thank you to netgalley, the publisher, and to kate weston for the advanced reader copy of "you may now kill the bride". are you up for a who-dunnit in which the bride-to-be is murdered during her bachelorette weekend?? if so, you should read "you may now kill the bride" by kate weston. the premise was really interesting, but it lost momentum a little before the midway point of the story. the majority of the characters got on my nerves, so it made it very difficult to connect with or relate to any of them, with the exception of maybe toby. i felt myself going into a reading slump while reading "you may now kill the bride", but by that point i was too far in to not know who the killer was.

"You May Now Kill The Bride" starts at one woman's hen do (bachelorette) weekend, where we meet a group of formerly close-knit friends thrown together again for a "healthy" weekend hen do. We quickly find out that not all is at it used to be between the old friends, and when the bride ends up dead the plot thickens.

What follows is a twisty tale of old friendships gone wrong, and how things are most definitely not what they seem.

This was an enjoyable romp through the charcters pasts as well as present. Each character was pretty well fleshed out and I came to like some of the individuals in the group as we neared the end of the book. The murder wasn't gory (just how I like my murders!) and overall the tone remained light despite the more serious subject matter.

This was a great book overall and I would read more from this author.

Slightly strange but very fun wedding read. Who is killing the brides and bridesmaids? Beware of hen parties! These old friends definitely have a lifetime ofsecrets.

I loved this book!

The mysteries were intriguing and surprising, and the background stories were brought into the plot well. While all the characters are majorly flawed, they all have redeeming characteristics and we can see ourselves a bit in each (or at least most) of them. This is an interesting genre combining "chick lit" (I'm sure there's a new and better name for it by now) and not-quite-suspense, and I am all about it. There was humor and familiarity in the plot, a light-heartedness to it despite the murder aspect.

I truly enjoyed this multiple perspectives format - while it sometimes can be a bit frustrating when it changes by chapter, this was written with perspective changing (a few times!) literally within one paragraph, and it was fantastic! And the ultimate unveiling was still a surprise!

Looking forward to more books by this author!

You May Now Kill the Bride
Written by Kate Weston
Published by Random House Publishing Group
Release Date May 14, 2024

“ Who will be left standing when the bouquet is thrown?”

This one is a real thriller that pins you down and holds you there as you read this book full of twists and turns. It is definitely one hell of a ride and you will not want off.

Five friends, all with many complex issues in their personal lives, are headed out for a bachelorette party that they hope will bring them back to the way they were in school. Work and personal life has infringed upon their friendship and now each of them want to get together and have some girl time. There is one thing though that they are all keeping quiet about. Something that happened 20 years ago. Something that is keeping these very different women together.
Tansy is determined to have a wedding that brings her and Ivan together. Ivan however isn’t all he portrays himself to be. But that is not stopping Tansy from marrying him. The bachelorette party is being held at a wellness retreat and at first everything goes perfectly. It doesn’t take long for resentment and old grudges to rear their ugly heads. Then, to everyone’s dismay, Tansy dies after drinking a drink that had been poisoned. AND, all of the bridesmaids became the suspects and they all needed to prove they were innocent……but were they? Someone knows what happened and that same someone could know what happened years ago. Could the two be connected?

This is an extremely well written book with characters that are well developed and ones that you love to hate. This book took me by surprise because I had never heard this authors name before I am very picky about mystery/thrillers as far as ratings go. This one is a 5++. I couldn’t stop reading it and neglected to feed my family, our fur baby, and was up late reading it in hopes of finishing it. (Everyone ate btw….they just had to make their own). If you love a great girlfriend murder mystery, then you ABSOLUTELY MUST READ THIS BOOK. I truly am shouting to you. This author knows how to throw in twists and turns all while not giving any bread crumbs. No predictability in here. You will have to read the whole book to figure it out. I just knew I thought I had if figured out. Turned out I was wrong, wrong, wrong. Why don’t you read it to see if you can figure it out?

