Very ominous but I felt the same way I felt when I read the clinic by this author. The premise is interesting enough but the reveal leads us to a weird turn in the story. It becomes something completely else and I just didn’t enjoy it that much afterwards.

This was a juicy treat that kept me locked in the entire time! A murder mystery, twisty, personal, and eerie. An FMC who gives exactly 0 clucks what anyone thinks and has incredibly keen detective skills. And if that wasn’t enough, a secluded island wedding following the murder.. with a history of its own. The ONLY thing I didn’t love about this book (but many will) was the detail of some of the gore. It was a bit much for cozy night reading when my hubby and son were out of town… goosebumps, and every noise outside had me flinching. But hey, that’s good writing.

I loved every second, and I look forward to sharing more on my socials closer to November. Highly recommend!

3.5 out of 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

I enjoyed this novel by Cate Quinn! A very quick read, would be perfect for a beach day. When a bridesmaid is murdered days before wealthy socialite Adriana Kensington’s wedding, Holly, a forensic expert, finds herself stepping in as bridesmaid while trying to solve the case. There is a lot going on here- multiple POVs, creepy academia backstory (I would read a book about the Kensington school!), a private island, forensics, and more. There were a lot of fun twists. Enjoyed the female main character and always enjoy rich people behaving badly. Will recommend!

Thanks so much to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book!

3.5 rounded down. I liked how suspenseful this was and how I never really knew what was coming next. But I will say, some of the parts of the book felt shoehorned in. Did we need a random romance for our lead? Especially when there isn't much building around it? And also hints to some tragic backstory that never gets brought up? There seemed to be a lot of threads Quinn wanted to pull and while I liked the general vibe, I think they could have been tied together a bit more cleanly.

A wealthy socialite planning the event of the year, a destination wedding, as her moment of survival following her kidnapping several years prior is suddenly confronted by the possibility of her kidnapper coming back to haunt her. Adrianna Kensington is the face of glamour and high society, so naturally she is pulling out all stops for her destination wedding. However, as forensic analyst Holly comes to find, what is portrayed in pictures is often very different from what is occurring in real life. In a strange twist, Holly is mistakenly added to the list of bridesmaids who join Adrianna at her family’s island in preparation for the wedding of the year. In between taking pictures for social media and trying her hardest to blend in, Holly is also working to solve the murder of one of her close friends (and the former bridesmaid who’s spot she’s been asked to take). When another bridesmaid is found murdered on the island, Holly begins to feel like her time to solve the murders is running out. Will she be able to solve the case before she’s next?

There were a lot of variables at play in this story, I felt like I knew where the twist was going and then it veered so far away from what I was thinking initially that I never could’ve guessed where it would end up! I enjoyed the story although at times my head was spinning trying to follow all the twists!

A huge thank you to NetGalley, SourceBooks Landmark and Cate Quinn for the advanced reader copy in exchange for my review! You can find The Bridesmaid on shelves near you on its pub date of November 4th, 2025.

This was a good, if slightly campy at times, thriller/mystery. I liked the premise & overall story, even though some parts were a bit over the top, imo. A good book that grabs you from the beginning and makes you want to stay to the reveal. A solid 3.5 to 4-star read & will look for more from this author.

💍 Book Review 💍

The Bridesmaid
Cate Quinn
SourceBooks Landmark
Releasing November 4th
⭐️⭐️⭐️½

Thank you @bookmarked and @netgalley for this #gifted e-ARC 🙏

📖 Summary:
The Kensingtons invite you to the society wedding of the decade. There's just one hitch. You might not make it out alive.
When a celebrity bridesmaid is murdered weeks before an exclusive society wedding, forensic attorney Holly Stone is drafted in as an undercover replacement. As she digs into the lives of the glamorous but secretive Kensington family, Holly discovers that the bride-to-be and her bridesmaids may be hiding dangerous truths. With one bridesmaid already dead, and a destination wedding fast approaching, Holly must uncover the killer before they strike again — all while staying alive herself.

💬 My Thoughts:
This was such a quick and bingeable read. I flew through it in just about a day and a half. The forensic and detective angle was definitely one of my favorite parts. It gave the book a bit of a procedural edge that really elevated the mystery. 🔬

I also loved the shifting POVs. It was so fun to get into the minds of multiple characters and piece together who was lying, who was hiding something, and who had the most to lose. The pacing stayed tight the whole way through, and the tension kept building with every chapter. 👀📖

There is something deliciously dramatic about high-society settings paired with murder. The world of designer dresses, billionaires, and backstabbing bridesmaids made this story feel like a dark soap opera — and I was here for it. 💅💰

Holly was a great character to follow. She’s smart, grounded, and totally out of her element, which made her perfect for navigating the lies and glitz. The short chapters made it easy to devour, and even though the ending felt a bit rushed, I still had a blast getting there.
Overall, this is a fast-paced, juicy thriller with a mix of forensic mystery, multiple perspectives, and deadly wedding vibes. Perfect for readers who love a little scandal with their suspense.

