This book just goes to show that not everyone online is truly anonymous and how complicated families are. I personally loves this book for giving a very truthful look at the behind the scenes of weddings, influencers, families, real life jobs, debt, and friendships. If you love a good funny real life read then you will love this book!

I went into this read blind and was hopeful for funny, wedding-party related shenanigans. I've ready plenty of this 'type' of book, but I usually enjoy them. This one takes a different turn and centers more upon Iris's family dynamic and her political differences with her parents. It is essentially an Anti-trump stereotyping rant. Even for someone who didn't support his election and viewpoints it is just toooooo much for what I was hoping to be a rom com or women's lit novel.
Vatner made his statement but I would honestly have preferred not to read pages and pages of it.
Be sensitive to it's content before you recommend it to customers or patrons.
Thanks for the ARC!

Thank you for the EArc. I couldn’t finish this book. Maybe it’s my generation but this book just was not for me. I was hoping for a fun, lighthearted book but as others have said this gets too deep into things that we see enough of on the news and I just couldn’t deal.

A witty, sarcastic but sometimes serious look at how we use words to tear people down without thinking about the consequences. In the end kindness will always prevail and can help mend relationships.

I really liked this book, but I’m not sure why.
I didn’t like the main character, Iris. She was a mess, and I’m not sure the “enlightenment”
she found through adversity was anything that would stick. Virtually every choice she made, even at the very end, seemed to me to be wrong-headed. Her sister Jasmine, the bride in this tale, was simply awful. I don’t think you can praise someone for being direct, speaking their feelings, and not holding a grudge, when the directness is actually rude and boorish behavior, and the not holding a grudge is simply insensitivity and not caring about other’s feelings. The parents were….not good. Except for a few glimpses of humanity, it is easy to tell how they reared messed up daughters. Kyle, participant in the Union, was just horrible. Forrest, Iris’s baby daddy, was undeserving of any of the slack he was given. He walks out on her wedding to him, doesn’t ever contact her to explain, and years later when she finally reaches him to let him know he has a son, he responds by saying yeah, he thought she might have been pregnant when he left. And he didn’t follow up? But now is being the perfect dad?
Rose, the older sister, was a breath of fresh air - obviously because she had chose to disassociate herself from the toxic stew that is this family and live far away, participating only in holiday activities. And David, Jasmine’s fiancé, seemed to be a relatively normal, pleasant human- which is why I never figured out why he wanted to marry her. I understand there were nuances to all these characters, but it is hard to hold on to nuance when their actions are continually inappropriate.
I guess I liked that the book delved into the phenom of social media and it’s attendant potential for ruining lives - both directly and indirectly. I am astounded at Iris’s naïveté in thinking she could put the Bridesmaids Union posts on the internet, even if it was supposedly private and no one would ever see them. Just like she trusted the photographer not to post the photos he took of her.
Also, the stories of brides run amok with narcissistic demands of their wedding parties seems sadly accurate. Yes, I admit to watching multiple episodes of Say Yes to.the Dress, and marvel that someone does not call out the behavior of some of those brides. And I wonder how many of them are still married a year or two later - or even if they care as much about the being married part as they do the wedding part., and having permission to treat the wedding party (the bigger the better) as indentured servants for a year or so.

But I think I mostly liked the book because it was a good story and well written. As put off by the characters as I was, I couldn’t put it down. Maybe it was like watching a car wreck where you can’t look away, but it did entertain me for several hours. And I’ll have to say there are few books these days that accomplish that.

An entertaining account of the things that Bridesmaids go through!! I can remember being upset that my flowers that arrived the day of my wedding were wilted - but I quickly called the florist myself and they brought me replacement ones on time...didn't even involve my Maid of Honor or my Bridesmaids - but those times were different I guess or maybe I just did the next right thing. I think some of the stories are a bit wild and unreal but I did have a lot of laughs reading this book!

I did unfortunately have to DNF this book. It was just unsavory and a bit unbearable. There really wasn't much for me to like about this one, which is sad because I was really excited about the premise!

