her mother while he writes a book (but can’t work even a clerical job because of a heart condition?). I couldn’t let Matilda, as plucky as she tries to be, off the hook either—she’s a huge enabler and doormat for her parents (though not with regard to the hero, to be fair). Even during the HEAs, she tells the hero it will be “difficult” to marry him and leave her parents to their own devices—wtf? I still can’t get past it.

There’s a lot to like otherwise. Betty’s always a good writer, and the usual charm prevails in many ways—the secondary characters are colorful; the descriptions of food, scenery, interiors divine; the romance mostly satisfying. This is one of Betty’s later books too (2000)—how sharp and skillful she still was at 91 years old!

But the romance was overshadowed, I felt, by the heroine’s toxic relationship with her parents, and the hero’s “love” felt more like pity at times (and he becomes yet another Mommy Dearest enabler, which pissed me off—no comeuppance at all for her, although he does manage to get rid of the parents as part of the HEA).

And although I’m mostly inured to how apparently important good looks are in Betty’s world, the constant harping by EVERYONE on how plain the heroine is, including the hero who thinks it half a dozen times at least, annoyed the hell out of me. You’d think she was horribly disfigured based on how many characters mention how plain she is, but no, she has the usual lovely eyes, pleasant (if “unassuming”) features, abundant shiny hair, and a pretty figure. How plain could she possibly be?

The OW drama, too, seemed tacked on. As unpleasant as she was, the hero's girlfriend or fiancee or whatever paled in comparison to Mommy Dearest, so superfluous! And it wasn’t mentioned that the hero was engaged to the OW (it just seemed like they dated) until the OW abruptly broke off the “engagement,” so that seemed to come out of nowhere. The entire OW storyline was contrived. The story didn’t really need her (the horrible parents, the hero's long-held seeming indifference, and the heroine's pride were impediment enough) and doesn’t do her OW justice.

I did like how the hero, who at first barely notices the heroine, becomes intrigued by her sharp tongue and fierce determination not to be an object of pity—especially his—and eventually falls for her. Some good angst, and the limited hero PoV does a good job in showing his gradual transformation from indifferent employer to would-be lover. It was nicely done.

Some things I liked, some things I didn’t, so I’ll land solidly in the middle on this one.

Among the things I learned from looking up references in this book: what barley sugar balusters look like; what driving like Jehu means (Betty has used this expression in at least one other book too); and my favorite, A Frog He Would Go A-Wooing Go!

Betty car porn:

Hero drives a Bentley. Here's what they looked like in 2000:
They still go for a cool 25-50K!

His speed demon elderly Aunt Kate, who "drove with the ease of a nonchalant young man" (and like Jehu), drives an elderly, beautifully maintained Jaguar. Let's say 1975--they're gorgeous (Jay Leno has this one in his collection):

The heroine has no car because, as her mother explains more than once, "there seemed no point in keeping the car just for Matilda's use," so they sold it. (Nevermind that she's the one that has to walk to work and to the shops for groceries. Pffttt!)