I picked this book up in preparation for a bookish adult summer camp I was attending, where Lian Dolan was going to be one of the featured authors!

ABIGAIL AND ALEXA SAVE THE WEDDING puts a fun spin on weddings. Instead of the narrators being the bride and groom, they are instead the mother of the bride and the mother of the groom! Abigail and Alexa come from two very different backgrounds, but they find it in themselves to team up to save their children's wedding!

There were some fun gossip articles mixed in with the story. I appreciated both Abigail and Alexa's unique perspectives and the humor they brought.

I had a great time hearing Lian speak about this book and the inspiration for the story! She is hilarious!

Abigail and Alexa Save The Wedding is the best kind of summer book - frothy and funny with a lot of heart. A throughline is the importance of relationships between women. Mother of the Groom Abigail and Mother of the Bride Alexa are cagey around each other initially, but are able to pull off a truly epic surprise - and wedding - as a united front, with strong assists from The Merry Widows, Alexa’s devoted group of girlfriends.

Funny but often exasperating the mothers of the engaged couple go toe to toe to not only pull off the wedding but get the kids back together.
It was a funny and take a poke at the multibillion dollar wedding industry.
I thought both mothers were equally audacious but endearing in their own ways.
The ending was a piece of cake!

Light, quick, fun read. Love reading books that go by quick because I’m so invested in the story. 10/10 recommend

A totally different take on the genre of wedding planning. This made me laugh out loud. No bridezilla or groomzilla here. Their idea is a lovely, elegant California wedding with lots of little white lights and flowers. Elegant and their dream to celebrate with their loved ones. Then we meet their mothers who have incredibly divergent opinions on…everything. They’re so incredibly different in just about every way. One is baffled that anyone would want to tether themselves to another human being via marriage. She is independent to her very core. The other mother is happily living her country club life and cannot conceptualize why her beloved child wouldn’t want to get married at said club. That it happens to be on the opposite coast from which the couple lives doesn’t enter her mind. Additionally, she is all about appearances and maintaining optics to her community even when things aren’t as they appear to be. Let the games begin. It's funny, poignant, laugh out loud funny, ironic, well written and a thoroughly enjoyable read with a great cast of characters. And yes, we get a riotous love filled wedding.

Alexa has loved her life as a single mom to Penny. They’ve experienced adventure and connection. Although Penny now lives across the country in NYC, while Alexa is in Montecito, they’re still very close.

Abigail is proud of her family of 4. Her husband, George (retired mildly successful financial advisor), daughter (field hockey coach) Sarah, and son (aide to the Mayor of NYC), Chase.

When these families blend at the engagement of Chase and Penny and planning a wedding in months’ time, these uncharted waters start pretty bumpy. But soon- everyone is on one side and…“Operation Butterfly was underway, a multi-borough plan that involved a mayor, an English lord and the sculptor Isamu Noguchi, plus a cadre of wealthy widows from California, a handful of Daughters of the American Revolution from Connecticut and the staff of the senior center—all in service of love.”

@liandolan this story is pure and sweet and so fun. It is told by the mother of the bride and mother of the groom POV. You’ll laugh, cheer, and feel so lucky to have been invited to the nuptials of Penny and Chase! (The advice column excerpts in each chapter are a chef’s kiss.)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to @netgalley and @williammorrowbooks for this #advancedreaderscopy I’m a little late on this review- it’s out now!!

#2025bookchallengebook58of100
#abigailandalexasavethewedding
#teamlove

I love reading books about weddings, so Abigail and Alexa Save the Wedding by Lian Dolan caught my attention right away. I also was intrigued by the unique angle of this book being told from the perspectives of the mother of the bride and mother of the groom. As someone who was the mother of the bride last year, I could definitely relate to a lot of the emotions and chaos that came up! The contrast between the East Coast and West Coast moms was fun and added some tension and humor. That said, the pacing felt a bit slow in places, and it didn't fully hook me until the last third of the book. But once it picked up, I really enjoyed seeing how everything came together. A good read overall, especially if you like books about family dynamics and weddings.

This is a book I shared with my patrons as a must-read for summer. I really enjoyed Abigail and Alexa Save the Wedding for its refreshing focus on the mothers of the bride and groom. Though Abigail and Alexa are very different in personality and background, the story highlights how they come together to create a meaningful and successful wedding for their children. Their mutual respect and understanding was both heartwarming and authentic. Both women are likable and relatable, and the supporting characters add warmth and charm to the story, making it an enjoyable read from start to finish. This was my first book to read by Lian Dolan and I look forward to her next books.

nfortunately, this one didn’t hold my attention and I ended up putting it down around the 13%. The premise had potential, but the execution just wasn’t for me. Still grateful to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity.

Penelope (a Cali girl) and Chase (NY politician) get engaged in a quick time period and decide they want to marry by the end of the year. Enter.... the MOB and MOG. Alexa, the MOB was born in Greece and resides in CA and wants a California wedding), while the MOG is the complete opposite and lives in CT and prefers a wedding at their golf club.

It really was a cute book and LOL funny at parts, but it dragged a bit for me- maybe because I could not relate to it much. All in All- a decent beach read!

Lian Dolan's novels are always a fun romp and she takes us in a different direction in Abigail and Alexa Save the Wedding!

