I'll start my review by saying I really enjoyed the beginning of this book! I really really did. At about the 35% mark, it started to fall flat and stopped being something I wanted to pick up and read. Meddie was such a fun character, but she started to fall flat too. There were two great things about this book: 1. THE AUNTIES. Oh my gosh HILARIOUS cast of aunties. Wow, they stole the show. and 2. learning about the Chinese/Indonesian cultures and wedding traditions. I loved that aspect. Otherwise, the twist and the turns weren't shocking and the reconnection of Nathan and Meddie was annoyingly cliché.

Over-the-top, ridiculous, and straight up hilarious - I loved it.

After her mom impersonates her on a dating app, Meddy Chan goes on a bad date with a rich hotelier and he's accidentally killed. Not knowing what to do, Meddy puts the body in her trunk and enlists the help of her mom and aunties to hide the body. Things go from bad to worse when the catering freezer he's stored in shipped to the next wedding Meddy's family is coordinating. "Don't leave your big day to chance, leave it to the Chans."

While this one is filed under romance, and it does have an HEA, this is really a family comedy. And if you're an Asian American reader, the family dynamics and the relationships among the aunties hit close to home.

If what you need is an escape from reality and a lot of laughs, put Dial A for Aunties on your list. I'm 100% not surprised the book is already in development as a series. I can't wait.

My review for Booklist is here:
https://www.booklistonline.com/Dial-A-for-Aunties-/pid=9743467

The review is also cross-posted to my Smithsonian BookDragon blog here:
http://smithsonianapa.org/bookdragon/dial-a-for-aunties-by-jesse-q-sutanto-in-booklist/

What happens with Meddy kills her blind date, her Ma and Aunties get involved (helping with the body), they work a wedding (involuntarily taking the body with them), and Meddy runs into the one that got away?

I’ll tell you. Exploration of self and the relationships between mothers and daughters and sisters. Second chances at love. Longing and lusting and kissing, new discoveries that change the course of various lives.

And below all of that? Murder. Does Meddy get away with it?

This book made me crazy, the Aunties were hilarious but so much was happening I felt my head spinning. Made for TV drama, a read you should dive into if you’re in the mood for soap opera levels of unbelievable and fun.

3.5 stars - This has to be one of the more unique books I've read in quite some time! I think the right word to describe this is wacky? Like it reads as almost a K-drama (though I guess in this case it would be a C-drama?), and it's a unique mash up of a soapy murder plot a la Clue with a romance sub plot. This made me giggle, and while I do think you have to kind of just "go with it" in terms of the more melodramatic moments, I appreciated how this book spotlighted familial bonds between women

I loved how strong the family and the culture was in Dial A for Aunties. In my copy there's a letter from Sutanto about trilingualism being a product of their quest for safety and dreams. How it results in broken pieces of language and moments in life, not stereotypes on a TV show. I loved how Dial A for Aunties was an entertaining page turner focused on Meddys' inner struggle between her family and her own dreams. It's all a matter of perspective and speaking up about what we want. Because when people leave it can be a blessing or a curse.

At around 30% I could not stop reading. It's a series of unexpected turns, narrow misses with danger, and revelations. There is funny and wry family dynamics even while discussing body disposal. Dial A for Aunties easily sweeps you away. It's a charming and fast paced read that I would recommend for vacations and feel-good reads!

This was a delight! I did not know what to expect when I opened my kindle copy of Dial A for Aunties - but "Weekend at Bernie's' with a close-knit group of women was not it. I read this in about a day - the short chapters and quick pace kept me guessing. I can't wait to read more of Sutanto's work!

Meddelin was not expecting to accidentally kill her blind date. When she does however, she knows she will need her families help to make it go away. Enter Ma, Big Auntie, Second Auntie, and Fourth Auntie. They are here to save the day and help Meddie get rid of the body. With the biggest wedding of the year the next day however, and all of them set to work it, they may have signed up for a bit more than they could handle.

