True rating would be 1.5 stars--somewhere between "didn't like it" and "it was OK." When Madeleine Wickham morphed into Sophie Kinsella, apparently she acquired the ability to create characters with a few redeeming qualities to offset their character flaws (i.e., compulsive shopping).

Sophie Kinsella brings more charm, more wit, more depth and more laughs to her stories. Everything that Madeleine Wickham seems to lack.

This is my fourth Wickham book and what a stupid book! What a distasteful protagonist! I honestly don't think I could've disliked a character more than Fleur.

I started this book with the hopes that it would be an interesting read - albeit light. The premise of this book, the plot, seemed very interesting, original even. A lady who crashes funerals in search for More...

I absolutely LOVE Sophie Kinsella, so when I found out that that was just a pseudonym and that Madeleine Wickham had written other books, I was thrilled! I was so excited when I read the description of this book, I thought it would top most romantic comedy books I've read. It started off good, but I wasn't too drawn to Fleur, the main character. Throughout the book I kept willing it to get better, but it never did. It wasn't very funny, and it didn't really reflect on the characters pasts' much; More...

Eine weitere Neuauflage von Sophie Kinsellas "alten" Roman "Reizende Gäste", den sie noch als Madeleine Wickham herausgebracht hatte.

Fleur Daxeny ist seit Jahren selbst nur ein überaus reizender Gast auf diversen Gedenkgottesdiensten von verstorbenen Ehefrauen, später in den Häusern der reichen Witwer. Gezielt sucht sie sich die Männer aus, die genügend Geld auf dem Konto haben, sodass sie sich nach ein paar Wochen oder Monaten ein paar Tausend Dollar vom Konto holen und verschwinden kann. Vers More...

I was very pleased to find out that Madeleine Wickham was Sophie Kinsella, as I loved her books. What pleased me even more was that Madeleine Wickham takes a darker, deeper look into her characters than her Sophie Kinsella books offer. There is hilarious comedy, but there is also deep sorrow within this book.
Fleur Daxeny picks up rich men at their wife's funeral. She finds Richard Favour, and the story takes off from there. What could be a light-hearted and shallow story is actually quite deep, More...

Sophie Kinsella is the pseudonym of Madeleine Wickham. She has written seven novels under this original name. Her first novel under the name of Kinsella was submitted to her existing publishers anonymously and was enthusiastically received. She revealed her true identity for the first time when Can You Keep a Secret? was published in December 2005.
I have read most of the novels of Kinsella and it is hard to believe that both are same. Kinsella novels are pure comedy, while Wickham is serious to More...

Originally Reviewed at Novel Escapes

I was disappointed by this book, especially with knowing that Madeline Wickham is Sophie Kinsella. Possibly just having read Twenties Girl, which I absolutely loved, didn’t help matters, but The Gatecrasher just didn’t live up to my expectations. This is chick lit with multiple characters from their different points of view and has none of the humour I have come to expect from great chick lit.

It started well enough. The premise was interesting and I had no co More...

This book is about Fleur Daxeny. Her ultimate goal is to get the big bucks. To do that, she crashes funerals so she can try to find a widower who can support her life. She weasels her way in, gains their trust and runs of with their mega bucks.This time she goes to a different funeral and picks up a guy who's requirement is to be wealthy. Then she will stay with then until she gets their credit card, and will take out a handsomely amount of money. Afterwards, she leaves and never speaks to the More...

i picked this up because i like sophie kinsella's books--so sue me. this was as fluffy as i expected (i read it while i was sick--perfect for passing the time without expending too much brainpower), but kind of a head scratcher.

the titular gatecrasher is fleur, a charming 40-year-old redhead who crashes funerals to win the hearts of wealthy male attendees. she wins their trust & then connives to take them for every penny she thinks she can get away with, generally through a bizarre scheme i More...

An sich ein gutes Buch, aber ich fand, dass manche Handlungsstränge zu schnell abgehandelt bzw einfach offen gehalten wurden und das Ende fand ich jetzt auch etwas sehr gehetzt. Man hat nicht das Gefühl ein Buch gelesen zu haben, dass zumindest irgendwie in sich abgeschlossen ist, sondern eher einen Teil eines Buches. Ist halt irgendwie komisch. Wenn das nicht wäre hätte ich 4 Sterne gegeben, aber das stört mich dann doch zu sehr, daher nur 3. Die verschiedenen Personen im Buch fand ich allerdin More...

Fleur has made a career out of crashing funerals and memorial services so that she can work her way into recently widower's lives. She earns the widower's trust then takes them for all she can and moves on. But, when she meets Richard Favour things start to change. She finds herself feeling comfortable and fitting in with his family. When her daughter comes to visit and fits in too Fleur realizes she is going to have some decisions to make. But is Fleur ready to give up the high life and to sett More...

This was alright, and in fact, the beginning hooked me in quite well. I think the most unfortunate thing in this book is that it built things up quite high, but then ran out of time and didn't offer any substantial resolutions to anything. I'm not entirely sure why Fleur was so embarrassed by Zara's father (other than being a mediocre American, which really shouldn't be the only reason) - the way things ended with Phillipa were particularly depressing considering that she was one of the characte More...

Money or True Love are the theme used by the author in this book. It is rather easy to read and i managed to finished this book in two days ;) Fleur who trick mans for monetary gains at funeral and memorial services, a rather unusual way to find love. Her target is always those who grieve for their loved ones as it is rather easy for them to fell in love with the ones that cares and understand their feeling. Until she met Richard.

What started off as a scam, she soon found herself adapting to Ric More...

A book by Sophie Kinsella writing as Madeleine Wickham.

