This book was too good! Lily was a hot mess, and I related to all of it. She made some major mistakes, owned up to them, and learned her way through it. She also realized who were her real friends and who definitely were not. She didn’t make it out of the whole mess unscathed, but everybody needs a happy ending sometimes. I think this is an awesome book for anyone in their late 20s/early 30s, because we all know what a pain in the ass it can be to be in a wedding, let alone five of them. 🤣 I laughed my way through this entire book, but there were still enough heartwarming moments that hit me right in the feels. I loved it!

3.5 stars

This was a light rom com with no real surprises but the writing was excellent. Lily was a smart, strong protagonist and it was nice to see her standing up for her friends and herself, while also going through the required self-development. With interesting side characters and a swoon-worthy love interest you are definitely rooting for, this book is definitely worth picking up.

Thank you to netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I loved Lily as a character and could truly relate to her struggles: single, family being annoying about it, and kind of wasting her talents and career. She's sweet, fun, and she knows how to take care of herself. But on the other hand, I felt jealous for her. I mean, she got asked to be a bridesmaid in five weddings within just six weeks - meanwhile, I can't even get invited to a wedding as a mere guest! That kind of put me off because you want to relate to a character and not envy her. But when I held that though at the back burner, I actually really enjoyed the drama.

And boy, is it packed with drama! In the five weddings, Lily needs to do it all: parties, organization, bridal showers, dress fittings, all of it. And even though it's a lighthearted read, I could definitely relate to many of Lily's problems - and I certainly didn't expect the twists in this book.

Apart from making me feel sad for not having such a flourishing social life, I enjoyed Lily's drama and humor-filled journey in this novel. Fun, lighthearted read!

*Thank you to the Publisher for a free advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

First and foremost, thank you so much to @netgalley and #lakeunionpublishing for making this ARC available!

32-year-old (and extremely single) Lily Weiss is just your average “fabulous career woman who refuses to settle for anything less than true love.” The caveats: her role as Director of Communications for the Foundation for Scientific Technology doesn’t really scream fabulosity, she has zero prospects in the love department (quickly becoming her mother’s worst nightmare) and she’s just been asked to be a bridesmaid in five weddings all taking place within the same two months! With the annoyances of dealing with bridezillas, even crueler bridesmaids, and the toll bridesmaid expenses are taking on her bank account she decides to start a blog, Bridesmania, as an anonymous writer spilling all the tea 🍵 on the drama unfolding within each bridal party. The blog not only is a way for Lily to release her frustrations, but it’s also a gratifying opportunity for her to be much closer to where she really wants to be in her career aspirations: a writer. Knowing how the internet “is a dark and creepy place”, true feelings and people can only stay anonymous for so long. How will Lily’s secret outlet affect her friends, family and most importantly a potential love interest she just recently met? Can all of her relationships be salvaged?

This was such a great read! From the drama unfolding in each bridal party, especially Caryn’s crazy soon-to-be-sister-in-law, to Lily’s (or should I say Joan’s) hilariously kooky Grandma, I could honestly not get enough. It makes sense though with the movie Bridesmaids being probably one of my favorite movies of all-time (Kristen Wiig stan 🙋🏻‍♀️), this book gave me major Bridesmaids vibes. Loved this one, the only way I can describe it really as a whole was being an absolute treat to read!

Lily is a single 30 something who is invited to be a bridesmaid in 5 weddings in the space of 2 months. Chaos ensues as she battles with 5 brides to be and their bridezilla demands and terrible friends, choosing to vent her frustrations via an online blog. You can probably guess how wrong this goes!

This is, for the most part, a lighthearted read, although it does touch on some deeper subjects from time to time. Lily is a likable character, and its easy to be on her side against these dreadful brides she calls her friends. There's also the undercurrent of a budding romance that you know will result in a nicely tied together happy ending.

Overall I enjoyed this book, its entertaining, well written and laugh out loud at times. As an aside I do have to say that I find the American concept of asking someone to be a bridesmaid and then expecting them to pay hundreds , if not thousands, of dollars for the pleasure is utterly baffling!

I don’t know how to say how much I loved this book other than to say I freakin’ loved this book.

Maybe it was because I used to be a wedding photographer and could totally relate to how over-the-top some brides can be.

I found this book laugh-out-loud funny at times, heartbreakingly honest at times and a real page turner. Even though I kind of knew what was going to happen, I wanted to make sure it happened. Plus there were a few surprises along the way.

The main character Lily was especially relatable. I mean, we’ve all been self-unaware at times haven’t we? (If not, maybe it’s time to talk to some of your friends). Plus we’ve all done things just to make our friends happy. Well I know I have.

This book doesn’t officially come out until June 2021, but I think it’s going to be a hit!



For the Love of Friends by Sara Goodman Confino. #FortheLoveofFriends

Thanks to #NetGalley for the advance copy

Thank you to NetGalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review!

This book was a sweet read!
I adored the main character and how dedicated she was to making her friends and family happy despite the stress and consequences of attending all of these weddings.

However, there was A LOT of body shaming in this book and it made it incredibly hard to get through as it was just so disheartening to read. The characters were incredibly bitchy and mean (and I understand why for the story) but constantly reading about how they were body shaming one another wasn't fun for me.

This book has a great premise- a 32 year old woman who works in PR gets asked to be in five weddings all within the same two months. Two are for her younger siblings. She starts writing an anonymous blog about her experiences.

I read this book in one evening and thought it was a fun light read. Lily, the main character was well developed. Some of the side characters were less so, and all the brides turned into some version of bridezillas which was the most cliche part that I enjoyed the least.