4.5 Stars! Oh my Freaking God. THIS BOOK! It was like Crazy Rich Asians mixed with Finlay Donovan Is Killing It, and it was legit perfection! The characters, the long lost love, the wedding, oh, and the DEAD BODY. I kind of loved that the Aunties were just numbered and thats how they were referred to the entire book. It made their antics so much funnier. This book had me laughing out loud at the ridiculousness of everything happening. If you like a solid, oh they could definitely get away with this murder story, steer clear, but if you need a fun, laugh out loud, little bit romantic, little bit murder mystery, then this one is for you!

A delightfully macabre, laugh out loud farce of a novel!
Dial A for Aunties includes a terrible blind date, an inconvenient corpse, an exasperating but loving mother, a ridiculous yet endearing group of interfering aunties, an over the top wedding, the reappearance of an old flame...and more!
Meddy's Chinese-Indonesian family is just precious (and crazy), while the sparks between Meddy and her first love Nathan is swoon worthy. The hijinks and humor never wavers- this is a blast of a book!

This book is the epitome of full body reading. Gasping, squirming, shrieking, laughing, grasping hair, and curling up like an armadillo. I was twitchy as hell because I couldn’t hold it in... and I read at least 40% outside the vet’s office, unapologetically, as people watched my full body reading experience. Ha.

I greatly appreciated the author’s note at the beginning about vernacular and cultural stereotypes. It put me in the right way to enjoy the book. And obviously I enjoyed it. All the elements of rom-com mixed with murder and family and Chinese-Indo culture made for an amazing book.

No spoilers... and I could talk about and spoil this book endlessly. It wasn’t completely perfect. Some things were obvious and I had hoped for a slightly more elegant wrap-up but whatever. In the end I don’t care. It’s a must-read.

*I received a free early ecopy from the publisher via netgalley.

This book was hilarious, I couldn't put it down and was laughing throughout most of it. The banter was witty, the family drama was great!
I loved this family and their relationship. I loved the aunties most if all!
This is a cute fun read and I'm so excited to.see this book do amazing things in 2021

This has probably been the first mystery I have read in several years and I am so glad that I decided to request this book. The title and cover is what caught my eye but it was the synopsis that cinched it for me. As a second generation of immigrant parents, I love reading about the family dynamics of immigrants. The aunties for me were the best parts of the book. I could read an entire series based on just them I loved them so much.

Honestly, this was such a quick read for me (read it in less than a day) which tells me that I was invested in seeing how Meddy and the aunties' hijinks would pan out. While the book wasn't perfect—I had some issues with the pacing, the flashback chapters felt a little out of place, the sheriff character—the problems aren't anything that ruin the book for me.

This book is hysterical.

Meddy works as a photographer for her family's wedding business. The night before an important wedding, she ends up on a blind date. When her date tries to assault her, she accidentally kills him. Panicking, she goes home, where her mother and three aunts help her hide the body. Unfortunately, the body ends up going to the wedding venue.

Does the premise make you want to read it? Good because you should. There are times when I'm being reminded of Weekend at Bernie's. It just keeps getting more ridiculous as the book goes on. This is going to be a perfect Netflix movie.


This review is based on an advanced reader copy provided through Netgalley for an honest review.

3.5 stars.

Thank you Berkley Pub for this gifted copy. All opinions are my own.

A woman has to hide a dead body with the help of her mom and 3 meddling aunts, while working for a high end wedding on an island, AND she runs into her first love. What could go wrong? EVERYTHING! If you can suspend all disbelief, you will really enjoy this one. As I was reading it, I kept thinking about the movie The Hangover. It's so ridiculous and over the top that it's funny! I kept flipping the pages because I wanted to know how it would end.

I highly recommend reading the Author's Note at the beginning of the book where she explains her family''s background. While the antics were a little too crazy for me, I think it does a great job showcasing the dynamics in an Asian household, the importance of family and the expectations/pressure children can face.

[3.5 stars.]

Reading this was really strange—it was, at the same time, really light-hearted and sweet while also being INCREDIBLY STRESSFUL.

