For the Love of Friends by S. Goodman Confino, published by Lake Union Publishing is a witty and fun read and is told from a first pov.
Lily seems to be a bridesmaid for forever, this year alone for 5 weddings. A ons to add, she's the queen of making mistakes.
FtLoF is a rom/com, well written, entertaining, enjoyable. A great read, 4,5 stars.

3.5 stars

This was an easy and fun read which I really enjoyed!

For the Love of Friends tells the story of Lilly, who ends up agreeing to be a part of 5 weddings over the course of one summer. The reader is taken along for the journey of the dramas and shenanigans that follow when Lily decides to put her degree in journalism to good use by creating a blog to vent and document her experience.

Lily was a very likable and relatable character, watching her try to balance the wedding duties with her every day life was amusing. The secondary characters were also well thought out and highly entertaining.

The only aspect of the book I found lacking was the romance which I found myself wanting more from, however this was still an easy and quick light-hearted read which provided a nice escape from the real world for a few hours.

I really enjoyed this book! Lily has definitely over-committed herself to be in 5 weddings in a. very short time-period! This book is witty, sarcastic, and an overall fun read!

I have mixed feelings about this book. The premise sounded fun, but I felt like the execution was lacking. It seemed like Lily was explaining how things happened instead of drawing us in to experience it.

For the Love of Friends had me laughing, tearing up, and feeling commiseration for Lily and her five weddings. It was very well written and the character development was so on the nose. I could vividly picture every one of Lily's friends and fellow bridesmaids. I loved that the blog posts and email newsletters were also part of the story. I love an epistolary novel, so any element of letter writing in the book makes me very excited. I wholeheartedly recommend this book. I know it is Sara's debut novel, but I can't wait to see what else she writes next!

Lily Weiss is the director of communications of the Foundation for Scientific Technology, but at thirty-two with no significant other she's her mother's worst nightmare. Then all hell breaks loose when she's asked by five brides to be in their wedding, all taking place within six weeks of each other. After waking up hungover with a groomsmen after an engagement party, Lily knows she needs a place to air out all her wedding frustrations - lo and behold, her anonymous blog Bridesmania is born. She shares every single bit of drama she encounters with her readers, increasing the snark to keep them coming back for more. But even Lily isn't prepared for the day being anonymous is no longer an option, and she has to face the brides beyond the screen.

So, I wanted to love this book. I really did. The premise sounded hilarious, and the added blog element had me even more intrigued. But boy did it fall flat in several ways. A lot of it is personal taste, so definitely take what I have to say with a grain of salt, but I'll get into exactly what rubbed me the wrong way (wihtout going into too much detail, as I don't want to give spoilers).

I want to start with the positives. I really loved Alex as a character, and enjoyed watching his friendship with Lily progress throughout the story. He's had a bad past with relationships, coming out of a toxic marriage with an ex-wife who was controlling and manipulative. He's always there with a joke or snark to cheer Lily up when she's stressed with all the wedding drama, and even offers to be her fake date so people will stop asking when she's getting married. He also cares deeply for his dad, who suffers a heart attack and is rushed to the hospital, and there's a moment when he's vulnerable and expresses to Lily how he's never thought about how his parents won't always be alive, and be with him. Alex was definitely the shining star of this novel for me, and while I didn't understand his motivation towards the end of the novel, I was still rooting for him.

Alright, now I'll get into my negatives. The first had to do with a stylistic choice - There are various moments when Lily is conversing with other characters through text message, and the author does not differentiate what I said through text, who is talking, and what is narration and/or Lily’s internal monologue. It made it difficult for me to follow along with the text conversations sometimes, and I found myelf rereading several paragraphs just so I could be clear who said what. Then, there is so much body shaming in this book. I understand it happens in weddings, when bridemaids compare themselves to each other, or brides obsess over what the pictures will look like. But I just found it so excessive. I wrote down so many quotes about dieting and using a minimizing bra and losing those extra pounds, and I could understand if it was just one bride (as the author could play on that sterotype), but it was EVERY one (or at least one person from each respective wedding party). And this last point I'll make is the most personal take - Lily is thirty-two, and she has two younger siblings Jake and Amy. Amy, the youngest, is eight years younger, which makes her twenty-four. Every time Lily thinks about her younger sister, or has to go shopping or on trips with Amy, she makes either a verbal or a mental comment about how much of a child Amy is, or how incompetent / how much of a screw-up she is. Even Lily's friends make comments, and no one believes she will actually go through with her wedding, and she's just playing pretend. I am Amy's age, and am also the youngest of three children, with a ten-year age difference between me and my oldest sister. Just hearing Lily talk about her younger sister that way, and trying to imagine if my own sister had those same thoughts about me, rubbed me the wrong way.

