Cover Image: For the Love of Friends

For the Love of Friends

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Member Reviews

This was a great and fun read - got 27 Dresses vibes from the book! really enjoyed it and it's going to 100% be on my reread pile

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A sharp and hilariously relatable novel about the business of weddings, the toll they can take, and the lengths one exasperated bridesmaid will go to for the love of friends.

This was really fun, sweet and nice read.
I enjoyed lily's character
The romance was nice too!
It has a very little drama and was a very funny, goofy and romantic read

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I am a member of the American Library Association Reading List Award Committee. This title was suggested for the 2022 list. It was not nominated for the award. The complete list of winners and shortlisted titles is at <a href="https://rusaupdate.org/2022/01/readers-advisory-announce-2022-reading-list-years-best-in-genre-fiction-for-adult-readers/">

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Here is another book read in one sitting. This book has it all: sweet, smart and hilarious! Sara Goodman Confino is a new author I found in 2021 thanks to NetGalley. If you like intelligent romcoms, this book is for you.

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I wasn't sure I wanted to keep reading as the opening scene has a scandalous feel, but I'm glad I pressed through. This is an endearing tale, not merely of friendship but also of falling in love. It had an element of 27 dresses to me, with the main character being a bridesmaid in multiple weddings, but this one worked for me better than the movie did. I love the growth of the main character, in her willingness to speak up not merely online, by the end. I was grateful for real consequences for her actions, both good and bad. This one was a fun one, but also with some depth.

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"For the Love of Friends" by Sara Goodman Confino reads like the perfect rom-com. Centered around the life of Lily Weiss, a 32-year-old single woman who feels pressure from every direction to find a suitable boyfriend. Not helping matters, it seems that everyone --siblings, coworkers, childhood friends, etc. -- is getting married, and she will be part of 5 weddings in just a matter of one busy summer. When she finally gets tired of dealing with all these Bridezillas and their unreasonable demands, she begins an anonymous blog to detail all these miseries she's being put through. However, not everything is bad. One of her friend's groomsmen becomes her best friend and partner in crime, and feelings begin to grow. But once Buzzfeed finds her blog and publishes who is behind it all, Lily could lose everything: her friendships, her job, and even the new guy who's brought out feelings in her she's never had before. Can she salvage everything before it's too late?

I really enjoyed the topics that were covered in this book: family relationships, body image, self-confidence, and real romance. I could really see this book being turned into a movie, and I would love that! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

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Lily is 32 and single and a bridesmaid in 5 weddings in a two month period. She decides to document her adventures as a bridesmaid in an anonymous blog to try to make some extra money for all of the wedding related things. She uses the blog to vent and share some hilarious mishaps as well as her experiences as a bridesmaid in these very different weddings.

This book was hilarious. The blog posts were my personal favorite - they were snarky but so relatable for anyone who has ever been a bridesmaid. I loved the love interest, Alex and how Lily and Alex passed notes via Starbucks cups 🤣. This is a fun story about friendship, love and allll things weddings!

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the advanced copy.

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Funny, likeable characters, it's a can't put down kind of book! Well written and the story flows, which is nice. I could connect with the characters, also a bonus. Thank you for the advanced copy.

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I loved this book! As a single 29 year old with a mother who has made it her life mission to make sure I know she wants me to get married already, I found this book really relatable and fun. It was exactly what I needed when I picked it up! I definitely recommend it.

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Not really interested in reading this and it is quite old at this time. I want to try and be more selective of the arc's I request because selecting everything that sounds somewhat interesting.

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For the Love of Friends is a fun, sarcastic, and insightful read about a woman who somehow finds herself as a bridesmaid for five weddings in six weeks. Lily is 32 and single. It seems like everyone around Lily is getting married. The pressure becomes too much to handle, so she creates an anonymous blog and vents online. This book has the 27 Dresses vibes, and surprisingly it went in a different direction than I expected.

