This one just didn’t do it for me. I wanted more growth from the characters. I felt like they all started and ended the book generally the same people even if we learned a bit about them along the way. I couldn’t get into this. The characters were just not likeable enough. The premise had promise but the main character was trying to make everything about her. When clearly it was not. Yikes. This was was just okay in my book.

Thank you @NetGalley and @SMPRomance and @MacmillanAudio for my copies of the book.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for providing me with an ALC in exchange for an honest review.

Bad Luck Bridesmaid is every young adult's nightmare combined with romance, some happy and funny characters, and a wonderful underlying message. When bridesmaid Hannah's first bride doesn't make it down the aisle, it isn't her fault, but when three of her friends in which she was a bridesmaid for don't make it down the aisle, is it safe to assume it's her fault? And can SHE ever find love and get married or is she doomed to be bad luck bridesmaid forever?

This was a great listen! It was sad and heartwrenching, but heart warming and wonderfully whimsical all the same. This story has a lot of great points to learn from and each character was wonderfully adorable. There is a cute romance at the center of this book as well, and is not too spicy. This is a wonderful new adult novel with lots to love!

A love letter to complicated women. A love letter to friendship. A love letter to music. A love letter to ‘happily ever afters’ that don’t have to look like they do in the movies.

These are four of the things I love the most about Bad Luck Bridesmaid by Alison Rose Greenberg.

First, allow me to address the music. While listening to this audiobook, I wrote down “this book needs a playlist.”

So I made one: Literary Playlist Featuring Songs/Albums Mentioned in Bad Luck Bridesmaid:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0wOSen9IowBW2A5Uxb9t1X?si=b77aaf25ae284bfd

This book is also a love letter to the ‘90s, arguably one of the most fun decades for music.

Other notes I jotted down:

Very authentic.

This would make a great movie! When looking up the author, I see she’s a screenwriter, so hopefully a movie can happen in the future. I think it would be just as fun and heartwarming.

A huge shout-out for alternative happy endings – for happily-ever-afters that don’t always look like they do in the movies. That can look like different things.

Romantic love gets a lot of attention in books, movies, poetry, society. How beautiful to see a book place so much value on friendship. This is the content I often wish for in books but don’t see. Thank you for writing this into the book. It’s important to see value placed on other kinds of love.

A word on complicated women: YES. This is such an important and impactful thread in the book. Reminds me of Warsan Shire’s “For women who are difficult to love.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53JYLXVVd7g

Five glorious stars. I can easily think of friends I’d love to give this book to. It’s a celebration of authenticity, self-love, self-care and pride in being who you are.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio, for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook.

This was such a cute story. I laughed, cried and just made me happy on a cold Saturday day. I really enjoyed the characters and I also enjoyed the plot. I will definitely be reading more by this author.

This was such an empowering and insightful read!

Advertised as “𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚 𝐫𝐨𝐦-𝐜𝐨𝐦. 𝐘𝐨𝐮’𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐝,” this was certainty true, it was so much more! I also saw it publicized as “𝐀𝐧 𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧,” and I couldn’t agree more.

This profound story was a refreshing switch up that was incredibly heartwarming yet also a fun and easy, quick read! I appreciated that this book about relationships and introspection had a healthy balance of deep and emotional moments but was also sprinkled with an abundance of humour and wit!

This was a helpful reminder that our happiness as women, is not dependent upon men and that the most important relationship in your life, should be with yourself!

This story cute funny story was a great journey but I sure did not like the ending. This story follows Zoey the bad luck bridesmaid she has been in three weddings that never happened. When her best friend Hannah calls her to tell her she’s getting married in Ireland in three weeks to a man she just started dating Zoey is a little hesitant. Zoey realizes she has to go to Ireland and help her best friend make it down the aisle also to prove that she’s not cursed. To complicate matters more Rylan, Zoeys ex who left her after she refused to marry him, is going to be attending the wedding with a date. The story continues to follow Zoey as she tries to stop any disasters and the Erza the grooms brother who has decided this wedding will not take place.
This story had a lot of cute hysterical scenes between the two best friends a few of the had me laughing out loud. I will say Zoey was not my favorite character but I really liked how she interacted with Hannah and how much they loved each other. My issue with this book was in the romantic relationships , the decision Zoey made really made me say out loud why. If the ending was different this would have been a 5 star read for me. I really enjoyed the narrator as well she made the story fun and lively! I want to thank Netgalley and St Martens press for the opportunity to read this book!