None of the characters in this book are likable, which I usually like, however in this case I almost DNF. The characters are all entitled, whiny, and narcissistic in the most annoying ways possible. The group of five women have been friends since they were kids, however you wouldn’t know that from all the talking behind each other’s backs that goes on. The only reason I kept reading was because more people kept getting murdered and I just wanted to know who it was. I may have also hoped they all were just gonna off each other lol. The ending of the book was a little unexpected and somewhat entertaining.

*Provided a DRC (digital review copy) from the publisher for review. All opinions are my own.

Tansy, Farah, Lauren. Saskia, and Domenica became fast friends in grade school, and they have stuck together through good times and bad. They all have their secrets, and as they move into a season with two weddings between them all, those secrets will start leaking out and making trouble for them all.

Farah got engaged to her boyfriend after dating for many years, and she was excited to finally plan her wedding. After waiting so long, she wants to make sure that her wedding is perfect, from the bachelorette party to the ceremony. So she plans a getaway to Ibiza for her bridesmaids, and she can’t wait to have a perfect weekend with them.

But as Farah was making her perfect plans, Tansy showed up and announced that she had gotten engaged. She’d only been seeing him a few months, but she was going to get married right away, and she planned a bachelorette weekend at a wellness camp, the weekend before Farah’s bachelorette weekend in Ibiza. Farah resents her for that, but there is nothing she can do. To be the happier bride, Farah has to be gracious.

Saskia was the first in the group to get married, and now she’s a trying to start a business as a professional event planner, so Tansy asked her to help plan the wedding, and she is annoying them all with the group texts and imperious attitude. Domenica is an attorney with powerful clients going through expensive divorces. She is strong and independent and resents Saskia for giving up on her dreams and becoming a wife and mother to someone she believes is not worthy of her. Lauren works at a cosmetics company and feels like the others don’t think much of her job. She’s been in love with Farah’s brother since high school and still carries a torch for him even though he ended their relationship and is dating a younger woman named Eva.

Eva and Tansy became fast friends after Farah introduced them, so Tansy has invited Eva to be part of her wedding and, of course, to come to the bachelorette weekend. Eva is a content creator, so she was able to get Tansy some of the things for her wedding for free or at a discount, like this alcohol-free, organic wellness weekend. But when Tansy has an allergic reaction during the cacao ceremony, a search for her EpiPen yields nothing. Tansy is dead, but was it intention, or just a cruel accident?

It’s not until Farah’s modified bachelorette weekend that the women know for sure, because a friend of Saskia’s who was with them is poisoned. At that point, the police are certain that it’s murder. All of the women in the friend group have their secrets, but which one of them would kill to keep those secrets? And as the women become more anxious about their safety (and for Farah, about her wedding), will they all survive? Or will there be more killings before it’s all over?

You May Now Kill the Bride is a darkly comedic look at bridezillas and old friends, at the secrets that hold friend groups together and the ones that rip them apart. It asks the question, what if one of your ride-or-dies turns to killing to keep their secrets, and the answer is not at all what you would expect.

I enjoyed reading You May Now Kill the Bride, but there were times I struggled to keep all the characters straight in my head. And many of them, if not all of them, come across in the beginning as very unlikable. But as I got to know them more and find out about their backgrounds, it was easier to see the good in them too, so I started to root for them. It did take some time though. I think anyone who grew up in a tight group will see some of their own friends in these women, and may feel a stronger tug towards how they interact. And those of us who don’t can see the inner workings of the group and see what we missed out on.

Egalleys for You May Now Kill the Bride were provided by Random House Trade Paperbacks through NetGalley, with many thanks.

When this book begins, we have five friends (and a tag-along) who are heading to Camp Chakra for a vegan, alcohol-free bachelorette party for Tansy, the owner of a vegan cafe, and the woman who is about to get married to a man she’s only known for a couple months. This is definitely the typical “twenty years ago, something terrible happened and now the friends that are bound by a secret are back together” kind of book, which I think are overdone. The differences in this one are the characters and the dark humor they bring to the party.