A fast-paced thriller, perfect for beach days and books you want to devour in one setting. The mystery was fun and engaging and the characters had a lot of depth. The twists in this book were easy to see coming but I still enjoyed it.

Going undercover at a socialite's wedding may just get you killed, too. This story has enough twists and turns to keep you engaged during the slower parts. The protagonist is likable and relatable, most of the other characters not so much. But the cover is awesome.
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It was a good book, and I was really, really into it until the very end which felt kind of disointed. The twist was great (I didn’t see it coming), but I don't know why the events at the wedding ceremony happened. Later on, after everything is wrapped up, we see Holly with a love interest that we thought might happen, but it seemed very last minute to include. Holly also investigating the case at the end? I think it would’ve been better either more fleshed out or cut short right after the news stories toward the end. However, up until the end, everything was really good and I liked the mix of scandal meets Hollywood meets NCIS. I can tell the author put a lot of work into the forensics and crimes themselves! Solid 3! Thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Landmark, and Cate Quinn for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Bridesmaid has a fun, twisty premise that blends destination wedding drama with a slow-burning mystery. The setting is atmospheric, and the mix of characters adds tension and intrigue throughout. While the concept pulled me in, the pacing felt uneven at times, and I didn’t fully connect with the characters. It had its moments, and the layered narrative kept me curious, but overall it was just an okay read—not bad, just not especially memorable for me.

Thank you NetGalley for the arc

"Perception and truth are different things. I'm learning that one."
Oh my goodness, this book had me second guessing everyone - even at the end. I love a good thriller and whodunnit, and this book had me sleuthing for clues. Told through multiple perspectives, we are introduced to Holly Stone, the forensics expert, who is brought in to identity what happened to an old friend. Add in a socialite wedding, bridesmaids handpicked for each role, a sketchy family history, and an unspoken past and you've got the thriller of the summer. I thoroughly enjoyed this book from start to end.

The Kensingtons invite you to the society wedding of the decade. There’s just one hitch. You might not make it out alive.


This wedding of the decade is a destination wedding, and I had no idea what a destination wedding was. A destination wedding is an advanced planned wedding in a foreign country, usually at a high end resort, where the couple, the wedding party and their guests stay for about a week, and where all activities related to that wedding take place. So you obviously have to be rich to have a destination wedding.

The bride is Adrianna Kensington. She is marrying tech millionaire Mark Li. A spoiled brat, Adrianna is the billionaire heiress to an international nightclub empire, and she attended the Kensington Manor School in New York. Three years ago, she was kidnapped by a stalker who held her captive for three days. Their wedding will take place on a private island, but how safe is this private island?

And the bridesmaids? They weren’t even picked by Adrianna because of close friendships. They were chosen by her father because of the influence they had, and they all also attended Kensington Manor School. Did Adrianna know them? Yes, but close friends they are not.

It all starts with the murder of a bridesmaid, but is that the end of it or not? Why was the bridesmaid murdered? That is how Holly is brought into the mess that is the Kensington family. Seven years after graduating, Holly is a whiz of a forensic attorney with blue hair and a lip piercing. Mark Li hires her to catch the murderer of the bridesmaid and potentially discover who kidnapped his bride-to-be all those years ago. He wants this person caught.

By accepting the job of investigating this murder while pretending to be the replacement bridesmaid, Holly is putting her own life in danger.

Each one in the circle of people surrounding the bride could be the guilty party. Each one has their own secrets they don’t want to be revealed. Every time I thought I had it figured out, it appeared all the evidence was pointing to another person. And that happened several times. Once the guilty party was finally revealed, I was still surprised.

The Bridesmaid is an unputdownable thriller that keeps you guessing. It also made me so glad that I never even thought of sending either of my children to a boarding school.

Having the main character investigate from inside the wedding was fun and she reminded me a bit of Garcia from Criminal Minds. I was impressed that this book kept up the mystery aspect and managed to pull off so many twists that made sense but weren't super obvious either. I enjoyed getting many characters POVs to get to know the characters better and see many sides of the story, but I was worried that it would take away from the suspense and mystery aspect. That wasn't the case though and it managed to pull off multiple reveals anyways.

I received a free eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The pub dates are weird on this one - looks like it was released in January in the UK, but here it doesn’t come out until November. I’ll be cautious about spoilers either way!