Penny and Chase are a hard-working and driven couple in their 30's and they've been to a lot of weddings. When it comes time to plan their own (with a very short timetable), they have a long list of the things they don't want. They're initially excited to undergo the planning process, but their mothers (Abigail and Alexa) are not as excited as they get to know each other and feel comfortable about the marriage of their children. When the two mothers need to take over the wedding planning, all kinds of entertaining things ensue!
This is not the typical wedding novel, since it's really focused on the two mothers and not the bride and groom. But...don't worry...there is an actual wedding! There's great detail about life in Montecito, California, Alexa's wealthy friends, and I especially loved the description of the merchandise in the store, Kalliope Moon!
Thanks to Netgalley and William Morrow for the opportunity to read Abigail and Alexa Save the Wedding. I received a complimentary copy of the novel and opinions expressed are completely my own.

Penelope and Chase make a lovely couple. She’s a bubbly Southern California girl with killer work ethic. Chase is smart and charming and has political aspirations. They’re planning a spectacular California wedding, wrapped in peonies and thousands of little white lights, soaked in custom cocktails and romantic hashtags. Everyone’s excited about Penny and Chase’s wedding­­­­­­—except their mothers.

The Mother of the Bride, suave Greek-born Alexa Diamandis, doesn’t understand why any woman would get married. Ever! Raised in Athens and now perfectly situated in sun-splashed Montecito, California, she raised Penny as single mother by choice, supported by Lord Simon Fox, her old college friend who just happens to be an English aristocrat, and a wealthy circle of lady friends who call themselves the Merry Widows. The connection between Alexa and the Merry Widows was a perfect combination - their friendship really made this novel feel authentic to me as my own mother has a very close group of girlfriends and they do band together to support one another. I also love how they built a connection with Abigail and supported her as well.

The Mother of the Groom, Abigail Blakeman, is a garden club stalwart firmly planted in coastal Connecticut. She thinks the whole enterprise would be so much easier if the wedding was at their golf club. Especially because the Blakeman’s fortunes have taken a turn for the worse—not that you would ever know it by looking at Abigail. Keeping up appearances is exhausting, but it is everything. Abigail was probably my favorite character as she juggled the finances of her family and was very savvy in planning and preparing her family for the occasion. I loved how the author made this a novel about women supporting women and about how women rescue each other or themselves or their families at any cost. You initially might thing Abigail was a very rigid woman, but you grow to empathize with her as the story moves on.

I read this on my flights from Syracuse to Denver and on to Durango. A lighthearted and beautifully in-depth story about the lengths mothers and mother in laws will go to support their children, true love and plan a meaningful wedding. I loved how this was more than just a cute romance novel because the characters had so much complexity and it appealed to me so much as a middle aged woman who is a mother, and I related to the main characters so well because of this - the author did a beautiful job describing the intentions, and motivation of the characters extremely well.

I loved the in between chapters a la Lady Whistledown narration by Bernadette "Aunt B", by the wedding planner/wedding gossip columnist extraordinaire. The structure of the book made this fast paced, well done, it hooked me, and I loved how I had this additional gossipy narrative as another point of view to introduce the alternating chapters of Alexa and Abigail.

4.5/5 rounds to a 5 star rom com and I'd love to see this on screen.

I went into this book with high hopes as it mentioned coastal Connecticut (where I reside!). I wish I could enjoyed it more but it unfortunately wasn’t for me. Thank you William Morrow and NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

I didn't know what to expect and when I realized that it was told from the moms points of view it gave me pause but I was blown away by this book! I enjoyed it greatly!

Cute rom-com. I loved the characters as they all came together to save the wedding. All's well that ends well. It did not incite any real emotion in me and thus, I can only give it 3 stars. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC. This review is my own.

Thank you to Net Galley and William Morrow for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This flipped the story a bit on a typical book about a wedding, focusing on narration from both the mother of the bride and groom. It was a cute, easy, breezy read, a lighthearted and humorous story, perfect to finish in one sitting.

I really enjoyed this book. The characters were great and the planning of the wedding was fun and entertaining. Perfect summer book.

This book was such a delight!
It wasn't exactly what I expected and I loved it all the more for that.
Dolan has a way of inviting readers into her characters' world with a warm, witty and accessible voice.

As a soon-to-be Mother of the Groom (MOG) I was excited to read this latest Lian Dolan novel. Oh, my goodness, what a fun and hilarious ride!

Merging families can be a challenge and weddings don’t always bring out the best in people. Told from alternating points of view from the Mother of the Bride (MOB) and MOG, Dolan takes us from the engagement to the nuptials and it’s quite the journey.

MOB, Alexa, is a proud single mom and business owner who raised her daughter, Penny, to be independent. With roots in the Greek isles and currently living in the posh community of Montecito, California, Alexa envisions a west coast wedding with homage to her Mediterranean heritage. Abigail, the MOG, is a Daughter of the American Revolution who calls Connecticut home. Her ideal wedding would be at their stately New England home with her country club friends in attendance. Of course, the bride and groom have different ideas from both moms.

Despite their differences, when the lovebirds hit a snag due to wedding planning tensions, it’s the moms who step up and figure it out, but not without some hilarity along the way. I thoroughly and completely enjoyed this book and guffawed through the entire thing. I, of course, intend to be the most cooperative, supportive, non-stress inducing MOG of all time. If I can’t pull that off, I would happily settle for being an Abigail or an Alexa.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the advance copy. All opinions are my own.

Lian Dolan's latest, Abigail and Alexa Save the Wedding, was a joy to read. It's the story of a young couple from engagement to wedding, as seen through the eyes and actions and circumstances of their families and close friends. Characters, especially the bride and groom's families, were perfectly developed, and the bi-coastal locations were described so well you could imagine being there. This novel is one of Lian's best.