by Alison Espach
Henry Holt and Company, 2024. 367 pages. Fiction
It's a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. After several disappointments in her life, Phoebe has decided to splash out for one night at an exclusive hotel before she kills herself. But she's surprised to discover that the hotel has been rented out for a wedding, and she's immediately mistaken as one of the guests. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield, except for Phoebe and Phoebe's plan—which makes it that much more surprising that the two women can't stop confiding in each other, altering Phoebe's plans in unexpected ways.
This book handles so many difficult topics with both tenderness and an unexpected wit. The beginning of this book was a bit hard to read since that's when Phoebe is at her lowest point, but it was so nice to see Phoebe slowly choose to take each day a moment at a time and start to see the bright spots that make life worth living. It also helped that the wedding depicted was an extravagant one filled with interesting characters, which balanced out the heavy feelings without writing them off as unimportant. This is a great choice for lovers of character-driven books that cover the range of human emotions and have a satisfying ending.
If you like The Wedding People you might also like:
by Amanda Eyre Ward
Ballantine Books, 2024. 288 pages. Fiction
Once upon a time, the Peacock sisters were incredibly close. But decades of secrets have led them to separate lives. Now, Sylvie is getting married to Simon, a mysterious, wealthy man from Northern England. Cleo, a criminal defense lawyer, is convinced that Simon is not the man he seems to be. And Emma is living a lie, hoping her husband and sons don't find out. When the sisters come together for Sylvie's destination wedding, they must overcome their differences and find the courage to make new choices.
by Meg Mason
Harper, 2021. 337 pages. Fiction
Martha Friel just turned forty. Once, she worked at Vogue and planned to write a novel. Now, she has nowhere to go except her childhood home: a bohemian (dilapidated) townhouse in a romantic (rundown) part of London—to live with her mother, a minorly important sculptor (and major drinker) and her father, a famous poet (though unpublished) and try to survive without the devoted, potty-mouthed sister who made all the chaos bearable, and is now too busy or too fed up to deal with her. But maybe by starting over Martha will get to write a better ending for herself--and she'll find out that she's not quite finished after all.
by Fredrick Backman
Atria Books, 2014. 337 pages. Fiction
A curmudgeon hides a terrible personal loss beneath a cranky and short-tempered exterior while clashing with new neighbors, a boisterous family whose chattiness and habits lead to unexpected friendship.
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