Zoe is career driven, feminist, & VERY anti-marriage - Hannah is Zoe's best friend & loves love - Rylan is Hannah's cousin, totally put together, successful, & surprisingly sweeps Zoe off her feet - Graham is Hannah's fiance who is totally adorable & part Irish - Ezra is Graham's brother, part Irish, brooding, & v sexy.

Zoe considers herself a "bad luck bridesmaid" because the three weddings she's been in, none of the brides actually make it down the aisle. The final bride's lack of wedded bliss pushes Zoe over the edge and she cannot accept Rylan's proposal - enter total heartbreak.

So when bestie Hannah announces she's getting married to a guy she's only known a few months (in Ireland!), Zoe makes it her mission to get her friend down the aisle to prove to herself that marriage isn't scary and she just needs to be "normal" and marry Rylan.

I freaking loved Zoe's eclectic personality and her huge heart. I also totally vibed with her absolute fear of birds (especially those dinosaurs in Ireland).

While there was a lot of swearing and lots of steam (warning those who prefer closed-door romances), I could not get enough of @alison.greenberg writing. She has such a poetic way to describing complicated emotions and feelings:
"As I studied Rylan's eyes I was gutted with a sinking feeling, for the first time, these celebratory chapters in my rulebook had evolved into waring pages & they were now floating inside me, making tiny paper cuts on my heart."

(also I totally need a sequel of Hannah's life)

Bonus: this book was FILLED with amazing music references so I've rounded up a playlist with all the ones I found.

In summary - READ THIS BOOK

📍 New York City, Ireland
📝 Being okay with who you really are, feminist, best friendship

Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress

This was an entertaining, well-written book. It was funny, heartwarming and held my interest. It kept me reading and I wanted to find out what would happen. I enjoyed this book and would read other books by this author.

Zoey Marks is cursed. Every time she is a bridesmaid, the wedding has ended on a not so happy note. Now Zoey thinks that she should not even think about love, because it is just not in the cards for her. Things seem to be turning around when she meets Rylan, the perfect man, but Zoey’s lack of trust hits her once again. When yet another friend is heading to the alter, will Zoey finally break her bad luck streak? Will she trust in love once more?

This book is a cute chic lit novel by Alison Rose Greenberg about one woman’s journey to love. It had its moments, but I personally would have liked to have seen the Zoey and Rylan’s relationship develop rather than it just happening in the book. I did not feel a connection to the characters at all. I think I expected something different from the cover and description, but that is something I am guilty of by never having read anything by the author previously. My thanks to St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to discover a new author from the copy I was gifted for my honest opinion.

I can’t really describe this as sweet, I mean Zoey just would not be okay with that. While she might be rocking her work life, somewhat unrealistically, she is crashing and burning with the other avenues of her life and relationships (those that should truly mean the most). This falls more in women’s lit than rom com in my opinion based off the ending of the novel.

I spent the early part of the novel as Zoey rehashed her flashback past as a “bad luck bridesmaid” about to stop reading. I felt like I was under a barrage of allusions left and right that just annoyed me more with Zoey. Her need to describe what everyone was wearing and being and doing in brand name terms- it was a turn off for her as a character.

I did like Rylan as a character, and this made me even more frustrated with Zoey as a main character. Only time I didn’t was the end of the novel, but I do see why he is what he is…keep what is most important and do this messy life together.

As the story progressed, I actually really liked Graham’s brother, Ezra and felt like he was the character that truly had zero cares (in a good way!). I wanted a different ending for him and I was up late hoping for that, and am still a little salty about the sleep lost over the ending.

By the end I understood why Zoey made the decision she did, but it felt EXTREMELY shallow, self-centered, and truly like she’d learned nothing. Just truly kept waiting on her to learn from her mistakes. I am sure there is an entire camp that says “she made no mistakes”, however I disagree. This is why I ultimately do not think this is a rom com and it should just be a “finding oneself” women’s lit.