Light spoiler summary:

Basically, our protagonist Meddy accidentally kills a guy and then her family helps her cover it up, all while managing a wedding (at the hotel that Meddy's long lost ex coincidentally owns). There are a lot of hijinks and humor but surrounding a very stressful situation so that was a little disorienting to me personally. However, every single auntie character is gold. If you like cozy mysteries you'll probably really enjoy this one.

This book is laugh-out-loud funny. I found myself reading parts aloud to my husband even though I also had to explain the complicated plot and relationships to him. This book is quite cinematic: funny characters with a lot of quirks, wonderful scenery, lots of action. And a happy ending. It is a fast read partly because one has no idea what is going to happen next. It seems unlikely there will be a sequel which is too bad because I would like to read more about the Aunties.

Wow! Where do I begin?!

As a Chinese-Indonesian myself, I LOVED this story! There were so many things that brought me back to my childhood and others that reminded me of where I came from. I was so excited to have understood the dialogues being said. I couldn’t stop laughing at the banter between all of the aunties. At the same time, the little twists and turns throughout the story made my heart rate crazy!

I wish there was more about Meddy and Nathan though. It was such a tease! Overall, this was a great story and I am so proud to have a book that represents the Chinese-Indonesian culture.

Thank you Jesse Q. Sutanto, Net Galley, and Berkley Publishing Group for sharing this with me in exchange for my honest review!

I haven’t had this much fun with a dead body since Weekend at Bernies.!

But I’m getting a little ahead of myself here. In all honest, I didn’t even wait to see the cover of this one before I was attempting to score an early copy – and I sure as heck hadn’t yet read a synopsis. Nope, I saw “Auntie” and my brain immediately went to the best thing to air on Bravo since the first table-flipping season of my Househoes where everyone knows everyone and constantly sticks their noses in their children’s lives . . . . Family Karma.

I just assumed this would be some sort of matchmaking trope. Imagine my delight when I discovered it was part murder mystery and part opulent wedding like Crazy Rich Asians.

So the story here is of Meddelin and her meddlin’ ma. Unbeknownst to the fam, Meddy is still pining for the one that got away. But Ma doesn’t know that and with the best of intentions attempts to set Meddy up on a date using my favorite technique to snare a man - CATFISHING! Yeppers. Between using Meddy’s actual name and picture and not understanding what things like eggplants means, Meddy’s mom really has this dude on the hook. Luckily for Meddy she has a taser in her purse before he can get rapey – unlucky for him, he . . . . Well, you’ll have to read it yourself. Be prepared for over-the-top situations and slapstick fun times. It’s definitely something you need to be in the mood for, and I was so ready. This was hilarious and exactly what I had hoped it would be – once I actually read the blurb, that is.

<i>ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, NetGalley!</i>

This book started out so well I was recommending it when I was only on chapter 6. And then it turned into Weekend at Bernie's, which wasn't good in 1989, and I was so disappointed. I kept thinking it would turn around and maybe it was all a mistake, but no, and that made this book a mistake for me.

I loved the aunties and Ma and the relationship Meddy has with them. The banter and the love are contagious. The love story with Meddy and her ex-boyfriend is wonderful. In fact, the whole book would have been perfect if it weren't for the dead body. Even that wasn't bad at the beginning, it was even a little funny, but when the body is really, truly dead, the humor sort of goes out of it for me.

My thanks to Berkley and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

RATING: 3/5 STARS

This book is between a 3 and 3.5 for me! It started off fantastic. I was instantly drawn to the main character, Meddy, and her meddling aunties. The flashbacks to Meddy's relationship with Nathan piqued my curiosity and had me eagerly anticipating their present-day scenes. However, as I kept reading, the plot became a little too over-the-top for me. I know a lot of readers who will love this type of writing, but it wasn't quite my style. The story moved at a quick pace, but there was just so much happening that paradoxically my interest waned during the action scenes. I've heard news that this book is being adapted for Netflix, which I can visualize being a success. I think the aunties' good-natured antics and snowballing of events that happen in this book will make for really entertaining television that I would definitely watch.

A sincere thanks to Berkley for providing an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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