A fun, if somewhat predictable beach read. I loved how contemporary the story felt (influencers, internet privacy, elections, oh my!) and the writing was propulsive and beautifully paced. I would read another Vatner novel!

This is my first experience with this author, and I enjoyed the book! I enjoyed some things and some didn't quite work for me as a reader.

One, I loved the concept of a sister/perpetual bridesmaid creating a secret Facebook group for fellow bridesmaids to air their grievances against bridezillas. Clearly, the author did his homework here because the outlandish wedding requests and the people suffering through them did make me laugh. The way this plot line unfolds serves a cautionary tale of sorts because the Internet can be such a horrible place at times. Influencer culture has never made sense to me, but this book just really played up this angle well!

Two- I appreciated the character of Iris trying to do what is right for her son and for her sister. Can see some middle child vibes here, and I liked how she got perspective from her older sister, Rose. Emotional distance helped Iris see her life for what it was-- a bit of a mess! Iris can be likeable as a character, but her decision-making sometimes frustrated me a bit.

The things that didn't quite come together for me-- the religion and politics angle. I get it is set in 2018- the thick of the Trump presidency and how it did divide some families. It just seemed so weirdly interspersed along with the evangelical Christian pieces. I feel like this could be dialed back a bit. Clearly, this did play a role in the family dynamics here, BUT the author also alluded to things that happened when Iris and Jasmine were girls that led to some sibling rivalry/family divide.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts on the book.

Oooo whenever there are bridesmaids involved you know it is going to get crazy! Absolutely loved this read and didn't want it to end. Amazing writing style and also loved the characters in this one... totally came to life on the page!

The Bridesmaids Union started off strong and with promise. However, It soon fell apart as the book lacked focus as if the author was still undecided on what he wanted from the story when he began writing it. With storylines that were all over the place, the story became oddly disjointed and there was so much manufactured drama that I just felt tired reading it.

The religion and politics was very heavy handed given the synopsis and all things combined, I found that for me this novel was more of a chore to read than a pleasure.

This one starts out fun with a confident capable Iris Hagarty. The story then takes a hard turn I was not expecting. The story became disjointed and lacked focus and direction. Iris is a single mother with a job she doesn't like. While she seems to crave a close connection with her family, their political and religious differences have driven a wedge in her relationship with them. Unfortunately, this was not the only focus of the book. There are multiple other threads that compete for your attention while reading. The title group, The Bridesmaids Union, likewise is left to flounder as the book progresses. That isn't to say that there isn't a lot of good story elements. I believe the story would have benefited from fewer plot elements and the author choosing a clear direction for the book. I am still glad I read it but know it could have been so much better.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martins's Press for the Arc. This is my honest review.

I received a complimentary copy of The Bridesmaids' Union from NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own. (Yes, the apostrophe is needed to show ownership of the plural group of bridesmaids.)

This was a very well written novel. I did not realize until finishing the book that it was written by a man, which makes the collective bridesmaid perspective that much more impressive! Every bridesmaid has experienced some kind of trauma from friend/family-bridezilla situation, so this was partly comic-relief and partly sad truth.

Iris found herself if a number of complicated situations; on the homefront, at work, and with her bridesmaid experiences. Although she internalized her feelings and opinions for most of her life, she learned a great deal through the developments of the novel. For the most part, I loved this book, but I had hoped for a different ending. (I do understand the author's choice, however.)

I really enjoyed this book, it only took me about 2 days to finish it. There were alot of things I liked about the book and a few things I didn't. It seemed like there were some things missing, like if the author didn't have many friends why was she invited to so many weddings? Also it feels like the last part was rushed to tie things up quickly. Other than that the book was really enjoyable.

I was in the mood for some snarky fun. This book wasn't it. It was honestly just all over the place. And way too much on weightier topics like politics and religion.

Hard to get into it in the beginning, but I found myself liking it when I got to know all the characters.. The characters weren't very likable, but that seemed to be the point. It was a lot of drama, but it all came together in the end.