I see this as a debut novel, and honestly, I want to read another novel in this series, with Ezra as the main character. He deserves it.

Zoey Marks is a career-obsessed woman with a mission to chart her course regardless of the naysayers. As a fellow marketing professional, I loved her zeal for connecting brands with experiences and could relate to how the antiquated views and opinions of stuffy male-dominated management can stifle creativity.

I salute the author for penning such a highly relatable character. Zoey isn't just challenging the status quo of women in the workplace, but also their role in society. Too often romance novels pen marriage as the ideal, the end goal, the be-all of a woman's life, and I cannot tell you how satisfying it was to read about a woman who wanted love but not marriage. The author forces readers to ask the question, "Why must marriage be the ultimate form of commitment?"

I was impressed with how the author describes the union of marriage, not so much as a prison but as giving of a part of yourself over to another person. There is a vulnerability in giving someone the power to hurt you and we need to normalize the fears and anxieties associated with this.

What's really powerful about Bad Luck Bridesmaid is the fact that Zoey isn't just a character in a book, she's given a voice to the insecurities plaguing some women, "When the world tells you you're difficult, at some point, a little voice creeps inside and you start to ask yourself, Am I the mountain? Am I the very thing standing in my own way? Am I good enough"

Bad Luck Bridesmaid not only contained powerful lessons on female empowerment, independence, and love but featured some stellar characters. While I admit the beginning was slightly slow, once it picked up I laughed at Zoey's quirky dialogue and her impossibly hilarious life situations. I liked the different iterations of love- love at first sight, love lost and heartache, familial love, love of a lifetime, and love that burns you from the inside out.

Zoey Marks gave me everything I want to see from my female MCs in the romance genre for 2022 and I was 100% here for it! Here are the top things I have learned from Zoey when reading Bad Luck Bridesmaid:

- There is nothing wrong with jumping headfirst into your career or life if it ignites your soul, as Zoey says, "I do not need fixing, there is nothing wrong with a badass woman who didn't believe in mapping out her future."
- Embrace your individuality, don't ever let someone else control your fate, "There was comfort in knowing that by coloring outside the lines, I was in control of where I wanted my pen, and it was not where someone else told me to put it."
- Normalizing the fact that not all women want to get married, " want to wake up every day and make a decision to love you, without something wrapped around my finger telling me I'm supposed to..."
- You can be in love and not want marriage- Marriage was simply not for me, I wanted love, but I wanted choices."
- Your relationship with your parents as a child can affect your adult relationships. "The belief that everything bad surrounding me was my fault was a childhood trait"
- Love does not always make sense, "I don't want him back....I just- I don't want him to be happy with anybody else. And I want his body, like....all over my body"
- Chart your course and screw the world's perception of you, "How do you move forward with your head held high when the world tells you you're not living up to your potential as a woman?"
- It's ok to break a relationship even if you're engaged if your heart and soul aren't into it

Thank you to St. Martin's Griffin for providing me with an arc. All thoughts and opinions are my own

This story follows Zoey Marks, an independent 30 something woman that’s not interested in following the common path and her misadventures in love and friendship.
From an early age Zoey has been the champion of her own cause embracing her individuality and doing her own thing rather than following the path her parents had carefully laid out for her. A “complicated woman” by her own words, she goes through life achieving instead of conforming and she’s happy with it until she meets Rylan and falls in love.
I had very high hopes when I started reading this book, but unfortunately ended up not liking it at all. First, I couldn’t get on board with Zoey from the get go and what I thought might be funny at first ended up hitting me as her being immature and ambivalent rather than the fierce warrior she was purported to be. I spent most of the book waiting for her to redeem herself in any possible way, but unfortunately her “duh” moment, almost at the end of the story, was too little too late for my taste and I did nothing to make me like her any better.
I ended up appreciating the secondary characters better. Lovely Hannah who’s a friend through and through, Mara who didn’t hesitate to make the right decision for herself when told the truth of how she ended up in Ireland and even Ezra and his clouded judgement. At the end of it all, I feel this book might be validated by a younger audiencerather than grown women not afraid to make hard decisions for themselves. .