My feelings toward Lily were all over the place. While she doesn’t beat herself up about having a one-night stand, she also finds the perfect guy, but is too stubborn to date him. Eventually she does get together with Alex and I loved them together. They were so sweet and cute.

For the Love of Friends was a light and easy read. I loved the writing. It was addictive and fun. The plot was slightly predictable, but I enjoyed it nevertheless. While the romance isn’t the main part of this book I enjoyed the bits that were there, but would have loved more of it.

Overall, this was a fun, witty read and an amazing debut.

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For The Love Of Friends by Sara Goodman Confino
Tags: Contemporary Romance; RomCom; Friends To Lovers
⭐⭐⭐⭐ - I really enjoyed it and recommend.

Lily is 32, single and has somehow landed herself as a bridesmaid in 5 weddings all within a few weeks of each other. A wedding can drive anyone a little crazy – somehow it manages to bring out some of the best and worst of people. Multiply that by 5? Yeah, we all know you might be driven a bit beyond reason – which is what happens to Lily. What better way to get over the stress than to anonymously blog about it all – what could go wrong?

I’m sure for anyone that has been a bridesmaid or dealt with wedding drama, you’ll find a way to relate to this funny, snarky and highly relatable read. For me this was a hit – the premise was a win right away and I had high hopes going into this one. It was a little Bridesmaids meets 27 Dresses – it took the bits I enjoyed from both and mixed them together for a perfect romcom mix.

I loved Lily – yes she was snarky and a bit cynical, but we’ve all been there. I would have loved her blog and enjoyed reading it. I was hooked by this story from the beginning, I found myself reading every chance I got and ultimately finishing in a day. It was a light, fun, and amusing read – I really enjoyed reading all that Lily went through and I enjoyed the slow burn romance that developed as well.

I can’t wait to see what this author comes out with next, I’ll definitely be checking it out! Thank you to Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for the gifted copy. All thoughts and opinions offered are my own.

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4.5 stars from me.

I really enjoyed this book. I thought the main character Lily was loveable, engaging and real. This book has some real laugh out loud moments. Sarah Goodman Confino's writing style is right up my street. The humour was spot on. Grandma is fantastic. Her no nonsense, zero f's given attitude leads to some hilarious scenarios. I LOVE her.

Lily has a lot of challenges she has to face throughout the book that have nothing to do with being a bridesmaid. Her fractious relationship with her mother, awkward mistakes and the fear that she's losing her friends to relationships and marriage. I think a lot of what she goes through is very relatable and you do feel for her. I hate the misunderstanding element of this book but it works out in the end. But I think that as the reader, you quickly work out that things aren't the way Lily thinks they are. I don't know if that makes it more infuriating or not.

There was one moment in particular that felt like a punch to the gut. Her brother says to her "Lily, you take all the oxygen in the room". He was referring to the fact that her mother always praises her and she laps up the praise. AS SHE SHOULD. I hated her brother in that moment. He's a angry at her for being proud of her achievements. Lily is scrutinised and made to feel inadequate whenever she sees her mother and her brother knows it. That's why this remark felt particularly hurtful. It was so uncalled for and you really feel for her. Lily can be neurotic and self focused but she's an independent, single young woman so why does that bother everyone else? She doesn't do anything that warrants that comment. She certainly doesn't deserve to be painted as the villain in this story for writing a blog!

Lets talk about the best part about this book and that is Alex. Their banter and instant and natural rapport with each other, their chemistry, the absolute sickeningly sweetness of them... The new friends to lovers is a slow slow burn that really works. The fact the author spent so much time building a great foundation for the two of them and focusing on friendship is what made this story so special.