Some people will love this book, I know it. They will think Lily is just saying what everyone in a bad wedding party wants to say out loud but can't. I just thought she was a character who made everyone else out to be the villain, and only took responsibility for her actions when it came down to losing her friends (and even then I had some issues with her apologies). If you're interested in the premise, I still think you should give this book a try, because you might be able to get so much more out of it than I was able to. Definitely not the book for me, though.

For The Love Of Friends is a hilarious tale of an overwhelming, if not nightmare, scenario, that you would absolutely take on for your friends and family. Finding yourself in 5 weddings over 6 weeks feels like a situation you try to get out of, but Sara Goodman Confino does such an incredible job of timing and storytelling that I found myself completely understanding how Lily ended up in the position, and why she would take it all on.

Wedding and romance lovers are going to ADORE this book. With five weddings you hit just about every trope possible but it all feels fun(maybe not the word Lily would use!) and nothing ever feels rushed or shoehorned it. There's even bullet journals to try to keep every single event organized. Imagine trying to keep 5 weddings worth of dress try-on's, wedding showers, budgets, and everything else straight!

But for wedding cynics- don't go running just yet. I'm the kind of person who never dreamed of weddings as a kid. I thought about it once for like a minute, decided someday if I got married I would elope, and that was that. I still had a blast with this book! Lily isn't exactly a lover of all things wedding herself. A lot of the blog posts talking about her experiences had me in hysterics over the drama of everything that goes on in making a wedding happen.

There's even an adorable romance side plot that had some of the cutest and funniest moments of the whole story.

A lot of books that involve blogs or social media can feel shallow when they glossing over any content actually being made. So the use of actually including blog posts and emails from Bride A were a perfect addition. I really loved those parts.

I laughed from beginning to end and never stopped being highly entertained.

For the Love of Friends by Sara Goodman Confina is an adorable novel about Lily, a woman in her early 30s who has committed to being in 5, yes FIVE weddings in the course of a year. Lily is a frustrated writer, so she decides to start a blog about her bridesmaid adventures, which she called "Bridesmania".

The blog takes off, her humorous, snarky posts eventually going viral. She feeds off of it, and when she is outed as the author...well, I don't want to give things away! This was a very funny, enjoyable light read, will be great for the beach this summer! It would also be a great read for brides on how NOT to treat your bridesmaids!

Thank you to the author, Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

This book is a cute light read. The protagonist is HILARIOUS and I absolutely loved her blog. Her rants are funny albeit a little mean sometimes but it is very justified. And of-course the romance in this book is slowly built and it is very cute. The fallouts from the blog being exposed were handled realistically and I’m glad she gave up on some friends.

For the Love of Friends is about Lily, a 32-year-old single young woman, who is asked to be in five weddings over the span of six weeks. The drama quickly turns up in the form of mom-zillas, petty bridesmaids, endless events and expenses, sibling rivalries, and more, which all serves as fodder for Lily's anonymous and brutally honest new blog called Bridesmania.

This was a fun and lighthearted read, and I found myself quite entertained by all of the wedding planning craziness. It reminded me of a mash-up of 27 Dresses, Bridget Jones' Diary, and Say Yes to the Dress, so if that sounds appealing to you, chances are you will enjoy this book. There were a lot of funny moments, but there were also some more serious reflective moments as Lily grows throughout her experiences and learns more about herself. I wish the romance was fleshed out a little more, but since it wasn't the main focus, I can't complain too much. I also loved Lily's grandma, who is living her best life - I aspire to be that confident and unapologetic!

Thank you NetGalley for the e-ARC!

I really wanted to love this one! In general, the plot was very fun. It was very 27 dresses vibe, which I LOVE. I also was very invested in the love story angle. I did feel like the story was repetitive after awhile.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

For the Love of Friends is described as sharp and hilarious. Those terms peak my interest. Yes, I know it’s chick lit and that’s not my typical read, but I’ve watched enough Hallmark movies over the holidays to be a self-declared expert. I picked it up and started reading. And you know what? It is sharp and hilarious! I laughed my way through the whole book.

As a guy, I won’t tell you that I was completely absorbed in the choices of wedding gowns and bridesmaid dresses. Thank goodness for a dark suit and a tuxedo. What I really enjoyed was the quips about all the minute details that consumed the various brides-to-be. And I am sure I have met some of these characters, or people just like them.

