What do a best friend, a best work friend, a former college roommate and two siblings have in common? They are all scheduled their nuptials with weeks of each other and asked Lily Weiss to be a bridesmaid. Yes, without a hint of romance in her own life, Lily has agreed to be in all five weddings.

In this debut novel, Sara Confino takes us down the rabbit hole of high drama in modern day weddings with the expenses, personality conflicts and bridal demands – all with great humor, snark and pathos. Faced with the possibility of mounting debit and frustration with the interpersonal dynamics, Lily decides to put her Journalism degree to good use by creating a blog to generate income and let off steam. To her delight she rediscovers her love of writing, which has been buried under her daily work of writing press releases for a scientific organization. As the weeks progress and the wedding planning and activities take on a frenzied pace, the blog, authored anonymously, begins to take on a life of its own. You can probably guess what happens, but the outcome is still satisfying.

Lily is a delightful character – likeable and flawed in a very relatable way. The brides, their attendant bridesmaids, and mothers at times are a bit overdrawn and melodramatic, but overall they reflect the insanity hinted at if you watch even one episode of “Say Yes to the Dress.” I particularly appreciated Lily’s self-reflection and maturity as she embraced responsibility for her efforts and looked to the future.

I look forward to more books by this author.

My thanks to the author, Lake Union Publishing, and NetGalley for the privilege of reviewing a digital ARC in exchange for an independent, honest review.

This review is being posted immediately to my GoodReads account and will be posted on Amazon upon publication.

The perfect summer read!

Hilarious, charming and you were with Lily every step of the way – you felt her highs and you felt her lows – through all the weddings and personal dramas. It was seriously gripping, I couldn't put this one down as I just needed to know what was going to happen next. Plus, it was so, so funny – I was laughing from the first page.

Exactly what I was looking for in a chick-lit book, I can't believe this was Sara Goodman Confino's debut – it was incredible! I will absolutely be keeping an eye out for her next release.

I've got mixed feelings about this book. The writing style was a bit all over the show, and it seemed overly full of drama to the point it was no longer realistic even for a romance novel. The overall premise would've been good but I found it too hard to read so wouldn't recommend

“With that settled, there was the issue of keeping the details of five weddings straight. I, to put it mildly, lacked major organizational skills.”

Lily Weiss is a 32 year old Journalism graduate working as an unfulfilled science journalist. She says yes to being a bridesmaid in 5 weddings, all taking place within weeks of the other….including the parties, bridal showers, and many, many dress fittings for each. As a way to vent about the various terrible and stressed people she meets, and her lack of passion in writing about the latest gamma ray experiments, Lily creates an anonymous wordpress blog: Bridesmania.

This book surprised me. From the description I was expecting something more similar to Jenny Colgan – a fun mostly light story with a bit of a puzzle or suspense throughout. Like a nice book to read on a chilled evening, you know? I didn’t bargain for quite so much drama!

As the voice and main character of the book, Lily was warm, likeable, and entertaining. I enjoyed that we both heard Lily’s thoughts and got to read the blog posts she wrote too. Because of this, I was so involved in her thoughts that some of the twists and turns in the story were unexpected, simply because she hadn’t thought about it and so neither did I.

Falling into this book was instantaneous, and had I not had to put it down to eat I would have read it in one sitting. I fully credit this to the talent of the author’s writing, as normally I’m not one for this sort of drama in a book. The plot moved along at a good pace, I felt neither rushed nor wished it would speed up at any point. I only wanted to rush through it a bit because I am an impatient reader and, despite my previous claim of “not being one for this sort of drama in a book”, I really wanted to know what was going to happen!

My only critique is that sometimes the events and people felt like teenagers in high school, although it is true that (unfortunately) people like this exist. I also felt her reactions (aside from the snarky anonymous blog) were sometimes unrealistic, although it may just be that she is a better person than I am. Saying that, Lily’s room-mate, Becca, did say her life was turning into a reality TV show- so I guess I can’t complain!

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to read a book filled with drama, friendship, and humour. It left me kind of wanting a sequel, especially after the last few pages – although I can’t say why as that would be a spoiler!