Book Review: ****/5

It's Publication Day!!!! I received this book form Net Galley and St. Martin's Griffin Publishing in return for an honest review and I need to thank them so much. I loved this book. It was such an easy fun read, and I absolutely loved the ending.

Zoey Marks believes herself to be cursed because every time she is a bridesmaid the wedding never makes it too happily ever after. She has started to lose faith in the meaning of forever when it comes to a marriage. When her boyfriend of two years gets down on one knee her fears manifest themselves into an explosion of her relationship. Heartbroken for the first time Zoey is struggling to carry on. Suddenly her best friend is engaged to a Man she just met, and she is once again a bridesmaid. To make the situation worse her ex-almost fiancé will be attending the wedding and he is bringing someone with him. Zoey is determined to get her best friend down the aisle, prove to herself that she can say yes and get her man back.

This book was great. It had a second chance trop along with an enemy to lovers trop and a Gloomy/Sunshine trop fill. The banter was great. I found myself batting internally between which guy I wanted her to end up with. I loved the strong female character. She knew exactly what she wanted out of life even if she did get lost a little along the way. I loved the realizations that she discovered toward the end. Alison Rose Greenberg did an amazing job. I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. Happy Pub Day!

Eh, not really my thing. I thought that I would enjoy it more. I didn't. I just didn't care. I didn't enjoy any of the characters.

Zoey Marks, 31, has worked hard to now have her own firm with her good friend, Sara. Zoey never feels lonely, but on days when she has time for herself she relishes her alone time. Zoey enjoys dating men but has steered away from wanting to get married. But then she meets Rylan Harper, the Third. She falls in love with him and they move in together. When Rylan hints at marriage, Zoey puts him off. Nearly a year later, he proposes and she cannot say yes. Now as they part, both their hearts are broken.

Zoey feels that she is a bad luck bridesmaid because having been a bridesmaid for three of her friends, none of the brides ever went through with the wedding. Zoey feels like it’s her fault as she’s bad luck. So when her friend, Hannah, asks her to be her bridesmaid, she forces herself to accept. At the wedding, Zoey and Rylan encounter one another and it’s very awkward for them.

I started this book hoping to find a humorous rom-con but encountered one of the weirdest characters ever. Zoey may know how to befriend her girlfriends but she needs to wear a big sign around her neck that reads THIS CHICK IS BAD NEWS. There were a few funny things but too much girl friend cries and promising friendships until the end of time. I felt so very sorry for Rylan. How can you continue to meet up with someone knowing you are going to crush them time and again? No, I did NOT like Zoey. Nothing redeeming there, but I will give this book 3 stars for effort.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I really enjoyed this debut novel.  This is the story of one quirky woman who lives life to the beat of her own drum.  It is also a celebration of working through what life brings your way and coming out the end being stronger than ever.

The relationship between our protagonist Zoey, and her best friend Hannah is one that most women would love to have.  They’ve known each other most of their lives and each of these women brings out the best in the other.  They take in the world quite differently but have high respect for the other’s point of view.

The relationship between Zoe and Rylan is also very well developed.  They are so passionate about one another and this relationship is so well written that the reader can feel the intensity of their love.  When Rylan proposes marriage to Zoe near their second anniversary of being together she cannot say yes.  The heartbreak of this decision is devastating yet meaningful.

This brings me to reveal what I appreciated about this book. The author does a great job of communicating Zoe’s inner conflict.  That being, determining her comfort level for romantic relationships. But let me make it clear - while there is romance in this book, it is not a romance novel.  It is a book that celebrates a woman coming into her own that will leave you wanting more.

