The Best Day of Someone Else's Life

i felt that i could relate to all the characters in this most robust portrayl of love and marriage. great summer read or fall or winter

This book was so much fun! Modern and funny, fast-paced and smart - I loved it. It has all the ups and downs of a romance you want along with the added bonus of being laugh out loud funny! I am giving it as a gift to my girlfriends!

Readers will fall in love with Vi Connelly and find themselves eager to see her again after making her acquaintance in this thoroughly amusing tale of a single girl on Serious Wedding Overload. Vi invites us to ride shotgun on this adventure, engaging us intimately with her wit, on her escapades, in her relationships, and -- thanks to the author's aptitude for dialogue -- an intelligence and honesty that feels entirely new in this genre. Whether single, married or somewhere inbetween, you'll surely rethink your perspective while laughing out loud as Vi hurtles through the calendar towards a love of her own. A *smashing* inaugural for Kerry Reichs and just in time for the beach.

Order this well-priced paperback and throw it in your beach bag for summer! The main character, Vi, has many friends and excels at relationships of all kinds except the romantic kind. She hasn't yet found her "perfect someone" - perhaps partly due to her idealized views of love and marriage. The story from that point forward is not the formulaic one you might expect. Reichs keeps you engrossed and wanting more. Those familiar with Washington, DC, will recognize the city Reichs portrays so well - everything from the abundance of lawyers and overeducated single people to the city's inability to deal with snow. She names real places, such as the main characters' favorite Sunday night gathering spot. Other places are thinly veiled and given similar names (Dean & DeLuca = Darien & Dodd.) Anyone who has tried to order breakfast at Kramerbooks & Afterwords will laugh out loud at her description of that experience. Reichs gets the details right, and this sets the scene for a story that keeps your interest, with many laugh-out-loud funny passages. At the same time it addresses some serious questions about love, and views marriage through a thought-provoking lens. A truly impressive first novel.

This book works on two levels: First, it's very funny. For example, I almost fell off my couch laughing during the scene when our heroine -- who's resorted to becoming a guinea pig at NIH in order to stay financially afloat as her frequent wedding attendance drains her bank account -- attempts to conceal that fact from the man of her dreams in a hospital lobby. Not aiding her effort is her battle against an itch caused by a recently applied experimental ointment. And the wedding-brawl scene (think Jets versus the Sharks in wedding gear) near the end successfully blends comedy with dramatic resolution. Second, the book succeeds in carrying us through the heroine's emotional journey (which coincides with her physical travel from wedding to wedding to wedding). The book's comedy doesn't make that journey feel less real. Indeed, at its core, the book is a thoughtful examination of love, commitment, and marriage -- and how hard it can be to combine all three in one relationship. In short, this a great debut for the author, and I highly recommend it.