I requested this because the blurb intrigued me - I love messy rich people weddings! And with the added perspective of the detective (well, forensic investigator), there’s some fun processy stuff mixed in. The wedding in question is socialite Adrianna Kensington. She’s a non-specific “it girl” - I’m not sure what exactly she’s famous for? This feels like it should have been set in like the early 2000s instead of (presumably) the present day. There’s all this kerfuffle about brand sponsorships and photos of Adrianna being worth millions because she “doesn’t do videos”, but like…is there even still a market for that anymore? It strains believability, but you just kind of have to go with it. Anyway, her wedding is such a big to do that there are days of “trial runs” before the big event, and the night after one such trial run, one of the bridesmaids is murdered. Her body is found hanging in one of 3 wedding dresses that were strung up in the hotel ballroom. The whole setup is meant to recall Adrianna’s own kidnapping on her 21st birthday - when she was held for 3 days inside the panic room at her own house. Holly comes in as a forensic expert on the original crime scene, but it turns out she actually KNOWS the dead bridesmaid - it’s her former boss Simone. The two had recently had a falling out because Simone got too into her true crime TV show (this part strains credulity even further) and Holly was more about actual investigative work. Since the Kensington family wants to keep all of this quiet, Holly ends up hired on the DL by Adrianna’s fiance Mark to investigate both Simone’s death and hopefully solve Adrianna’s kidnapping once and for all, since the 2 crimes appear to be connected. Holly passes herself off as Simone’s niece and ends up basically taking her place in the bridal party (all of the bridesmaids were handpicked for “the brand”, although the rest are all boarding school classmates of Adrianna). So she goes to the fancy island and is as much of a fish out of water as you’d expect.

I actually had some of the same problems with this as I did with Quinn’s The Clinic – it seems like this is the second book of a series. There’s SO much backstory baked in that it’s like reading a sequel when you haven’t read the first book. We have all of the prep school drama, which I would gladly have read an entire book about. Then there’s Adrianna’s kidnapping, which is fueling a lot of the investigation here, but again we’re only told about it rather than shown. There’s also this weird romance between Holly and the NYPD detective who comes with her to the island (and they ALSO have weird backstory) that left me colder than cold. Also his name is Fitzwilliam and that’s dumb.

It’s a fast-paced story, but it’s also one that I can see falling out of my head in a few days’ time!

I like to give all books some credit - which the cover and the set up is phenomenal. Loved the concept but the actual application was a bit off for me. Granted it was pretty predictable as a whole but I did like the overall set up of the book.

I had a hard time finding a character that I liked. Holly was a bit cliche in the way of - I don't follow fashion alt goth girl that all of a sudden opts for lighter make up after she's had a makeover. The thought of having a bridesmaid that you never met just be thrusted into the wedding was just a bit much. The other bridemsaids? Well I kinda hater them all too. The groom - also very annoying and all seeing. All in all it was a lot going on with the characters.

Thank you NetGalley & Sourcebooks Landmark for the opportunity to read and review The Bridesmaid.

The Bridesmaid is a thrilling mystery that provided me with an enjoyable escape this summer. I have always appreciated a captivating setting, and the descriptions of the Plaza Hotel in NYC and the private tropical island for the destination wedding delivered. The story kept me on my toes, and the conclusion felt gratifying. The narrative unfolds through three alternating perspectives: Holly, the forensic specialist called in to investigate the death of a bridesmaid at the Plaza; Adrianna, the wealthy bride; and Petra, one of the bridesmaids. I do believe that the reading experience might have flowed better with just two points of view, and I often found myself questioning the inclusion of Petra's perspective. Nonetheless, this book was an overall enjoyable diversion.

Now, normally I don’t really like thrillers that feature police officers or attorneys, but Holly Stone is goth…and she is investigating the murder of her former friend and business partner - a bridesmaid who was killed and found in the bride’s wedding dress just days before the wedding!! And also maybe she was killed by another one of the bridesmaids?!

Also, let's not forget that the bride is super rich and she was kidnapped a few years back - that person was never caught...

This books sucks you in right away. I really enjoyed the beginning and felt like it had set up to be creepy vibes with their old boarding school. But then the ending just felt super rushed and underwhelming. There was almost too much misdirection that it got confusing. It was super quick to get through. But you might get annoyed at how much detail is spent talking about people’s outfits and hair and makeup in every. Single. Scene.

Thanks to netgalley for this arc. The book will be published in November 2025.

I really enjoyed this thriller by Cate Quinn. It kept me guessing until the end! Holly is a blue-haired forensic investigator who is pulled into the murders of the bridesmaid of a powerful NYC socialite, who also happens to be Holly’s former boss. This investigation takes Holly across NYC and to South America to find the killer.