4.5 stars

I loved this book! At first I thought it would be a cutesy romcom about an "always a bridesmaid never a bride" girl but it wasn't! I felt the heartache that Zoey was going through and it brought back painful memories (and lessons). I didnt like Rylans name- HA! so in my mind, he is Ryan.
I thought I was going to be able to predict this book. I felt it was the book I have read a hundred times before (and loved), but it wasn't, I had to read straight up to the end of it.
I will definitely be reading all of Alison Greenberg's books in the future!

Thank you Netgalley!

Title: Bad Luck Bridesmaid
Author: Alison Rose Greenberg
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 3.5

It’s official: Zoey Marks is the cursed bridesmaid that no engagement can survive. Ten years, three empire waist dresses, and ZERO brides have walked down the aisle.

After strike three, Zoey is left wondering if her own ambivalence towards marriage has rubbed off on those she loves. And when her building distrust of matrimony culminates in turning down a proposal from her perfect All-American boyfriend, Rylan Harper III, she and Rylan are both left heartbroken, leaving Zoey to wonder: what is it exactly about tying the knot that makes her want to run in the opposite direction?

Enter Hannah Green: Zoey’s best friend, who announces that she’s marrying a guy she just met (cue eye roll). At a castle. In gorgeous, romantic Ireland, where Rylan will be in attendance, and Zoey will be a bridesmaid. It’ll be fine.

Okay, the woman definition of fine (NOT FINE).

Determined to turn her luck around, Zoey accepts her role and vows to get Hannah down the aisle—all the while praying her best friend’s wedded bliss will allow her to embrace marriage and get Rylan back.

But as the weekend goes on, Zoey is plagued with more questions than answers. Can you be a free spirit, yet still want a certain future? Can you have love and be loved on your terms? And how DO you wrangle a bossy falcon into doing your bidding

This read was a tiny step above “meh” for me. Solid writing, and parts of it were funny, but Zoey was pretty awful. She was very selfish, and she didn’t care who she hurt as long as she got what she wanted. She came across as childish to boot, and that didn’t make for a read that made me want to sing its praises. I’d read this author again, because I think the writing was well-worth it, but I just didn’t care for Zoey.

Alison Rose Greenberg lives in Atlanta. Bad Luck Bridesmaid is her debut novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)

This was such a good and interesting book! My expectations were both exceeded and subverted. I loved the way Zoey and her self confidence and (mostly) unapologetic individuality were treated. Watching her journey with all her friends and then with Rylan and Hannah was great and she really made sense and worked as a character. She was well developed (as was everyone) and her motivations made sense, even when I wanted to yell at her for being so down on herself. I adored every character and enjoyed how they all got to be messy and complicated and the star of their own story like every person in real life. (I also really enjoyed how the tales of Zoey's failed bridesmaid attempts felt like they should all have their own books starring her friends, including Hannah's story, though we got a fair amount of it here too.) The directions this book went were fascinating and I couldn't be more pleased with the end results! (This book is also FULL of funny and quotable lines that I know readers will love.)

Zoey Marks is cursed. Three times a bridesmaid. Three times a wedding called off. Turning down her boyfriend's proposal just seems to be in line with who she is. But when her best friend gets engaged, can she set it all aside to ensure the wedding goes through?

While I loved a lot of elements of this book, there was just a lot going on. The plot felt a little all over the place and a little jam-packed—and a lot of it bordered on ridiculous. There's a certain amount of ridiculous I can accept in fiction, but this stepped over the line a few times for me.

The characters, too, were really unlikeable. I'm not sure there was anyone I really loved at all. There were only moments of likability. I will say that I enjoyed the quirks of several characters. It was nice to see imperfections.

Despite its struggles, I appreciated the overall message of the book. It was nice to see a unique perspective on something so traditional.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for providing me with an arc of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review!

Bad Luck Bridesmaid by Alison Rose Greenberg is an intriguing read. The author's writing is funny, witty, and beautiful.

