For The Love of Friends

For the Love of Friends

by Sara Goodman Confino
Genres: Fiction / Women
Published on June 8, 2021
Pages: 364
Format: eBook Source: Library

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.

Lily Weiss is her mother's worst nightmare: thirty-two and single--the horror! She's also a talented writer but hides behind a boring job at a science foundation. To her friends, she's reliable and selfless, which is how she winds up a bridesmaid in five weddings in six weeks. Anything for her three best friends and two (younger) siblings, right? Even if her own love life is...well, she'd rather not talk about it. To keep her sanity, Lily needs a safe place to vent.

And so her anonymous blog, Bridesmania, is born. The posts start pouring out of her: all the feels about mom-zillas, her vanishing bank balance, the wicked bridesmaids of the west, high-strung brides-to-be, body-shaming dress clerks, bachelorette parties, and Spanx for days, not to mention being deemed guardian of eighty-eight-year-old Granny (who enjoys morning mimosas in the nude) for her brother's destination wedding.

So far the blog has stayed anonymous. But as everyone knows, few things online remain secret forever...

When all is said and done, can Lily help all five couples make it to happily ever after? And will her own happy ending be close behind?

I picked up this book because I liked the author’s new book, Don’t Forget to Write. This book is about weddings, which is a book subject that tends to annoy me, but I quite enjoyed this one.

Overall it made me happy that I never had to indulge in any of this nonsense. I’ve been in several weddings but the bridesmaids weren’t actually expected to do anything except help decorate the church. I never had to go dress shopping with the bride or plan an expensive bachelorette getaway or any of things that Lily is expected to do for each of her friends and relatives. I certainly was never asked to dye my hair and get botox.

The rash of engagements all happened in the summer and early fall. There’s something about warmer weather that apparently makes people want to commit themselves to a life of fidelity. That or engagements are contagious. Like the flu. If you don’t wash your hands a lot, you might wind up sneezing and wearing a diamond.

I liked Lily. She kept her head and sense of humor while wrestling all the dates and expenses for multiple events for each wedding. Some of the brides were absolutely horrible to her. Others were fine. I liked that the author made them all distinct so you could keep each event straight in your mind.

When the blog was discovered the brides’ reactions ranged from “This is funny” to “How dare you, you are dead to me!” I did find it a little weird that she was able to monetize the blog pretty much from the beginning. I think plots that involve, “Let’s make a blog and make bunches of money” tend to be pretty far-fetched.

Overall this book was more fun than I was expecting it to be. I hate reading about demanding brides but the focus on Lily kept it seeing the absurdity surrounding weddings.