
Title | : | The Wedding Guests |
Author | : | |
Rating | : | |
ISBN | : | 0241960363 |
ISBN-10 | : | 9780241960363 |
Language | : | English |
Format Type | : | Paperback |
Number of Pages | : | 416 |
Publication | : | First published July 19, 2012 |
One wedding. Five nightmare guests. Five ways to ruin the happiest day of someone else's life:
- Cry uncontrollably over your ex in front of the bride and mix calming herbal remedies with copious amounts of alcohol so that it's hard to stand up - especially if you're a bridesmaid
- Dress like you are attending a funeral and look for opportunities to re-enact scenes from steamy novels
- Turn up late wearing a T-shirt covered in mud and something that looks like blood
- If you are the bride's uncle, who no one likes anyway, try to cop off with her friend who's way too young for you
- Wear a suit that stinks of chicken wings and then spend the whole reception propping up the bar
Who said going to a wedding solo couldn't be fun?
The Wedding Guests is a heartwarming and hilarious tale of what not to do at a wedding.
Meredith Goldstein writes for the Boston Globe and is the author of its hugely popular advice column 'Love Letters' where she dishes out pearls of wisdom to the lovelorn. She was born in New Jersey and now lives in Massachusetts.
The Wedding Guests Reviews
-
A really fun enjoyable read that has each chapter interspersed with different characters,all the singles at the wedding of Bee and Matt.. Hannah, Rob, Nancy aka Phil, Vicki and Joe.
Bee went to university with Hannah, Vicki and Rob so they all have history, along with Hannah's ex Tom whom she hasn't seen since they broke up 3 years ago and he's at the wedding with his new girlfriend Jaime. Hannah and Rob have a secret history together but Rob hasn't turned up as he's having dramas with his much loved dog Liz.
Joe who is Bees uncle is a 40 something from Las Vegas and he's making a beeline for Vicki as she reminds him of another Vicki even though he has a girlfriend, Sarah, back home and poor Phil who actually knows no one as he's taking the place of his mum who is sick.
Each of them come with their own dramas and problems and you wonder who is gonna get together with who and it's actually surprising the way it works out but it's nice at the same time.
My favourite was Hannah as she seems like the most down to earth girl who has been given some medication to help her stress levels, which just seems to make her behave worse as she takes some sort of reaction to them.
Easy to read and full of fun and laugh out loud moments with a whole host of characters, hapless and entertaining. -
17 Aug, 2013
This book is talking about the girl name "Bee" She is a nice girl and care other people feeling.
20 Aug, 2013
Now its talk about Bee's friends who is the wedding guest in Bee's wedding. She start to describe her bridge maid name is Hannah. Hannah is an actress that had experience with indie films that paid less than two hundred thousand dollars. She doesn't like the smelling of cigarette.
31 Aug 2013
Hannah start to dress up and be ready for the wedding that will be start in the next 2 hours. She describe Bee's dress and other bridgesmaids's dresses and she wonder why bridges always wear their hair in complicated.
2 Sep 2013
Hannah realize that Bee's wedding make her meet with her ex boyfriend again after they broke up for two and a half year ago. Its really funny about the way she imagines. She imagines that her ex boyfriend will beg her to come back to him and he always miss her. He would tell her that the worst night of her life (the nigth he left) had also been the worst night of his too and that such a sweet imagines.
5 sep 2013
Hannah keep talking about her ex boyfriend and it makes me feel that she still care about him. Hannah do everything that can change herself to look better like change her hair stlye or using brandname bags and stuffs.
10 sep 2013
Bee trying to explain to hannah about why bee meets new bestfriend that manage and help bee to design the wedding party. Bee doesnt want hannah to feel bad or feel like hannah is not bee's bestfriend anymore.
14 sep 2013
After bee explain to hannah, both of them talking about another bestfriend since highschool. She name is jackie. Jackie is unlucky girl that have a relationship with a bad man.
17 Sep 2013
They're having a party before bee's wedding and Hannah get angry at other people because no one help her to take care of Bee. Bee was drunk and puke, and no one help Hannah to clean up and bring Bee back to the hotel. Its makes me feel like why other people in this story are so selfish and its makes me get angry like
Hannah gets angry at them.
21 Sep 2013
After Hannah clean up all the mess. Bee tells Hannah not to do that, but Hannah not listens to her and Hannah explains why she has to do that. This section is shows what does the true friend mean. I really feel that Hannah love her friend and she cares her friend so much. Its really appreciated to have friend like Hannah.
24 Sep 2013
After that problem, everything is going to be okay. Hannah is not angry at other friends anymore and she try to be nice with them because they can help Hannah looks good and maybe its can makes Hannah's ex boyfriend comes back to her. I really know how she feels, all the sentences in the book that describe her feeling can makes me know how much she hurts, how much she miss him and how much she wants him back.
28 sep 2013
Now I start reading chapter two. Its start describe the second guest. First, I really confuse with this character. But after that two pages, I already understand this character.