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This was a hilarious look into the exhausting life of being a bridesmaid not only once but FIVE times in one summer! Perfect for anyone who has ever gone through the hell that is pleasing multiple bridezillas. In this book Lily ends up being a bridesmaid for two siblings and three friends and the drama, cost and unrealistic expectations get the best of her causing her to write an anonymous blog about her exploits as a form of catharsis. When the blog goes viral and her identity is revealed Lily has to work hard to mend familial, friend and romantic relationships. Highly recommended for fans of the movie 27 dresses or books like The wedding ringer or The secret bridesmaid. Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my advance review copy!

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For the Love of Friends is a book reminiscent of 27 Dresses. I enjoyed the writing, the snark and the wit. The story itself was a little predictable and just not something we have never seen before.
However, the writing kept me going, the humor was exactly my style and I appreciated it for the "palette cleanser" type read that it was. Overall, 3 star middle of the pack read for me.

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I found this to be an enjoyable read, keeping me on my toes throughout. The storyline was written well and flowed seamlessly. I look forward to reading more by this author!

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This book was everything a woman wants to say but doesn’t! Completely witty and fantastic! A hilarious book about being in multiple weddings at once. Kudos to the author.

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Really enjoyed this zippy, fun and clever book. I loved the friend relationships and it was enjoyable from start to finish.

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Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I think this book just increased my wariness of being a bridesmaid by a thousand-fold!

For the Love of Friends follows Amy, a 32-year-old who by what she deems a series of unfortunate events, is invited to be a bridesmaid in 5 different weddings. Chaos ensues as she attempts to juggle all the different events, overbearing bridal parties, and her own relationship prospects.

For the Love of Friends accurately explores the dark underbelly of all things wedding planning, including bridezillas, overbearing mothers-of-the-bride, toxic wedding diet-culture, wild bachelorettes, and the sheer EXPENSE of it all. The things you'd never see in the IG photos.

As someone who loves watching Charlotte Dobre's Bridezilla series on YouTube and reading about crazy behind-the-scenes wedding experiences on the internet, I found this book to be quite entertaining. The writing was simple and easy to follow making for a light and fun read.

I will say though, that this book focuses on a very specific type of "wedding." Weddings, as we know, look different depending on one's family, background, location and culture. While the budgets for each of these weddings varied, they all seemed to be of similar size. Additionally, being a bridesmaid seemed to entail similar things for all of these weddings...dress shopping, bachelorettes, bridal showers, etc.

Those who don't relate to this specific type of wedding festivity or simply aren't enamored with this form of wedding culture may quickly find themselves tired of or unsympathetic to a lot of the events of this book.

Overall, a fun and quick read!

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This book was really fun, although it also got quite sad and frustrating at times. The main character called Lily finds herself being a part of five weddings, with two of them being her younger siblings' weddings, which puts a strain on her mentally, financially, and logistically. How is she supposed to attend all of the showers, parties, dress fittings, and actual weddings, and more importantly, how is she going to pay for it all?

The wedding industry in the US is just a special kind of unbelievable and some of the brides and bridesmaids became quite unreasonable - they wanted her to buy and wear a minimizing bra so that she can look "better" in the pictures (be aware that there is A LOT OF body shaming in this book), do several cosmetic procedures, change her hair color, pay thousands of dollars for a bachelorette party trip she wasn't even able to attend... in this sense, it felt incredulous and not relatable at all that someone would agree to some of these demands.

Lily starts a blog where she rants about the brides, bridesmaids, and her family members, and she isn't always nice but in the end, I still thought that her friends should have been apologizing to her, too. The way the blog went viral and she made thousands of dollars from it felt a bit far-fetched but what do I know... The boss in this one? Wow, if only more employers acted like that haha.

I really liked her friendship with Alex, although the miscommunication between them, which lasted the whole book, really bothered me. It wasn't the typical miscommunication trope where the characters don't talk about their feelings but it felt quite unrealistic that they would never discuss that one thing and thus it remained unexplained until the very end. Miscommunication is just one of my least favorite tropes but the friends-the lovers and fake-dating ones made it up to me. :- )

Overall, this book was great, I liked that we also got the actual blog posts, and I would be interested to read more from this author.

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