There is a romance storyline as well that was a slow burn and there was good build up which I enjoyed. I liked the authors writing style and found it engaging.

This book is great for anyone looking for an fairly light fun read that does have good character development and an interesting premise and plot. Not the kind of book I will revisit or read over and over again but definitely an enjoyable read!

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and The author for the ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was thrilled to have the opportunity to review an ARC of For the Love of Friends by Sara Goodman Confino. Can you imagine being in five weddings in one year? What if all the weddings were within two months, you were perpetually single and oh yeah two of the weddings were for your younger siblings. Yeah I know sounds terrible right, but it would make a great book and it did! Lilly is a thirty-two year old PR person for a science foundation who lives in DC with a roommate. She happily agrees to all of these weddings then watches as the brides become more and more insane and she decides to blog about it to try and make some more money pay for these weddings. I loved Lilly and was with her 100% on the blog. Everything happening to her was absurd from a chest minimizer to having to room with her Grandma at a destination wedding. I would definitely recommend to anyone who happens to be in a few weddings!

I read this book in two days because I needed the distraction. It's a fun, light read. My experience was that it lacked some depth when it came to the characters, but I loved that Lily, the protagonist, was a level-headed, confident woman. I usually prefer romance and chick lit when I need light reads, and I was getting weary of women protagonists/narrators who feel so badly about themselves--to an extent that they look down on themselves. Confino does a wonderful job of breaking that pattern in 'For the Love of Friends.' It was refreshing to get to know Lily :)

What do a best friend, a best work friend, a former college roommate and two siblings have in common? They are all scheduled their nuptials with weeks of each other and asked Lily Weiss to be a bridesmaid. Yes, without a hint of romance in her own life, Lily has agreed to be in all five weddings.

In this debut novel, Sara Confino takes us down the rabbit hole of high drama in modern day weddings with the expenses, personality conflicts and bridal demands – all with great humor, snark and pathos. Faced with the possibility of mounting debit and frustration with the interpersonal dynamics, Lily decides to put her Journalism degree to good use by creating a blog to generate income and let off steam. To her delight she rediscovers her love of writing, which has been buried under her daily work of writing press releases for a scientific organization. As the weeks progress and the wedding planning and activities take on a frenzied pace, the blog, authored anonymously, begins to take on a life of its own. You can probably guess what happens, but the outcome is still satisfying.

Lily is a delightful character – likeable and flawed in a very relatable way. The brides, their attendant bridesmaids, and mothers at times are a bit overdrawn and melodramatic, but overall they reflect the insanity hinted at if you watch even one episode of “Say Yes to the Dress.” I particularly appreciated Lily’s self-reflection and maturity as she embraced responsibility for her efforts and looked to the future.

I look forward to more books by this author.

My thanks to the author, Lake Union Publishing, and NetGalley for the privilege of reviewing a digital ARC in exchange for an independent, honest review.

This review is being posted immediately to my GoodReads account and will be posted on Amazon upon publication.

The perfect summer read!

Hilarious, charming and you were with Lily every step of the way – you felt her highs and you felt her lows – through all the weddings and personal dramas. It was seriously gripping, I couldn't put this one down as I just needed to know what was going to happen next. Plus, it was so, so funny – I was laughing from the first page.

Exactly what I was looking for in a chick-lit book, I can't believe this was Sara Goodman Confino's debut – it was incredible! I will absolutely be keeping an eye out for her next release.

I've got mixed feelings about this book. The writing style was a bit all over the show, and it seemed overly full of drama to the point it was no longer realistic even for a romance novel. The overall premise would've been good but I found it too hard to read so wouldn't recommend

“With that settled, there was the issue of keeping the details of five weddings straight. I, to put it mildly, lacked major organizational skills.”

Lily Weiss is a 32 year old Journalism graduate working as an unfulfilled science journalist. She says yes to being a bridesmaid in 5 weddings, all taking place within weeks of the other….including the parties, bridal showers, and many, many dress fittings for each. As a way to vent about the various terrible and stressed people she meets, and her lack of passion in writing about the latest gamma ray experiments, Lily creates an anonymous wordpress blog: Bridesmania.

This book surprised me. From the description I was expecting something more similar to Jenny Colgan – a fun mostly light story with a bit of a puzzle or suspense throughout. Like a nice book to read on a chilled evening, you know? I didn’t bargain for quite so much drama!

As the voice and main character of the book, Lily was warm, likeable, and entertaining. I enjoyed that we both heard Lily’s thoughts and got to read the blog posts she wrote too. Because of this, I was so involved in her thoughts that some of the twists and turns in the story were unexpected, simply because she hadn’t thought about it and so neither did I.

Falling into this book was instantaneous, and had I not had to put it down to eat I would have read it in one sitting. I fully credit this to the talent of the author’s writing, as normally I’m not one for this sort of drama in a book. The plot moved along at a good pace, I felt neither rushed nor wished it would speed up at any point. I only wanted to rush through it a bit because I am an impatient reader and, despite my previous claim of “not being one for this sort of drama in a book”, I really wanted to know what was going to happen!

My only critique is that sometimes the events and people felt like teenagers in high school, although it is true that (unfortunately) people like this exist. I also felt her reactions (aside from the snarky anonymous blog) were sometimes unrealistic, although it may just be that she is a better person than I am. Saying that, Lily’s room-mate, Becca, did say her life was turning into a reality TV show- so I guess I can’t complain!

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to read a book filled with drama, friendship, and humour. It left me kind of wanting a sequel, especially after the last few pages – although I can’t say why as that would be a spoiler!