Kevin “Vi” Connelly has dreamed of her perfect wedding since she was six years old. Ever since she was a flower girl at her aunt’s wedding, she has embraced the belief that your wedding is the best day of your life. Now Vi is an adult living in D.C., trying to figure out her career path and living for her Sunday get-togethers with her posse of friends. but she still clings to the dream. Then three friends from Vi’s hometown ask her to be their maid of honor, and shortly after those weddings, Vi is invited to about 12 more! The more Vi is exposed to demanding brides, ridiculous themes, and the punitive cost of attending all these weddings, the more she loses her faith in marriage. But will her newfound cynicism cause her to miss out on true love?

I have very mixed feelings about this book. I was looking for a fluffy chick-lit read with some romance in it, but the book doesn’t quite deliver that vision. I could sum up the plot of this book in one sentence: Vi goes to a lot of weddings. Seriously – in terms of events, that’s pretty much all that happens. While the various bizarre stories certainly provided some humorous moments, the sheer number of weddings was overkill. The romance isn’t particularly well developed, either; Vi meets her man at a wedding (of course) about halfway through the novel, he is super hot and amazing and perfect, and he pursues her until she caves in. It’s the same exact story I’ve read a hundred times before, and there was no unique spin to make it interesting. I also thought there were way too many characters, between Vi’s friends and all the brides and grooms, which made it hard to care very much about anybody. The more I think about this book, the more it frustrates me! I would definitely not recommend it, even to chick-lit fans.

This is great chick lit: funny, romantic, great love interest. ( )

I used to watch Friends on TV. That was back when we lived in England. The networks showed it late at night when my kids were safe in bed. Then we moved to the States and it was shown at 6pm. No way could we persuade the kids to do homework while Mum and Dad sat on the sofa in front of the box, so no more Friends. And we never saw a single Friends wedding.
Anyway, if you liked Friends, you’ll probably like Kerry Reich’s book, The Best Day of Someone Else’s Life, coming out in May 2008. It’s filled with characters and relationships that reminded me of the TV series, as twenty-somethings sit drinking wine, teasing the wine-waiter, and sharing the ups and downs of their big-city lives. The action moves between Washington DC and North Carolina, where the protagonist grew up, and where the first weddings take place. “Eleven weddings in eighteen months,” it says on the back cover, though I thought I counted more…
The protagonist, Vi, uses mixed-up movie titles to label her life, and I’m pretty sure Four Weddings and a Funeral came in there somewhere. It’s one of my favorite movies, and one I thought of often as I read. I even found myself wondering what a movie of The Best Day… would be like, and though I’m hopeless at identifying movie stars, I certainly had some very clear pictures in mind of how the characters would look and sound.
Kerry does a really good job with dialog. Movie names that I didn’t recognize, store names that may or may not have been real, different types of wine, and a pretty large cast of characters – everything seemed very clear just from the speakers’ tone of voice. The transitions from big city to small town pulled me along beautifully, despite my limited knowledge of American life. And I loved the chance to see behind the scenes of “the America Wedding.” (I must admit, I’m very glad I only have sons.)
At 431 pages, Vi’s story, from excited six-year-old in the first chapter to genuine, well-rounded adult in the conclusion, is quite a long read. However, it’s perfectly designed for someone who isn’t aiming to finish a whole story in one sitting. The book rewards being set down between chapters, with characters that stay with the reader as if you’ve really met them, and with deft reintroductions of ideas that help you remember what’s going on. It’s the sort of book that you don’t need to flip back through, to see who was whose friend, or why Vi’s upset with her mother; an easy, relaxing read, but not a trivial one. In the end, besides being entertaining, the book really does make you think about what weddings and marriage might mean. ( )