Lily is a great problem-solver, and she uses those skills at work, with her friends, and with her family. As her character develops, Lily sometimes handles conflict with great delicacy, and other times it’s with a hatchet. By the end of the book, Lily is someone I am glad I’ve gotten to know.

I highly recommend this book, and I look forward to more books by Sara Goodman Confino.

To be honest I'm generally not one for romance, but this book did it for me!!

It follows Lily Weiss, a single 30-something writer at a science foundation, as she blogs her way through a wedding season where she's a bridesmaid in five weddings (over six weeks!). Now, it sounds like the plot of a cringe rom com. But somehow (I guess it's the magic of Sara Goodman Confino!!)

The character development was also superb (I felt lots of warmth and fuzzy feelings towards Lily at the end) and there was a brilliant amount of suspense because I knew that everything was building up to those five weddings.

In conclusion, I will be reading anything everything Sara Goodman Confino comes out with from now on, and I'd recommend this to anyone who feels like a rom com-y read but is easily turned off by cringiness or a bland plot.

I wasn't too sure if I would like this book, but I was pleasantly surprised by the main character! I thought the book was super fun, and I would definitely recommend!

𝔽𝕠𝕣 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕃𝕠𝕧𝕖 𝕠𝕗 𝔽𝕣𝕚𝕖𝕟𝕕𝕤 𝕓𝕪 𝕊𝕒𝕣𝕒 𝔾𝕠𝕠𝕕𝕞𝕒𝕟 ℂ𝕠𝕟𝕗𝕚𝕟𝕠

Ever gotten so fed up and overwhelmed with the wants/demands of a 👰🏻 bride? Imagine being Lily, who agreed to being a bridesmaid in 🅕🅘🅥🅔 of her friend’s weddings. She creates a small anonymous wedding blog to document all of her crazy and outrageous experiences, but mainly to blow off some steam.

This. This. 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 is the book everyone needed about being a bridesmaid and friendships.

✨ 𝕀 𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕝𝕝𝕪 𝕖𝕟𝕛𝕠𝕪𝕖𝕕 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕔𝕙𝕒𝕣𝕒𝕔𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕤. Lily was so relatable while being hilariously funny and snarky. We’ve all done things just to make our family/friends happy, even if we didn’t necessarily like it. At least I have 🤷🏻‍♀️.

✨ 𝕀 𝕒𝕓𝕤𝕠𝕝𝕦𝕥𝕖𝕝𝕪 𝕒𝕕𝕠𝕣𝕖𝕕 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕗𝕣𝕚𝕖𝕟𝕕𝕤𝕙𝕚𝕡 𝕓𝕖𝕥𝕨𝕖𝕖𝕟 𝕃𝕚𝕝𝕪 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝔸𝕝𝕖𝕩. At times, their banter had me laughing out loud!

For The Love of Friends was the perfect feel-good read, and I really enjoyed it. It definitely started out slow, but once I got into it (~Ch.8) I couldn’t put this book down!

Overall Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 Stars.

🗓 Mark your calendars! For The Love of Friends will be available for purchase on June 8, 2021.

❤️ Thank you to NetGalley & LakeUnionPublishing for this e-copy ARC of For The Love of Friends by Sara Confino in exchange for my honest review.

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https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3787105569

As someone who has a slight obsession with weddings, this book was perfect for me. I adored it. I loved getting into all of the messy parts of weddings, as well as the fun parts. I really enjoyed Lily as a character. She was fun and bold and sassy, while also having some insecurities. She was a very realistic character. I found her relationships with her family to be really realistic as well. They weren't overly horrible or fake nice. There was real insecurity in her relationship with her mom and sister, which I think is pretty common. I loved that the relationships that were shown seemed real. That is always a huge plus for me in a book. I also very much enjoyed the plot of the book. It was a classic romcom plot with a bit of a twist to make it new, which is always fun. Most of all, I really appreciated how the author didn't shy away from the repercussions to Lily's actions. While I won't go into detail, she didn't get off scot free. She had real consequences and had to face real emotions. I hate when people just move on and pretend like nothing ever happened, since that doesn't happen in real life. Kudos to the author for that. Overall, it was funny and enjoyable and I would actually read this again! I definitely recommend it, especially if you love weddings like me:)

It is the love of friends and family that gets 32-year-old Lily Weiss to agree to be a part of five weddings within weeks of each other. A talented writer, Lily handles PR for a science foundation. But all her mother is concerned about is that she doesn't have a marital prospect.

