Review by Booklist Review
Part sparkling satire, part cautionary tale, Vatner's (Carnegie Hill, 2019) frothy latest casts an affectionately critical eye on social-media influencers and the contemporary wedding industry. Single mom Iris, a compliance officer at a New York hospital, is sick and tired of the emotional and financial tolls of being a bridesmaid--particularly those tolls imposed by her upwardly mobile sister, bride-to-be Jasmine--so she starts a private Facebook group to vent. The success of the group leads to problems of its own, and soon Iris' identity and opinions are outed, to the detriment of her personal relationships. While the novel's tone sometimes precipitously shifts from light to oddly serious, and Vatner tries to cram in more characters and plots than one fluffy novel can successfully contain, he juggles them mostly successfully, and even makes the reader understand the perspective of even the most initially unlikeable characters. At its best, the novel offers plenty of wedding-inspired laughs and a few useful warnings.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this sharply satiric take on nuptials and social media from Vatner (Carnegie Hill), Iris Hagarty loves weddings, but hates brides. Iris, a 30-year-old single mother, can't find a boyfriend and is sick of all the demanding brides she has accommodated as a bridesmaid over the years. To cope, she creates a secret Facebook account called the Bridesmaids Union, a support group where unhappy bridesmaids can vent about their worst wedding experiences. Then, Iris's spoiled younger sister, Jasmine, who designs dog booties, announces her engagement to a tech entrepreneur worth $50 million. Iris tries to get into the spirit of things as entitled Jasmine holds a quiz to see who her maid of honor should be, and Iris almost goes broke planning her sister's destination bachelorette party weekend. To complicate matters, Iris finds herself attracted to Jasmine's fiancé. Then, the content of Bridesmaid Union, including Iris's complaints about Jasmine's wedding, is made public, and all hell breaks loose. Vatner digs beneath the story's shiny rom-com surface to unearth some hard truths about weddings and family ties. Iris makes for a punchy heroine and Jasmine a worthy foil, and their story is entertaining and, in the end, quite moving. Reading this spiky tale is like catching a beautiful bridal bouquet with thorns. Agent: James Fitzgerald, James Fitzgerald Agency. (June)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Vatner follows up his debut novel Carnegie Hill with a not-so-lighthearted look at bridezillas and the bridesmaids who serve them. Staunch Democrat Iris has been estranged from her non-voting sister Jasmine and evangelical Trump-voting parents since the 2016 election, so she's pleasantly surprised when Jasmine asks her to be a bridesmaid. But before long, Iris, needing to vent about her sister the bridezilla, starts a secret Facebook group for bridesmaids. It soon has a few hundred members sharing bridal horror stories, including Ryan, a popular style influencer whom Iris makes an admin when he helps her out. When spoiled Jasmine does something particularly egregious, Ryan decides to call her out and makes the bridesmaids group public. Iris gets in trouble and there are a lot of hurt feelings before the surprise ending. VERDICT Family drama, politics, and religion are interesting fodder but may turn off some readers. Should appeal to fans of Jonathan Tropper.--Stacy Alesi
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Combine a family torn apart by Trump-era politics, anonymous Facebook profiles, and bride-and-groom alpacas to get a mostly entertaining tale of bridesmaid woes. Iris Hagarty, a single mother in her late 20s, is the living embodiment of "always a bridesmaid, never a bride," with the unfortunate addition of having been abandoned at the altar. Burned out by her frequent experiences as a bridesmaid, coupled with her insistence that her hard work is never acknowledged (she made beautiful last-minute centerpieces, and her BFF the bride didn't even thank her!), Iris decides to create an anonymous Facebook support group for beleaguered bridesmaids: "The twenty thousand dollars she'd spent on bridesmaiding had piled up so much credit card debt, she couldn't bear to think about it. As much as she loved weddings--the comforting formality, the beauty, the joy of the betrothed--being a bridesmaid was sucking her dry. Sure, she didn't have to accept every invitation, but it never seemed OK to turn them down." Thus the Bridesmaids Union is born, and Iris' life becomes a little more complicated as she navigates the trials of her day-to-day life as a single mother, her growing duties as her sister's maid of honor, and her increasing internet fame. While Iris' self-righteousness and seemingly terrible decision-making wear a little thin (seriously, when has it been a good idea to secretly blog about your friends and family?) and the book leans too heavily on clichés--bridezillas, demanding mothers, and Instagram influencers peddling canine outerwear abound--Vatner nonetheless manages to create characters with surprising emotional resonance as well as to tap into the tumultuous world of online community-building. An amusing story with a host of intriguing personalities. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.