A special thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press & Wednesday Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

So the only reason I am giving this two stars is that it is not as bad as Carnegie Hill. I knew this author sounded familiar to me, and I am annoyed I wasted a pick on this. The entire book was a slow moving train wreck that I was unable to look away from. The main character, Iris, is terrible. The other characters we get are awful. The writing was meh, and the flow was a mess too. The ending was 100 percent not realistic, and I just sighed. It didn't help that I have read so many books featuring this exact same plotline the past few months (bridesmaid gets fed up, blogs about it or in this case creates a Facebook group) which this was done better than this. 

"The Bridesmaid Union" follows Iris Sullivan. Iris has just saved the day at one of her closet's friend's wedding in Florida. She gets upset though when the bride doesn't acknowledge it. When her younger sister Jasmine gets engaged to a millionaire tech guy, she decides she has had it and creates a private Facebook group called The Bridesmaid Union. On the Facebook page Iris can let the other members know about the annoying things her sister wants her to do and the other members can share their own stories. Things get messy though when the group starts growing, and Iris's members start talking more and more about things non-bridesmaid related. 

So Iris is just...exhausting. Yep, that's the word. Her constant need of validation, but anger that she wants it was so....ugh. Honestly, even I got tired of hearing her going off at her family for voting for Donald Trump (or not voting at all). And I am saying that because the book seemed to be treating this as just as cute character flaw even though her parents were bigoted Christians. There's a scene where they start to pressure Jasmine' fiancée (who is Jewish) to convert. None of this read as amusing to me, I just read it as these people are all terrible and Iris needed to just stop talking/reacting to them. 

The other characters are not great. Jasmine was superficial and just supposed to be a caricature of an influencer. David was a non-entity. The supposed love that Iris started to feel for the guy came out of nowhere and was not realistic at all. Iris's parents were not great. Rose was very good and I honestly wanted to read more about her and her life in Florida. God love her, I wouldn't have visited home either. The women and some men from the Facebook private group got a little bit of development, but of course way too much attention was paid to the character of Kyle. 

The writing was better than the last book of his I read. I can say that the flow was better too. But that's not saying much. If this was any other book and I had not read the author before, I would have given this 1 star.  I was just bored by this whole story-line. No one was holding a gun to Iris's head to participate in her sister's wedding. The only character I liked (Rose) was the one who finally pointed out how childish Iris was being about so many things. The evolving plotline with Kyle didn't make sense and Iris's need to even stay in contact with him just showed she has the worst judgement ever. As I said above, I have read at least 5 to 6 books over the past year where we have a put upon bridesmaid dealing with a crazy bride. This one didn't have anything new to tell in that realm. 

The setting of this book is 2018, and we are 2 years into the Trump administration. There's a lot of discussion of being cancelled and all of that and I just put my head back and sighed like a thousand times. I will say one thing, Vatner does showcase how most family members dealt with their Trump relatives (by just still interacting with them and acting like what they said wasn't terrible) very well. 

The ending was a joke.

A fascinating amalgam of the world of bridezillas, their long suffering families and the wedding planners thrust in their war! Loved every second of this terrific book.

I put this down after one character referred to bagel chasers and another called someone a Hitler based on her unsavory behavior. This commentary coupled with the fact this is a novel written by a man about roles traditionally held by women (bridesmaid/maid of honor) made me drop it like a hot potato.

While the premise is fascinating: a 27-dresses type with a maxed out credit card from too many bridesmaids duties has to compete to be the maid of honor in her own sister's wedding, and hops on social media to start a venting and support group for all the poor unappreciated bridesmaids, the bridezilla bashing gets old fast. Part of the narrative is direct messages exchanged with an influencer and the only? gay dude in the cozy private group, and the recreation of posts complete with images of terrible bridesmaid dresses. It just didn't translate well to ebook format, but given the content, I gave up on it 35% in.

I received an advance reader’s review copy of #TheBridesmaidsUnion from #NetGalley.

I really wanted to like this book, but the constant references to the election and politics were entirely unnecessary and unexpected, given the synopsis. DNF.