So this hands-down was one of my least favorite Cathy Kelly books. This was all over the place and unlike her other books dealing with sisters, there was too much going on for you to even follow one person’s storyline in a coherent way. I also didn’t find the whole thing with Savannah realistic because it seemed to be going on for years and her family who supposedly is so close didn’t notice? I just found the plot contrivance this all happen the week of the wedding to be a bit much. I just wish that we got more build up of the family dynamics and why exactly the parents in this story wanted to be together so much. Meg seemed to just not want to be alone and we never got Stu’s point of view at all. I also struggled to finish this one. I ended up bouncing back between this book and two others this weekend and was just glad to get this one done.
“The Wedding Party” follows the Robicheaux family. Meg and Stu who have been long divorced, tell their four daughters (Indy, Eden, Savannah, and Rory) that they are remarrying. Finding out that Meg is ready to try again with Stu is a shocker to the women especially because Stu had an ongoing gambling and drinking problem which resulted in the family having to sell their hotel. The week leading up to the wedding results in a lot of secrets being revealed.
I literally did not care for any of the characters. I tried. Indy is a midwife and I just felt like she was too perfect and there seemed to be nothing going on that resulted in any deep introspection.
Eden had a secret and I don’t know how the reveal would really work in the real world. Hope springs eternal I guess.
Savannah’s storyline was way too similar to another book I read this weekend and it seems like all of my reads were dealing with coercive control and gaslighting.
I could not stand Rory’s self righteousness at all. And I thought her 180 on what she wanted in order to keep her relationship going was a bit meh myself.
Meg and Stu were not built up at all. Meg is supposed to be some sort of “Earth” mother but seemed to have zero clue what was going on with any of her children. And once something pretty big is revealed I guess I was supposed to go what a woman, instead I went, really? Okay then. Maybe the book would have worked if it had been a bit set up like her prior book, “Just Between Us”. That book followed three sisters and their mother and I thought it was written very well.
The writing was painful at times. I think the jumping around between five characters did not help at all. I realized after a while the book stayed mostly focused on Savannah and then we just had Eden and Rory popping up second and third. Indy is there a bit, but then just kind of shimmers away. I know there were other characters in this book but I cannot even recall them all. Eden’s husband was a blank slate. Savannah’s was a caricature. Indy’s was just there. Rory’s girlfriend was just there as well.
The flow was an uphill battle. I was tempted to just DNF at one point, but I bought this so struggled onward.
The setting moves constantly. We keep hearing about the hotel the family grew up in and how special it was, but it was not and just seemed to be a very blank backdrop.
The book has multiple endings. At one point I thought I was done and it was like, 6 months later, a year later and then finally it was mercifully over.
I read this for Cannonball Read 14 book bingo:
- Elephant: Could be about elephants or a place where you find elephants; could be a book that’s a white elephant (unusual, unasked for); involves an “elephant in the room” (a subject that is very large and people try to ignore it); an elephant never forgets (long memory, grudge, revenge).
- I think this fits due to Stu’s long running gambling and drinking issues. It looms very large and it’s a subject that many people in this book, Meg, Indy, and several others try to ignore. There’s also the idea about memory in this one as well. The family has memories about their life at the hotel. Meg has memories of her marriage with Stu. And there’s Rory who is harboring a grudge it feels like against many characters in this one. There even is a revenge plot-line with regards to Eden.