About the Book
Title: The Wedding People
Author: Alison Espach
Series: none
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Pages: 367
Edition Read: Hardcover
Dates Read: July 1 – 3, 2025
Blurb: It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She’s immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years—she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe’s plan—which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.
In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.
Review
One thing that I’m really enjoying this year is reading the GoodReads Award winning books from 2024. I tend to get into a reading rut and it takes a lot to break out of that to find something new. This has given me the perfect outlet to expand my reading horizons. The Wedding People won the Best Fiction award last year and I can appreciate why. I really enjoyed this one.
I will give a trigger warning, however, regarding suicide ideation.
I think we can all relate to Phoebe in some way. She is a woman who has hit rock bottom – her marriage is over, she spent years dealing with infertility, her career is feeling more and more meaningless. Her plan is to ending it all wearing a fabulous dress in a beautiful place she’s always wanted to visit. Enter Lila, a bride-to-be who has rented out most of the inn for her picture perfect wedding. When she meets Phoebe and learns of Phoebe’s plan, Lila is concerned – not for Phoebe’s well being, but the fact that a suicide would completely ruin her perfect wedding atmosphere.
It’s easy to dislike Lila at first. She seems like a typical spoiled rich girl who has never had to suffer a day in her life. She’s also very clever and is trying to do what everyone expects of her, not what she actually wants. She doesn’t know what she wants. Through their friendship, Lila figures out how to manage her life better and Phoebe sees that there is still beauty in life despite it’s ups and downs.
This book has a snarky, at times dark,sense of humor that I absolutely loved. While the plot was a little predictable, I loved these characters so much that I didn’t care. The story was fun and uplifting and felt so genuine and fresh. A well deserved award winner that I highly recommend.
GoodReads rating: 5 stars
Categories: Books I've Read
Life With No Plot 
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