How (Not) to Have a Perfect Wedding: Before She Can Live Happily Ever After... She Has to Survive the Big Day

Ms. Ryan's book is beautifully plotted, humoursly written, and on you don't want to put down. If you like Janet Evanovich this one will please as well.

HOW (NOT) TO HAVE A PERFECT WEDDING ARLISS RYAN Rating: 5 Enchantments Everything about Allison and Mead's wedding was going to be perfect, even if it killed her embittered society mother, Dierdre. If this was Dierdre's swan song, it was going to be magnificent! They have the perfect venue - Rosemont- a gilded age mansion on Newport's millionaire's row. They have Anne, the perfect event coordinator, who is gamely professional although her own marriage is a shambles. Allison is planning the perfect life - and if she is having a few second thoughts - well, she's a realist even if everyone thinks she's self-centered and spoiled. It would be perfect if her sister would just lose thirty pounds, her future sister-in-law would stop chewing her nails, her posse of bridesmaids would cooperate, her fiancé had just a little bit of ambition, and her mother would try to be courteous to her father's new wife, Kimmie, at least for her special day! And even if Mead did succumb to temptation after his bachelor party, well, he was too drunk to remember it anyway so it wasn't really his fault. Right? After all, a wedding day should be perfect. OMG! This book just blew my socks off! Not because it was full of heaving bosoms and step-by-step sex scenes (it wasn't), but because it was chock full of wit, insight, humor, pathos, and wicked social commentary on the foibles of the human condition. Written from the various points of view of key characters in a society wedding, the author transcended the genre by NOT reducing any of them to a one-note stereotype. The art in the writing was that each character, no matter how unappealing, had flashes of goodness, or at least something within their personality or thought processes that evoked understanding from the reader. And the prose was witty, precise, and dead on with some of the most original and entertaining descriptive phrases that it has been my pleasure to read in quite some time. By the time the story ends, each and every character has substance and seems real, and not one of them was perfect. Each, in his or her own way, was motivated by the wedding to engage in some introspection, and acknowledge their strengths, weaknesses, and, in some cases, their fears. And it was the internal dialog within each character that is the true strength of this book and what gave it such a giant heart. And although I am a big city commuter and somewhat impervious to stares and glares from fellow travelers, I suspect that my frequent snorts of amusement (yeah - my bad - I was riding on the "Quiet Car") were becoming quite annoying by the time the train reached my stop. There are not enough superlatives to describe this incredibly brilliant novel! I may loan it out, but only to people I trust to return it. A keeper! Arliss Ryan is the author of a historical novel, The Kingsley House, and numerous short stories published in literary magazines. HOW (NOT) TO HAVE A PERFECT WEDDING was inspired by her experiences as a wedding hostess

This book is an interesting look at the wedding of Allison and Meade. The interesting part is that the story of the wedding is told by many different angles. Allison and Meade get married at Rosencourt a swanky older home used for weddings and corporate events. Allison's parents are divorced and her father brought his 25 year old trophy bride with him. From Anne who makes sure it all goes smoothly, to the workers, to the guests, to the bridesmaids and groomsmen, to Allison and Meade's parents, to Allison and Meade, everybody associated with the wedding get a chance to give their take on the wedding. Very interesting take on what goes on at a wedding.

I ordered this with free Super Saver shipping and it came 3 days later! It was a good book.

Readers of "The Kingley House," Arliss Ryan's first novel, will find "How (Not) To Have a Perfect Wedding" equally satisfying. Although the title may be somewhat misleading, it proves to be apt. But don't expect yet another slapstick rendition of the wedding from hell. There are chuckles aplenty in this "how to" book, along with nuggets of wisdom of benefit to anyone who is contemplating marriage, planning a wedding, or already long married. Yet the humor is couched in irony, and the advice, for the most part, is subtle and must be mined. Having served as event coordinator at one of Newport's finest mansions (called Rosecourt in the novel), the author draws skillfully from her experience in depicting a single wedding and reception. But this is only the framework, a vehicle that enables her to probe the hopes and fears of her major characters -- the wedding party, their guests, and the staff at Rosecourt. She takes us inside their heads (each chapter has a different narrator), but we also see them through the eyes of others. This device helps put things in perspective, enabling us to know and understand even the less attractive characters. Initially we have little sympathy for Allison, the demanding bride, yet she emerges as a realist whose pragmatic solutions to the vicissitudes of life bode well for the success of her marriage. Deirdre, her bitter and domineering mother, extracts a measure of revenge on the husband who has abandoned her to marry a much younger woman. And Kimmy transcends her stereotyped role as a trophy wife to become a caring and devoted spouse. Balancing these are a bevy of likeable characters. The chemistry between Fredericka, the groom's sister, and Blaine, the best man, is immediate, the outcome realistic and suitably modern. Both Pammy, the good-hearted bridesmaid, ans Mead, the groom, are well drawn and fleshed out. In one of the funniest scenes in the novel Mead mechanically repeats his wedding vows, while in his mind he tries to figure out whom he slept with last night after the bachelor party. This mystery forms a thread throughout the novel and undergoes several unexpected twists before it is resolved. Binding it all together -- both the novel and the wedding party -- are Anne, the event coordinator, and Leon, her second in command. Anne has just left her husband, who is too wrapped up in his business ventures to spend much time with her. Since she admits that she is partly to blame for their problems, we are led to wonder why she feels compelled to hold on to her part time job at Rosecourt. Why not quit and stay home to save her marriage? At one point Anne reflects that the one time in her life a woman is undeniably in control is in arranging her wedding. We conclude that Anne's job provides her with a regular dose of being in control of a situation. Giving it up amd submitting to Greg's preoccupation with his work would violate her own nature and leave her unsatisfied as a person. Greg must b