At first, I wasn't sure where this was going. Zoey was hard to relate to at first and it seemed odd that she found herself responsible for the failed weddings, but as the book progressed I realized why she felt that way. Zoey became someone that I could relate to and understand as the book progressed. I wanted her to be happy and I was glad that she understood herself.

I think I benefitted from going into this knowing that it wasn't a rom-com, as it altered my expectations. This was a journey of self-acceptance and understanding so much more than it was one of romance.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to St Martin's Press, St Martin's Griffin, and NetGalley for an ARC of Bad Luck Bridesmaid in exchange for my honest opinion.
The book centers around Zoey's experience as a bridesmaid at four weddings, and her belief after three of them that she is bad luck as a bridesmaid.
It took three tries (one fewer than the four weddings!) for me to get into this book because the tone of the book didn't make sense to me. The cover and title, along with the first third of the book, make the reader think it's a light-hearted romance. There is a seemingly immature main character who I didn't care much about, and I was not engaged in her story at all. I began to enjoy the storyline when the characters arrived in Ireland for wedding number four. But then, about halfway through the book, the dynamic pivoted to a story about identity and a unique "complicated" character finding strength in her individuality and learning she doesn't need to compromise if that's not what others want or expect from her. Once I got there, I flew through the second half of the book and really enjoyed it and this realistic and important mesage!
So my advice to readers is to realize this is NOT a romance (even though the cover might look that way and the story might seem that way in the beginning) and to read a large chunk when you start the book! I am excited to read other books by the author!

Zoey Marks has been a bridesmaid in 3 weddings. In all 3 weddings, the bride never made it down the aisle. And now, she’s in Ireland for the wedding of her best friend and scared to death that she’ll ruin the wedding. But she also has to attend the wedding, knowing that her ex will be there shortly after their heartbreaking breakup.

Ok - I need to start out with saying that if you think you’re picking up a cute romance with a typical HEA, think again. But that should not stop you from reading this book. There is in fact a happily ever after, but it’s Zoey’s version. I’m going to tell you all of the things I loved about this book, which includes the previously mentioned music references. I loved Zoey, her sense of humor (seriously, I laughed so much!), and her incessant cursing. I loved Zoey and Hannah’s friendship…think about that friend that you know so well that you’d basically do anything for and all the love that goes into that. I loved the retrospective look at Zoey and Rylan’s relationship because that’s what gave me all the All Too Well vibes. I loved the end of this book because it worked. I loved the Jewish representation. I loved the STEAM! There was one thing I didn’t love, which was the bit of cheating, but frankly I think it made sense in the context of this book. Just not ideal for me. Bad Luck Bridesmaid is all about standing on your own two feet and making your happily ever after what you want it to be.

So, my overall thoughts on this story is that it wasn't what I was hoping for. I was hoping for a fun, light, romcom. What I got was a much heavier, coming-of-age story about a woman wrestling with her love/commitment/marriage issues. I don't think this is a bad story and I think there is a lot to take away from it. I personally didn't resonate with the main character and found her a bit annoying which also lead to me not liking the book as much. Oh well, you're not going to love them all.

the thing you absolutely must know before reading this book is that it is not a romcom. I don't mean that in the way that I say things are so much more than a romcom where it's a romance story with other serious/prevalent themes. Understanding that this is a book about friendship and about personal growth will help you enjoy it more.

All that being said, the romance plot lines in this book did trip me up and I didn't listen to my own advice which led to some unmanaged expectations. BUT regarding Zoey and Hannah's friendship and Zoey's own self-growth with her attitudes about marriage/the future, this book was an absolute gem. I loved Zoey's character and found her to be the perfect type of messy heroine. I sometimes cringed at the things she said or did but ultimately, she won me over.

This book had a great commentary on the societal expectations of women and how that affects their own views of themselves. Seeing Zoey work through that and come to terms with what she wanted out of life vs. how she thinks of herself was really moving and where the real heart of the story lay.