After finishing Bad Luck Bridesmaid by Alison Rose Greenberg, I'm torn about my thoughts and emotions. Zoey blames hers for being a trainwreck with forever love. She has been the bridesmaid for three of her friend, and 0/3 were successfully married, and Zoey blames herself. Rylan is the love of Zoey's life, but when he proposes, she cannot commit to marriage because she's "bad luck." Zoey is very dramatic throughout the book. There were moments I honestly had enough of Zoey, but then her friendship with Hannah kept me hooked. I loved their complete support and endearing bond and friendship throughout. Overall, I'm not sure it was the romance I was looking for, but Zoey and Hannah did give me some laughs.

Thank you, Macmillan Audio and St. Martin's Griffin, for my ALC/ARC for an honest review.

This is a story about an unlucky bridesmaid: at every single wedding she attended, the bride changed her mind at the last minute.

Throughout the book, I could identify with the main character’s fear of marriage and view about « forever », so the fact that the love interest did not actually have a serious conversation with her and could not accept her response after the proposal was a red flag for me. Sure, attachement issues need to be adressed, but recognizing the problem and helping someone get through it is more important. The fact that the story revolved around that red flag was bothering me. I could no longer relate to it since the love interest had become a flat character.

The ending changed my perception about the whole book though. I loved the turn it took and the message it gave. I thought that Zoey really stood her ground and made the best possible decision for herself.

Bad Luck Bridesmaid
By Alison Rose Greenberg
Narrated by Sarah Naughton
Release Date January 11, 2022

Zoey Marks is a strong independent woman with a relationship book of rules. After being a bridesmaid at three different weddings that never happened she has decided that marriage is not for her and that she in fact has been jinxing these brides.

Than Rylan Harper the third waltz’s into her life and she starts ripping the pages out of her relationship book but after another failed bridesmaid attempt his proposal a day later is a no go. She is not going to walk down the aisle with any man. Her heart broken she continues to live her life.

Soon her best friend from childhood Hannah Green, who has always picked the wrong guy’s, is wildly in love and Zoey is faced with being a bridesmaid for the fourth time. Zoey is trying everything in her power to make this wedding a success but she is not prepared for the sexy brother of the groom who is trying to doom it. After finding out that her ex Rylan will also be in attendance she doubles her efforts to be the best possible bridesmaid in the hopes to win Rylan back, but does she really want him back?

This book is not a rom com as one would suspect from the title and cover. It has several steamy scenes. It will have you laughing out loud on minute and reaching for a box of tissues the next. It was great. I would highly recommend this book. Especially for all of us independent women out there that don’t need a man defining our lives!

Bad luck bridesmaid by Alison rose Greenberg This romance flips the premise that it is the male who doesn’t want to settle down to just one person. We have the settled ready to make this an all in relationship and we have the wild tattoo bohemian girl. Can they make this relationship work. His mother is praying not

This story is about one woman’s journey towards self acceptance and understanding her desires for her future. Her best friend is getting married and while experiencing confusion about how to find her own romantic happiness, she does her best to support her best friend as hiccups occur leading up to the day of the wedding. Since several friends have called off their weddings, she is determined to help her best friend walk down the aisle and willing to do anything to make that happen.

I found this story to be much more Womens fiction than romance. There is some romantic tension with her ex throughout the story, but primarily this focuses on becoming the person you were meant to be and truly accepting yourself (and giving yourself permission) to want you want - regardless of whether not others will approve or agree with you. In this case, a commitment phobic main character has to decide whether or not to commit with her loving boyfriend who’s idea of a happily ever after is marriage. She has to decide what she wants for her future and help her friend decide the same.

I enjoyed the themes and lessons learned throughout this story. I never really connected with the main character and found her to be a bit immature at times. I kept wishing she would own what she wanted and communicate that with her romantic partner, but that was the purpose of her story arc - to help her come to that decision and to own it unapologetically. I don’t often read Womens fiction so I’m glad I gave this a try. The audiobook narrator did a great. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book, all thoughts are my own.

This book had everything! Tears, laughing, falcons and Loch Ness Monsters!!

"Always. What an ambitions word for a fickle world."