5 Oct 2013
While I read this chapter I can feel that this book is very interest thing and I can't stop reading because its really funny and make me enjoy reading it.
8 Oct 2013
Now I know what I need to do when I'm get bored. I think this book is so amazing that It talks about the things that guests in the wedding did when they were young. Its can makes me laugh when I read the things that they've done when they were young.
11 Nov 2013
Didn't wirte a review of this book for awhile, but I keep reading it. Now I read chapter 6. I feel so so with this chapter because it kepps talking about the friends and its kind of the same with chapter 5.
21 Nov 2013
Just finish reading chapter 6, this chapter is okay not bad and not so good. I hope the next chapter will be fun.
22 Nov 2013
Its not what I expected, this chapter is kind of boring and hope to finish this chapter as fast as I can.
26 nov 2013
Its good and some of the parts are funny, easy to understand what it means.
3 Dec 2013
For this time, this chapter talk about the sad situation that they've met and it can makes me feel sad too.
17 jan 2014
Didn't read this book for awhile. Now I'm on the new chapter and its okay not good and not bad. Some of the words are hard to understand.
31 Jan 2014
Just a few chapters left and its kind of boring right now because this chapter is not interesting at all. It makes me feel sleepy.
11 Feb 2014
This chapter is kind of fun and it makes me laugh. Only three more chapters left and I hope that it will be fun. -
We meet Beth Eleanor Evans (aka BEE) aged 29 as she is writing her seating plan on a whiteboard (the type you see in a boadroom). It’s the last thing to plan and she’s getting married in less than 48 hours. She spends ages trying to strategically place the five singles that are attending when along comes her mother, Donna, places them. Job done. This is the only time we spend with Bee seeing things from her point of view.
Told in a third person narrative, we switch between each ‘singles’ point of view which is told from the time of the bridal party getting ready on the top floor of the Tower Gardens Country Club, through the wedding/reception and on until the morning after.
Three of the singles have history together having been at college in Syracuse but since drifted apart. Bee’s uncle spends the majority of the wedding with one of them. One of them doesn’t turn up until the next morning but is a part of it through phone calls … and one of the singles is a substitute having taken the place of his mother who is a close friend of the groom’s mother.
The focus of the story is more about the emotional lives of the singles rather than the wedding itself although it is obviously the wedding that is in the background and the reason that brings them together. We get to read their reflections and learn about hopes and dreams that have been put to one side although not forgotten. Bee’s wedding is a pivotal point in all their lives.
It’s easy for the reader to identify with each character’s profile and get caught up in the story. The characters on the periphery add even more colour with their personalities. The pace of the story is fast – there’s no time to be bored! There’s always something happening. There are some hilarious/embarrassing scenes and one poignant scene in particular that had me on the floor sobbing alongside the character.
The ending is satisfying although we don’t know the outcome for them all. However, we do know there are changes …
If you’re looking for a holiday read then I would definitely recommend you add the The Wedding Guests to your reading list.
I would like to thank the publishers, Penguin, for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest opinion. -
I was lucky enough to win this paperback book from a giveaway on Jera’s Jamboree. The blurb sounded different and funny so I was looking forward to reading it.
I always enjoy books about weddings but that’s probably because my own wedding was done and dusted years ago and I don’t have those kind of worries any more. This is the reason the first part of this book made me smile – the bride was arranging the seating plan and she was struggling to fit the singles (those going to the wedding unaccompanied) into the free spaces. This was the only part of the book about the bride herself, the rest was told from each of the singles viewpoints. I found this refreshing as most wedding books revolve around the bride and groom, although seeing as the book is called The Wedding Guests I really should have seen that one coming .
As I had predicted from the blurb there were lots of laughs to be had, I liked each of the characters – Hannah’s constant casting of the people around her, Vicki’s reading secret, Rob’s love of his dog, Phil’s caring nature and Joe’s hopeful but unrealistic dreams. It was when they all blended together that I enjoyed it the most and I found myself completely caught up in all the goings on.
The wedding and reception were so entertaining and I flew through the pages just so I could see what would happen next (I somehow managed to finish this in just a few hours). A discovery in the dark when the reception was nearly over had me cringing and laughing in equal measure!
The only issue for me was that the ending didn’t really wrap everything up as I would have liked, I still had some unanswered questions and felt like there should have been more to it.
This was an unexpectedly quick read that was light-hearted and enjoyable. -
Annoying people doing annoying things, and uninteresting people doing uninteresting things, and a very clichéed ending. I have kind of almost forgotten what it was about... The only one I cared for AT ALL was the guy with the dog. He seemed like a good person.
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Have no idea why I borrowed this book from the library so unless you like uninteresting, unoriginal books, don't read it
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boring and i needed a miracle to finish it
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it was.. okay. not awful, not good. just okay.
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Picked this up on a whim as I fancied an easy read - it was okay, not horrendous, but not in any way entertaining enough to make me want to finish the book.