Also at the camp, we have Saskia, an event planner/influencer who “married well”, Lauren, who’s in cosmetics marketing and unlucky in love, Dominica, a divorce lawyer, and Farah, who is also engaged, and is not too happy with this rushed wedding getting attention when her wedding is just weeks away. Finally, we have Eva, a content creator. She’s dating Farah’s brother, Joss, who also used to date Lauren. The women are doing some kind of hippie cacao ceremony, when Tansy chokes and dies. Then, more people start dying, and we are left to wonder why.

Yes, this book is cliché, and yes, the characters were insufferable (yet fun to read), but I still enjoyed the read. This is a quirky little murder mystery, and I didn’t see the ending coming. This isn’t laugh-out-loud funny, but it definitely has some dark humor and a lot of awkward moments that take place and add to the overall picture. 3.5 stars, rounded up for being the author’s adult fiction debut.

(Thank you to Random House, Kate Weston and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.)

The story of the book itself was intriguing and I liked the mystery. However, the writing was so confusing and difficult to track, as it moved from character perspective from paragraph to paragraph. I think having shorter chapters but each chapter being entirely one person's POV would have been a much more enjoyable read.

It also would have been nice to get a little more information on how the murders were done exactly... where did the toxins come from? How did it come about? The last kill in particular would have been nice to see more why/how it really happened.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC copy of this book in exchange for a review. This book follows a group of women who have known each other since they were about 4 years old and have grown up together in England. As you read through the story multiple people end up dead and it’s a journey to figure out who is doing all this. It becomes a game of who can you trust in your closest knit group of friends.

I enjoyed reading this book as I am a sucker for a good mystery/whodunnit story. This one was no surprise as the author captivated me early on in the story and lead me through different roads where I had thought I had figured out the ending but until I read the last page was completely wrong.

I would recommend this book to those who like feeling like they have the story figured out and can be surprised at the end when they don’t.

This books was a total mixed bag for me. It had me hooked almost instantly, but I quickly realized that I hated pretty much all of the characters. So even though I was pretty intrigued the whole book, it wasn’t because I actually cared what happened to the characters, it was because I just genuinely couldn’t fathom where the book was going. The ending caught me pretty off guard, and it felt a little slapped together because I couldn’t really see the breadcrumbs when I looked back. There were quite a few red herrings that just felt like “gotcha” devices. The book was also really crass, which I usually don’t read.
All that being said, the book was entertaining by virtue of being so absurd that you kind of couldn’t help but keep reading. Sort of like watching Jersey Shore or The Real World. Not people you want as your friends (as even the author points out in her author’s note), but stupid entertaining nonetheless. I wouldn’t reread or even want the book on my shelf, but it’s definitely going to be someone’s jam.

The first 10% took me a little while to get into, but once you get to the first hen do, things really start picking up. You get the backstory on all of the main characters through different timelines, but also through their own POVs. And even though the POVs change literally from one paragraph to the next, it's pretty easy to keep up with whose eyes we're seeing things through.

There are a lot of twists in this book, and I don't think I guessed even one correctly. I was flying through this book trying to figure out who had done what, who knew what, and who was using who. Plus trying to figure out what the heck the secret they all had on one another was. And honestly, all of these characters are kind of shit, but you also kind of just love them for the hot mess they all are.

Now I wouldn't call this a thriller. I'd say it's a murder mystery mixed with The Real Housewives. So if you want a mystery that's filled with frenemy drama, then this is the one for you. It was a super fast, fun read. No regrets on my part.

Thank you NetGalley, Kate Weston, and Random House for an early copy in exchange for an honest review!

Wasn't a huge fan of the perspective changing so rapidly in each paragraph, but I can see why it would be done- the thoughts were too rapid-fire for each hen to have their own chapters or paragraphs. Saw some of the twists coming, others not so much. Overall a decently entertaining book, and I'd recommend it.

You May Now Kill the Bride offers a wickedly entertaining twist on the classic whodunit, as a bachelorette weekend takes a deadly turn when the bride-to-be is poisoned. Author Kate Weston skillfully navigates the intricate dynamics of female friendship, revealing layers of betrayal, jealousy, and secrets among the bridesmaids. While the plot may feel familiar at times, Weston injects fresh energy with sharp humor and unexpected twists. Readers will find themselves engrossed in unraveling the tangled web of motives and suspects, making this a gripping and enjoyable read for fans of thrilling mysteries with a humorous edge.

