ExlibrisJessica

Book Synopsis:

 The Wedding People follows Phoebe Stone, a recently divorced and depressed woman who arrives at a Rhode Island luxury hotel with the intention of ending her life. Mistaken for a guest at the extravagant destination wedding, Phoebe unexpectedly finds herself at the center of the bridal party, including the furious bride, Lila. Through a series of chance encounters and interactions with the wedding party, Phoebe, against her initial plans, begins to rediscover reasons to live and starts her journey of healing and self-discovery.

Someone in the cafe I was reading this in came over and asked me what I was reading because I was ‘smiling and giggling so much’ as I read!

This was the first book in quite a while that GRABBED me and I was so excited to pick it up every day! I even ended up saving the last hundred pages an extra day as I didn’t want it to end.

Yes, this is the story of an unlikely friendship between a bride and the one person at the hotel who isn’t there for the wedding- but it’s so much more! Every character is so real but also so unique.

I genuinely don’t know if I want the main character, Phoebe, to be my best friend or if I want to BE Phoebe! She just completely came into her own as the book progressed and I want to grow in the same way she did! The fact she is a professor of English literature (and also very wise in lots of other areas) means I learnt so many cool facts about etymology, authors, places, and random other subjects alongside the storyline.

In contrast to Phoebe’s newly adopted ‘go with the flow’ attitude, Lila provides delusion, delight, but also a facade of ‘holding it together’. The friendship blossoms with brutal honesty due to the fact they’ve only just met and have no real allegiance to each other outside of the hotel.

I don’t want to go into too much detail about the other characters in this book. The main reason is that a large part of my enjoyment was meeting them all as the story goes on. However, I will say that Espach manages to put a really ‘human’ twist on so many wedding archetypes we think we know- such as the resentful new stepdaughter, or the distant mother of the bride. Due to Phoebe’s outsider perspective and frank questions, they open up in unseen ways and with an unusual openness. Even characters with very little dialogue stayed with me. Everyone just felt so vibrant, even vibrant in their grief or depression because Alison’s writing lets you feel like you know them, or you at least know someone like them. It’s a very refreshing voice to read.

This is such a feel-good, joyful book considering the heavy subject matter at times. It’s a very refreshing voice to read, I was giggling and smiling all the way through. It has really charmed me and whilst I am sad that it’s over, I’m so glad that I can now recommend it to all of you!

“I just mean, a story can be beautiful not because of the way it ends, but because of the way it’s written.”

Have you read this one? Or perhaps you’ve also read a book that surprised you recently- let me know!