Zoey has always loved romance but has never allowed herself to take that leap of faith with someone. She also believes that marriage is not for her. To add to that hesitation is the belief that she’s the “Bad Luck Bridesmaid” since the three weddings she has been involved in, resulted in zero weddings actually happening. All this held try until she met Rylan, her best friends cousin….maybe….?

Every point that Zoey would have ended relationships in the past was met with a “Yes” when it came to Rylan. They have a passionate deep love for each other, but is it enough for Zoey to go all the way down the aisle?

This book was a roller coaster of emotions. It played right into my hopeless romantic heart. I was cheering for Zoey. I was sad. I was laughing. I was a little turned off by excessive amount of Zoey’s drama. Overall, I would still recommend this book by @alison.greenberg .

The narrator for this book did a great job with this novel. The drama was felt along with the emotional pulls, flirting and steam!

4 Stars

Thank you to @stmartinspress and @netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

After reading the synopsis for this one and seeing the cute cover I was really excited to read this one and put it in my top new releases for this week. I was a bit disappointed by this over all because I found the main character was a bit annoying especially when she was talking about why she didn't want to get married. I was also expecting there would be more hijinks as she made sure that her best friend would make it down the aisle. I feel like the author could have left out the whole Rylan story and just focused more on the female friendships, and Zoey's personal development and I would have appreciated the story more.

A great escapist read with rom-com references, NYC and Irish settings, and a dishy voice. Very enjoyable.

🔊Song Pairing: Red - Taylor Swift
(Zoey loves T Swift as much as I do, throughout the book she was loving the Red album on repeat. Felt this hard)

💭What I thought would happen:

I presumed a lot of calamities happened around this one bridesmaid, perhaps linens set aflame 😂

📖What actually happens:

Zoey is the kind of friend who offers a filthy bottom of the purse Xanax, you jump I jump, perform public dance routines kind of friend yet somehow she seems to be the factor as to why her friends aren’t getting their fantastic booties down the aisle.

Three times now Zoey has bought the dress, gotten to the chapel but has never bore witness to her friends joining in holy matrimony. This has a strong impact on Zoey’s marriage phobia when her delicious boyfriend suffers from a serious case of engagement fever.

🗯Thoughts:

There is an “incident” with a falcon aka scary dinosaur that had me laughing out loud and felt 💯 like it could have happened to me. KAAARRREEEEN

Zoey bitterness towards her ex’s new girlfriend is beyond comical. Everyone can understand hating your replacement for no reason except that your ex should be sentenced to dying alone. Thinking what a whore in that fabulous dress, how dare she have perfectly placed hair 😂

“I drink far too much celery juice to die like this” same girl same. I may say this next time I think I’m in danger. This book is filled with fantastically funny one-liners. Zoey is an overthinking riot that I cannot get enough of.

This audiobook was very well done. I was laughing out loud more than once. I’d say definitely give it a chance. I could gush about this book until the falcons come home but I’ll leave it here. I think this will be a popular romcom in 2022!

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio and Alison Rose Greenberg for the ALC

There are pacing issues and redundancies everywhere. It takes half the book to get to the castle, which was the main reason why I wanted to read this book. (like Netflix's A Castle for Christmas) The other was for a romance/HEA, which I didn't get either. We meet Guy One, who does get fleshed out only for Zoey to ruin it. Then we meet another guy and, it seems like we're getting enemies to lovers but, Guy Two doesn't get fleshed out. Some descriptions made me cringe, " face with meeting a significant other's makers...Men are made in a way incapable of having an uncomfortable conversation with their female maker "
The author continues the tradition of misinterpreting Robert Frost's poem as it's about how different paths are interchangeable, not taking a path less traveled. There are references to James Bond, The Proposal with Ryan Reynolds, and clothing brand name-dropping every two seconds.
I can't connect to the main character Zoey. She's so privileged, immature, and super self-centered. She is edgy just to be edgy, which could work with teenagers or preteens but not adults(she's 29-31). Tattoos aren't that big of a deal. Also, she keeps pushing Guy One to have sex with her in public even though he's said no. If it's not clear, they're not good for each other. I connected with Ryan more and thought he deserved better.<spoiler>Ryan doesn't owe Zoey anything. It's his family's wedding, not Zoey's and, it's 90 days/3 months later. Zoey even knew he was coming with someone else. Mara is hot get over it. We zoom past cheating. Then It's revealed Ryan didn't tell Mara about his two years with Zoey and that he wanted to marry her. Effectively ending my empathy towards him and shifting it to Mara</spoiler>

This is a quick-read work of fiction about a woman who thinks she has been bad luck to the friends whose weddings in which she was to be a bridesmaid. This is an easy read, but I’m a bit ambivalent about the story. If you are looking for more of a romance-based fiction, I hesitate to say this is for you. It’s not a bad book, but it seems a bit repetitive with little payoff, while I appreciated the underlying message of the book of the value we assign ourselves. I liked it fine enough, but just didn’t love it so this is 3 stars ⭐️. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy for review.

Zoe is career driven, feminist, & VERY anti-marriage - Hannah is Zoe's best friend & loves love - Rylan is Hannah's cousin, totally put together, successful, & surprisingly sweeps Zoe off her feet - Graham is Hannah's fiance who is totally adorable & part Irish - Ezra is Graham's brother, part Irish, brooding, & v sexy.

Zoe considers herself a "bad luck bridesmaid" because the three weddings she's been in, none of the brides actually make it down the aisle. The final bride's lack of wedded bliss pushes Zoe over the edge and she cannot accept Rylan's proposal - enter total heartbreak.

So when bestie Hannah announces she's getting married to a guy she's only known a few months (in Ireland!), Zoe makes it her mission to get her friend down the aisle to prove to herself that marriage isn't scary and she just needs to be "normal" and marry Rylan.

I freaking loved Zoe's eclectic personality and her huge heart. I also totally vibed with her absolute fear of birds (especially those dinosaurs in Ireland).

While there was a lot of swearing and lots of steam (warning those who prefer closed-door romances), I could not get enough of @alison.greenberg writing. She has such a poetic way to describing complicated emotions and feelings:
"As I studied Rylan's eyes I was gutted with a sinking feeling, for the first time, these celebratory chapters in my rulebook had evolved into waring pages & they were now floating inside me, making tiny paper cuts on my heart."


(also I need a sequel of Hannah's life)

Bonus: this book was FILLED with amazing music references so I've rounded up a playlist with all the ones I found.

In summary - READ THIS BOOK

📍 New York City, Ireland
📝 Being okay with who you really are, feminist, best friendship

Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress

Zoey is not convinced that marriage is in her future. She likes her life, but doesn't want to end up alone per se so she is usually quick to temper expectations of the men she dates by saying that she isn't looking for anything serious. When the last three weddings she is asked to be a bridesmaid in don't actually happen, she begins to think she is a bad luck bridesmaid and that her own views on marriage might be detrimental to her friends' love lives also. Despite the foregoing, Hannah asks Zoey to be in her wedding and informs Zoey that her picture perfect ex-boyfriend, Rylan, will also be in attendance. The wedding weekend delivers tons of shenanigans, has Zoey second-guessing her life choices, and culminates by showing that happily ever after's aren't one size fits all.

I initially chose to read this book because the cover gave me cute rom-com vibes, but be forewarned this one is not your typical love story and I ended up appreciating it for that very fact. This is a story about a woman figuring out her own path in life despite what society tells her she should want for herself. I am glad that Zoey stayed true to herself, but wish the collateral damage of her journey had been avoided. I listened to this as an audiobook and thought that Sarah Naughton did a wonderful job.

Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press / St. Martin’s Griffin for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts. True rating: 3.5 stars.

Zoey has been asked to be a bridesmaid three times. Three times is also the number of times that wedding has actually taken place, leading her to start thinking she may bring bad luck to weddings. When her best friend, Hannah introduces Zoey to her cousin Rylan, sparks fly. A year later, Rylan proposes, but Zoey can't say yes. She is bad luck for her friend's weddings, so why wouldn't she be bas luck for her own? Wanting different things, the two break up.

Now, Hannah is looking to get married, and Zoey is going to be her bridesmaid. If Zoey can just get one person to actually go through with a wedding then maybe she can prove to herself that marriage can work, and she can get Rylan back.

I've never smacked my head so many times reading a book! I was really cheering along for Zoey to get what she wanted, but just like real life, this book didn't wrap things up in a pretty bow, and the characters make some mistakes that just made me crazy. I really loved this book because it wasn't perfect, it wasn't what I expected, and because it didn't follow the expectations that I have of a romantic comedy. Come into this one with an open mind, and know that it isn't your usual formula for a romance!

Thanks so much to Macmillan audio for providing me with an advanced copy of this audiobook in exhange for my honest review.