I really didn't enjoy this one. It took me way too long to get through it. I had initially requested it based on the title and cover and thought the plot was interesting.

I wasn't a big fan of any of the characters, I felt that they were all a little self-centered and kinda mean to one another so I wasn't even sure how they were all friends in the first place. The switching of POVs mid chapter on occasion was a little confusing and I was often confused on who was thinking. I did think the plot was interesting, but it didn't really captivate me or keep me in suspense as some other thrillers I've read before.

I'm also from the US so some of the British language was unfamiliar to me so I think that's why I felt confused most of the time.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I thought I would really enjoy this. It had everything I would have liked. Secluded location. Death and mayhem. A tight knit group of female friends. Unfortunately I did not enjoy this. I couldn’t really connect to any of the characters and I felt that the mystery was a bit sophomore and I found it lacking.

3.5/5 ⭐️
A group of childhood best friends are at a hen do (bachelorette party) for one of them when the bride dies. It’s suspicious, and things become even weirder when another woman dies on another hen do. There might be a killer among the friends.

Overall, I liked the story here! I thought it was different and fun. However, I think there were issues with pov. It would change many times with a chapter without clear indications. I think it would’ve been easier to follow if there had been separate chapter POVs or even if they were clearly marked within a chapter.

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A group of childhood friends gather again for a bachelorette party only for the bride to end up dead. This was my first Kate Weston book, and it was definitely entertaining.

I struggled at first with the writing style and the narration, but once you get further into the novel you get used to it. It jumps from character to character, and keeps the audience on their toes. All of the characters were over the top so you couldn't take them too seriously, but that was part of the fun of the book.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for this ARC.
A group of childhood friends gather again for a bachelorette party only for the bride to end up dead. This was my first Kate Weston book, and it was definitely entertaining.

I struggled at first with the writing style and the narration, but once you get further into the novel you get used to it. It jumps from character to character, and keeps the audience on their toes. All of the characters were over the top so you couldn't take them too seriously, but that was part of the fun of the book.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for this ARC.

YOU MAY NOW KILL THE BRIDE by Kate Weston is part whodunnit, part showcase of female friendships (or not) and just all around fun.

When five friends come together for a bachelorette party for a shotgun wedding, one of them ends up dead. Lauren, Tansy, Farah, Saskia and Dominica have been friends since grade school. Their bond was strengthened in high school when a practical joke went horribly wrong and the sisterhood vowed never to breathe a word. Lauren, a make-up marketing manager is barely scraping by and being strung along by Farah’s brother, Joss for the last five years. Saskia, an event planner who married up, has moved in to a more affluent social circle. Dominica is a divorce lawyer who sleeps around in an attempt to fill a void left from early childhood. Farah, who feels overshadowed regarding her own upcoming nuptials has become a bridezilla who is way over budget and looking for funds in all the wrong places. They all come together at Camp Chakra for Tansy’s rushed bachelorette party as she just can’t seem to wait to marry Ivan (the terrible) after only being together for four months. One of these women will not be at Farah’s wedding in a few months.

As the ladies mourn the loss, they must also rejoice with Farah and celebrate the wedding she’s been planning for months. How could Tansy be so rude as to upstage Farah’s meticulously planned celebration? As the body count continues to rise, secrets are revealed and suspicion is cast on each of the women. Will Farah‘s big day even come to fruition?

I really enjoy the author’s writing style. The banter between the women and the comedic undertones made me feel as if I was in the midst of these women. I laughed. I cringed. And I just kept reading. I had to remind myself that I couldn’t stay with them all day as I had other things to do. This is my first Kate Weston novel however, it will not be my last.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for this ARC opportunity. All opinions are my own and given voluntarily.

A wedding themed thriller where the bride to be winds up dead. Full review to come soon but unfortunately I’m still working on this one.