Well I said from the beginning of this challenge that I wanted to read a wide variety of genres and I have just read what some would call my first Chick Lit ! Now this book probably (obviously) wasn't written for a 40 year old bloke with a bald head who likes football and Newcastle Brown Ale drunk straight from the bottle. And so it was interesting to take a look at this particular kind of book from an aspiring (neurotic) writers point of vi More...

Madeleine Wickham, who is Sophie Kinsella's alter auteur....is wonderfully wicked and delirious in her sophisticated writing. I loved the rather adult style of "The Gatecrasher" as the main character transforms her life over the course of a calm yet collected journey. At its heart, this story really weighs in on one woman's swinging back and forth between two ways of life. Ultimately, she certainly has a lot to lose if he follows her head and much to gain if she listens to the pure pitter-patter More...

I really, really wanted to give this book 4 stars. If it weren't for the abrupt ending with the sooooo many loose ends which remain untied, I would have given this a much higher rating. The ending ruined EVERYTHING.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the fun, fluffy read. In fact, I was at times so absorbed by the storyline that I just couldn't put it down. Wickham gave all of her supporting characters good, solid and interesting backgrounds. Unfortunately, she failed to explore the full potential of More...

I love Wickham books! More then Kinsella and they are they same person! I love that she writes under two different names because you can tell what kind of book it’s going to be by the name. I love when people do that and even more when for the most part, I enjoy (I can’t say like when it comes to Kinsella, because her books are pure crap, but I still enjoy them) all books under both names! How rare does that happen? Anyway, this book is about a women, who gatecrashes funerals in search of men wi More...

Thinking it was going to be light and fluffy, I was mildly surprised to find how well thought-out the story was. The characters had surprising depth, the premise of the book was intriguing, and I found myself simultaneously rooting for and against the protagonist.

Fleur Daxeny is a beautiful woman with an interesting way of earning a living: she charms the pants off of bereaved widowers, weaseling her way into their lives in order to get access to their credit cards and steal all she possibly ca More...

This book is about Fleur Daxeny. She is a “funeral crasher”. She goes to different funerals and picks up a guy who has to be rich. Then she will be with then till she gets a Gold Card (Credit Card), and will take out a few hundred pounds. After she gets all the money she will just leave and never speak to the man again. But after the Richard Favour’s wife’s funeral she decides to stick around. What is different?

In this book I noticed a text-to-text connection with the book, Cocktails For Three. More...

If they attach more importance to your looks than your personality, then they're not worth having as friends .
- Anthony
Love, love love. As though it meant nothing; as though it weren't a sacrosanct word, a precious syllable, to be used sparingly.
- Gillian
She knew with a fierce certainty whom she loved, whom she had loved, whom she would always love. But in her adult life she had never uttered the word aloud.
- Gillian
Life was for living; happiness was for taking;
- Richard
If a man smiles, do it a More...

"The Gatecrasher", by Madeleine Wickham aka Sophie Kinsella, is glamourous vivacious ageless Fleur Daxeny, first accidentally propelled by a sudden rainshower into a funeral service and arms of rich elderly source of income, successfully continued. A mistake in America produced Zara, now near-anorexic 13, who kept "an accent she fondly believed was American" since the age of 6, and believes her (view spoiler)[middle-class pharmaceutical salesman (hide spoiler)]father is a cowboy.

Richard recently lost wife Emily, and believe More...

Armed with a closet full of designer black suits, the daily obituaries and a face that never betrays her 40 years, Fleur invades the funerals of the wealthy, enchantingly rich, grieving new widowers in need of a shoulder to cry on. Once captivated by her good looks and charm, these men provide her with money, a home, and an extravagant lifestyle for however long it takes her to stash a bit of cash and move on to the next.

She attends the memorial service of Emily Favour, whom she pretends was a More...

If you’ve ever seen Wedding Crashers, the part where Will Ferrell has turned into a funeral crasher, well that’s the life of Fleur. Fleur’s ultimate goal is to get the big bucks. To do that, she scours funerals, trying to find a widower who can support her life. She weasels her way in, gains their trust and runs of with their trust, money that is.

But this time, her daughter Zara has gotten involved and this may be her final go round.

I picked up this book because I loved every Sophie Kinsella boo More...

Well, I didn't realize this book was from the late 90s. Oops. No biggie though. This is my first Wickham book, and I only just started reading Sophie Kinsella, so I saw it at Target and figured I'd give it a shot. The story seemed cute.

The only thing I really liked about it is was that it was in third person. And that's because I've been reading mostly first person lately, so it was nice to know what was going on in everyone's head. But that's about it.

The story was kind of disappointing.
I liked More...

About a lady that goes to funerals and picks up wealthy men, it was really funny. The book focuses on one "job", Richard, and I really felt like I got to know all the characters in his family. The book is funny but at the same time quite sad and deep.

Richard sets out to learn more about his late wife after her memorial service, and it's interesting as the reader to also find out more about her.

I didn't like the ending of the book, I think it felt very rushed and it left so much unresolved. It' More...

With the books from Madeleine (of Sophie) I have two things, or I can’t stop reading, or I don’t like it. This book was in between. This wasn’t a book I couldn’t stop reading in, it was a nice book, not spectacular, actually it was just a common book.
Maybe I thought that because of the things happening in the book. It was based on a woman who goes to funerals to get close to the widower so she can get money from him, before she goes to the next widower. The leading character Fleur was a person w More...

I picked this up so that I could have a "fluffy book" to read over the holidays, one that I could just pick up and read without doing much thinking. It fit the bill.
However I found it was very slow -- at one point, I picked it up and was surprised to find that I was half-way through, despite the plot not having picked up much at all. I think the author was trying to do too many things at once, lay down too much character development and subplots -- and not very succinctly, frankly! -- and didn't More...