At first her office colleague Caryn Donaldson asks her to be her bridesmaid, then college roommate Sharon asks her the same. Then best friend Megan asks her to be maid of honour. Lily has barely any time to recover when younger brother Jake announces his plans for a destination wedding with fiancée, Madison, and then it’s younger sister Amy getting married to her boyfriend, Tyler.

Lily finds herself struggling under the financial implications of having to scrounge and save and come up with money to buy five bridesmaid dress, five pairs of shoes, besides the stress and cost of throwing showers and bachelorette parties and paying for gifts for the showers and weddings. And then there’s the added cost of the hotel room and airfare to Mexico. All this without a date and her own mother rubbing it in.

The most unbearable part of it all is that on the night of Megan’s engagement, she got to know about Amy’s upcoming wedding, and in a moment of frustrated disappointment, drank too much and ended up sleeping with one of Megan’s groomsmen. And she doesn’t even know the guy’s name.

To make matters worse, there’s drama from Momzillas, Bridezillas, and even bridesmaids from hell. Thankfully, she makes a new friend in Alex, one of the groomsmen in Megan's wedding.

It’s a recipe for disaster. What’s a girl to do, if not vent? So Lily starts her anonymous blog, Bridemania, to talk about the drama that is now her life. The blog allows her to be sarcastic and snarky as she chooses to be. After all it's anonymous. But what will happen if people ever get wind of what she has written?





The writing is fun and witty; the style chatty. The book is a mix of narrative interspersed with emails, texts and blogposts.

There were naturally too many characters, and I agreed with Lily that they were mostly all alike. It was also hard to keep track of all the showers and parties and figure out just how badly Lily's bank balance was suffering as a result.

I did, however, enjoy the pop culture and current affairs references to Willy Wonka, Nellie Bly, Marty McFly, Doc Brown, Mean Girls, Austin Powers, Princess Leia, Goldilocks, Brangelina, even Azkaban.





I'd picked up this book, thinking that chick lit meant light reading but before long I found myself hyperventilating at the thought of all the Bridezillas, Momzillas and all their crazy demands.

Beneath the garb of chick-lit, the book felt like a cry for singles to be allowed space to be, for women to not be body-shamed, for mothers to treat their daughters with compassion and love, because the tone and content of a mother's voice is what a daughter carries all her life.



I don’t know how American women can cope with all the crap that bridesmaids have to face.

Of course, in India, wedding madness has been elevated to an art form. But even so, I think it’s unfair to expect women to pay for expensive clothing that’s too horrible to wear again, and have to throw showers and parties besides. I’d never sign up. The book becomes a critique of this element of the wedding culture. Also, a critique of the culture that forces people to fit in or feel left out.



I wasn't too happy with the ending honestly. The snarky tone could have been pulled down a notch, but the excessive apologies meant that all Lily's grievances were not only never fully addressed but also summarily dismissed. I felt that Lily should have been allowed to make a point about the fact that the wedding culture is so commercialised and that there was so little emphasis on the significance of the marriage.

Plus, the end of Sharon's friendship was unrequired. I felt bemused and aggrieved to note that while she broke off the friendship, it didn't stop her from keeping the gift that Lily sent.

i laughed, i cried, i gasped out loud in complete shock, i laughed some more. this was such a fun book to read and a perfect way to wind down during an evening alone! thank you netgalley for providing me w an e-arc :)

I have to say that a bride-to-be's obsession with the wedding has passed me by. This book takes place in the USA, where the requirements for a wedding (shower, batchelorette etc, etc) seem rather over the top. Lily is asked to be bridesmaid at 5 weddings taking place within a couple of months. On one hand this book is poking fun at the impossible demands that the bride to be makes upon her friends and family in this situation and the effect this has on the relationships between the friends.
Faced with enormous costs for 5 dresses , gifts etc, Lily starts a blog. Anonymous so that she can vent on the impossible demands placed upon her. At times these demands are very funny, at times quite shocking. The readership builds up gradually and it becomes a way to vent her feelings. As a reader, you understand her frustrations with the brides'obsessions with their wedding, though as the story moves on you also come to know what the brides think of her too.
All in all a good , entertaining read which becomes a real page turner towards the end.
Thank you to net galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

A perfect book to lose yourself in. Relatable in both the humor and ridiculousness of modern weddings as Lily regales the tales (and woes) of the five weddings she’s in. While slightly predictable, the story is one you don’t want to put down and features an important lesson about self reflection. Definitely recommend. Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC.