It’s a good sign when I finish reading a book, and I’m smiling. Alison Espach’s new novel, The Wedding People, not only left me smiling at the end; it made me laugh out loud almost from the get-go, and it will do the same for you.

My thanks go to NetGalley, Henry Holt, and Macmillan Audio for the review copies. This book is for sale now.

I’m not usually fond of romances, but a friend mentioned the premise of this one, and I couldn’t resist. In a nutshell: Phoebe, the protagonist, worn down by the pandemic and devastated when her husband leaves her, heads off to the posh hotel where they’d intended to spend their vacation. She takes no luggage or even her phone, because she plans to kill herself once she’s inside that lovely place.

Upon arrival, it’s clear that a mistake has been made. The entire hotel has been reserved for a wedding. But Phoebe’s room hasn’t been double booked, and so she is allowed, with apologies, to proceed to her room. However, the bride—wealthy, entitled, Bridezilla—learns of Phoebe’s presence, goes to her room, and orders her to leave. As they argue, Phoebe discloses her reason for coming, and assures her that she’ll be gone—so to speak—by the time the wedding takes place. But Lila, our bride, is having none of it. How dare Phoebe spoil her wedding! Absolutely not. She isn’t going to have guests gathering just as a corpse is being wheeled out to the morgue, right through the lobby! Phoebe must change her plans.

I won’t share any further developments, but I will tell you this: Espach can write.

Long ago, I decided that five star reviews should not be reserved for the rare gem bound to become a timeless classic. I give five stars to any novel that makes me unusually happy, and that represents the best being published within its genre. This book is one of those.

Helen Laser is the voice actor narrating the audio version, and she makes it even funnier. If you are strictly a visual reader, that’s fine, but if you like both formats, go with the audio this time, or use the audio and print versions together, which is what I did.

Highly recommended to those that enjoy a good romance, a good laugh, or both.

Rating: 4.75

This book was so well done. I finished it a couple of daays ago anad haave been trying to get my thoughts together. It was the perfect amount of cynical, honest, and emotional. The main chaaracter Pheobe is someone who I think that everyone has been at a point in their life. Becauase of this the reader would be aable to relate. Every moment of this book just felt so real and at times I had to put it down becuase I would get overwhelmed, but in the best way. The Wedding People is something that anyone will be able to enjoy. If you are a literary fiction lover you should read this one.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review

When Phoebe arrives alone at the Cornwall Inn, everyone assumes she’s there for the wedding just like all the other hotel guests. But Phoebe isn’t here for the wedding—she’s here because she’d dreamed of visiting with her husband before her life fell into shambles and her mind started taking her to dark places. And while the bride, Lila, has micro-managed every detail of what is supposed to be her perfect wedding week, she did not account for this depressed stranger being in the way.

What follows is the story of a week that is equal parts devastating, hilarious, absurd, and unflinchingly honest. The book cover and description led me to assume I was reading a romantic comedy or lighthearted beach read. Do not be fooled like I was into assuming this book is light. Instead, it is complicated, smart, bold, and hopeful. It’s the story of chance encounters, the impact strangers can have on one another, and what we can learn from being honest with ourselves.

I thought this book was brilliant, and I can’t wait to read more of Espach’s work. Huge thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Company for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed that the bride to be became good friends with a stranger. As the story unfolds, truths come out which leave the reader wondering. It's like peeling an onion. Are the bride and groom in love? There is an age difference. Read and find out! I recommend this book to anyone.

Witty and touching, Alison Espach presents lives at turning points and demonstrates that one never knows who or what will change life's course. The characters in this story are all so realistic and relatable. We've all met them in our own lives. I thoroughly enjoyed this humorous, thought provoking story. Thanks #NetGalley

This has to be one of the best books of the year!! It’s easy to see why this was picked to be a @readwithjenna pick. I absolutely loved this offbeat story that takes place over a week long wedding.

Phoebe goes on a solo trip to the Cornwall Inn in Newport, RI only to find out she’s the only non-wedding guest in the whole hotel. She takes the trip herself after her divorce- her husband never wanted to take a trip like this. She has other plans in mind when she runs into the bride, Lila, and she begins to spill her guts to Phoebe. Over the week, they make some major confessions to each other. This is a book that’s better off not knowing the whole synopsis, but just believe it’s worth the hype.

There are parts that are laugh out loud funny and so parts that are just so cringey. This book has incredible secondary characters such as Marla and Juice and also all the Jim’s. It has heavier parts than I expected, but I adored the wedding location and all the events leading up to the big day.

Thank you @henryholtbooks and @alison.espach for my gifted copy.

After seeing how much buzz this book got, I was worried it wasn't going to live up to the hype and man am I glad that it did. This was such a perfect, uplifting book about friendship, relationships, and identity. The writing was sharp and witty, which made the characters compelling and the story compulsively readable. There were moments that made me laugh and moments that made me cry. In short, I really loved this book.

The Wedding People was such a fresh take on a position most of us have found ourselves in: you're at a wedding (intentionally or not), you don't know a soul, and the experience changes you in unexpected ways. The gorgeous cover made me think this was going to be a light beach read, but the story is darker and more complicated than that. The characters are funny and quirky and there are themes of redemption, second starts, friendship, and love. I really enjoyed Alison Espach's writing and look forward to what she writes next.

Thank you to Henry Holt & Company and NetGalley for this ARC.

3.5 stars! Very character driven. The story starts out sad, and a little dark. But the characters keep you coming back and laughing! A great story of how strangers can completely change your life.

Phoebe Stone's life has fallen apart. Before the Covid pandemic, she had a happy marriage with Matt, a job she loved and the hope of having a family. Afterwards, not so much. Matt leaves Phoebe for her best friend after Phoebe and Matt realize that one of them is infertile and they won't be having a family. Worse, they both work as professors where Phoebe does so she will be running into them daily. Then to top everything off, her cat who loved her regardless of what she did dies.

Phoebe goes to work for the first day of classes and snaps. She leaves the university and ends up at the luxurious Cornwall Hotel where she plans to take all of her cat's pain pills, have a great meal and die in her sleep. But Lila isn't having that. Lila thought she had reserved the entire hotel for a week as it's her wedding week. She isn't happy to see Phoebe there and when she hears what Phoebe is planning, she is outraged. How could Phoebe ruin her wedding? Who does she think she is?

But Phoebe's plans don't work out. She can't have a great meal because the kitchen isn't doing room service because of the wedding festivities. The cat pain killers don't seem to do much and Phoebe wakes up the next morning. When Lila storms into her room, they start to talk and soon Lila has decided that Phoebe should stay for the week as she is the only person who is indifferent to everyone and who will tell Lila the truth about things.

As the week goes on, Phoebe becomes attached to the people in the wedding. There's Jim who thought he was taking the groom along as a wingman the day Lila and the groom, Gary, met and fell in love. There's Lila's mother who has a huge nude portrait of herself commissioned and which Lila gives to Gary. There's Gary's sister who dislikes Lila and is having an affair. There's Gary's preteen daughter, Juice, who really dislikes Lila and is suspicious she is trying to replace Juice's mother who dies. Then there is Gary who Phoebe feels an instant attraction to and it's clear as the week goes on that the attraction is returned. What will happen?

This is my first Alison Espach book but it definitely won't be my last. I expected a frothy romance but instead there is a gradual realization by Phoebe what was wrong with her life before and how to fix it going forward. The characters are well drawn and the reader will be pulled into the plot as the week of the wedding goes forward. This book is recommended for readers of women's and romance fiction.

This book was kind of wild, in the way that I had no idea what was going to happen next. I wouldn't expect that from this kind of book, but these characters are so diverse and have different ways of talking that I was always interested to see where we were going to go. This felt so real... other than the million dollar wedding. Some parts were over the top, yes, but that's what made this so good.

I was so happy to receive an ARC of this book, as it takes place in my hometown! I went in with high expectations, especially because it seemed like everyone I followed was reading it at the same time, but I loved it! It was laugh out loud funny, had great banter, and covered heavier topics carefully while maintaining some humor. The characters were all so entertaining, and I was honestly sad when the story came to an end. I'd highly recommend this one, and can't wait to see what the author does next! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Phoebe checks into a luxury hotel without luggage, intending to end her life, and quickly realizes upon arrival that the rest of The Cornwall Inn has been booked out for a wedding. When Lila, the bride, discovers Phoebe, the one thing she hasn’t accounted for in her meticulous planning, Phoebe’s plans begin to change.

I wanted to love The Wedding People after all its recent hype but I just did not. While I liked Phoebe, and Gary, as well as some of the secondary characters, I did not find the story “absurdly funny” as the blurb notes. This story does deal with some difficult subjects and it’s best to know that heading into the book.

I enjoyed some aspects, including the Newport, Rhode Island setting, but I was expecting more humor and as a character-driven, literary fiction lover, to like the story more overall. The Wedding People is well-liked by many other readers so don’t let my more of a miss deter you!

<i>Her whole life felt like work now. Even the parts that used to be the most fun, like reading over the summer or orgasming during sex or having conversation with her husband at dinner. They felt like things she had to be really good at now, in order to prove that everything was normal.</i>

When her fifth try with IVF ends in miscarriage, Phoebe falls into a funk and drinks too much. Her husband falls into Mia, a pregnant colleague. Since Phoebe and her husband both teach at the same university (although he has tenure and she's an adjunct), it's awkward. After the divorce, Phoebe is left with a job that can't pay the bills or even provide health insurance, and a cat. So once the cat dies, she decides to spend a night in a small, luxury hotel on the coast and commit suicide. The problem is that the hotel is otherwise completely filled with a wedding party and Phoebe is pulled into their orbit despite her best efforts.

<i>She looks out at the ocean spread before her. From up here, the water looks calmer than it does in movies. It looks like a flat and reliable rug, as if it knows nothing about what is to come. And it's true that Phoebe expected more from the ocean, maybe because she read too many Herman Melville books in which the ocean knows everything about the future--foreshadows death with every wild and loud crash of a wave.</i>

As Phoebe learns to say what she means, she's drawn into the lives of the wedding people, from the bride determined to make every detail perfect, to the tween daughter of the groom, to the bride's mother, Phoebe becomes important to helping them work through family dynamics and communication failures. As for Phoebe, she's pulled back into life despite her best efforts and wondering what trying again will mean for her.

This novel straddles the line between humor and brutal honesty with an assured deftness. More than anything, this is a novel about failures in communication between people, and in people's failures to communicate with themselves. Phoebe is a great protagonist; her years of measuring her words and actions have made her a keen observer of human relations and her newfound willingness to say what she means gives the people she's interacting with a lot to react to, both positively and negatively. But while Phoebe now speaks her mind, she's never cruel and she might be what the members of this wedding need.

Thanks, Henry Holt and Co., for the advanced review copy via NetGalley. Also, thanks, Macmillan Audio, for the advanced listening copy of the audiobook! What a treat to read this in both formats.

Allow me to add my voice to all the others praising this novel. Personally, when I saw Jenny Jackson (PINEAPPLE STREET) and Catherine Newman (SANDWICH) gushed over it, I didn’t even stop to read the blurb. If those two authors loved it, I would as well.

Phoebe arrives in a gorgeous gown with no luggage at a posh Rhode Island hotel. Everyone assumes she’s one of the “wedding people” there to witness a week-long destination event orchestrated down to the tiny palette cleansers by the bride, Lila. To Lila’s horror, Phoebe’s plans for her first (and only) evening in the hotel (with a bottle of cat tranquilizers) would cast a pall over her meticulous plans.

You might expect Lila to be a “Bridezilla,” and she is. You might expect Phoebe to be depressed, repressed, and melancholy, and she is. But what you might not expect is their surprising friendship, support of each other, and the way their quick but deep relationship reshapes everything they thought they knew.

I loved watching Phoebe bloom, opening herself up to new people and experiences and ultimately recasting her future in a new light. I loved watching Lila refocus on what was actually important. A full cast of fascinating, funny, and witty side characters rounded out a story that left me smiling weeks after the final page.

This is the first novel I have read from Alison Espach and won't be the last! I loved her writing style and thoroughly enjoyed this book. This touches on mental health, depression, death and infidelity, so please make sure to keep that in mind before diving in. I thought it was very well written, I love books with a strong mental health representation. 10/10 would recommend.

Really liked this book - the characters were refreshing and played into certain stereotypes with great success. I really need to know what happens with these characters down the line...where are they 3 months from now - 6 months from now - a year from now - Can one hope for a sequel?

The wedding people was an unexpected great read! Starting off the bat with the main character about to commit suicide you would think the book is going to go one way, but it goes towards the unexpected, It was so much fun to watch all the characters relationships change throughout the book, even though I spent a lot of time wanting to yell at some of them on what they should actually do... The ending nailed it and wrapped up everything very well and with limited yelling from my side. Highly recommend for a fun yet sort of deep and reflective read.

The Wedding People is dark, touching, surprisingly funny, and life affirming. It made me feel every emotion. I cried, I raged, I laughed, I celebrated. It is real and raw while also having all the best parts of a Hallmark movie. I loved the way the author wove the story through past and present showing the events that lead Phoebe to this place (both the actual place and the emotional one). I have so much tenderness in my heart for Phoebe and see so much of myself in her. Her journey of self discovery feels so well earned. This is a book of beginnings, of joy, of hope, of fear, of all the ordinary parts of life that somehow make it magical.
Chef's kiss to Alison Espach's writing, especially the dialogue. It manages to feel real without being cringy or overly modern. It helped bring the characters to life in such vivid detail. She manages to make you fall in love with every character despite their flaws - or maybe because of them.
So excited the rights have already been acquired for this book because it is going to make a great movie.

Phoebe Stone is a 40 year old professor who skips out on her life and checks into a fancy hotel in Newport, Rhode Island. She’s the only guest who isn’t one of the wedding people, yet she gets sucked into all the wedding drama during the week-long wedding party. Amongst all these quirky, disfunctional and rich people, Phoebe is able to find herself and who she wants to be. A clever and entertaining story.