Whose Wedding Is It Anyway? (Red Dress Ink)

Rating:
Summary: Good
Review: Another entry into the Red Dress Ink chick lit series. This one is pretty good. Melissa Senate is a good writer and entertains.

This book is fairly standard chick lit fare in that it revolves around weddings and friends. Throw in the usual "eccentric, ego-centered boss" and you pretty much have your usual cast of characters.

While I thought the premise of this book was a little farfetched - the main character happens to work for a wedding magazine and ends up being their "modern bride demo", there were a few cute moments.

What I truly did enjoy in the book was the unexpected look at the relationship between our main character and her brother and grandmother. Both of which were highly touching.

I could have done without the brother's annoyingly pregnant girlfriend (I have to pee again...).

Another bright spot was the main characters circle of friends (including 2 year old Summer).

I would love to see Senate's next book focus on this circle of friends - there is potential there.

This is fairly standard chick lit stuff - pleasant and breezy. A good buy.

Rating:
Summary: Good reading...
Review: Can you get something for nothing? If you think so, then read this book and be disabused of that fallacy. Elouise thinks she is getting a free wedding, courtesy of WOW weddings, in return all she has to do is be filmed and journal every stage for the magazine. It sounds simple enough to her and the other bride. Elouise will be the modern bride and Phyl the traditional bride. They did not realize the freedom of choice they have about each facet is severely limited. Nor did they realize that although Elouise looks very modern, she does not want a Big Bird Trekkie wedding. Phyl does; traditional trappings remind her of her grandmother. Added to all this chaos, Elouise longs to reconnect with her family, which is not as easy as it might sound. With her job and her future happiness riding on what happens next, what will Elouise do?

**** Often silly and more often realistic, a touching center hides under the laughter. Readers need not be familiar with the prequel to be able to follow along. ****

Rating:
Summary: Another Great Read from Melissa Senate
Review: Eloise is about to find out if there is such thing as a free wedding.

It all starts when Eloise is offered a free wedding from the magazine she works for. In exchange, she will have to keep a diary detailing her every move - from picking wedding cake, to deciding on a florist, to choosing a gown. Sounds amazing, right? It is at first, but things go downhill fast. First off, Eloise's boss Astrid, who is calling all the shots, insists that she have her family at the photo shoot. The problem with that is Eloise's mother passed away years ago, and her father has always been MIA. (He took off when she was a kid.) She also hadn't spoken to her brother in some time. If that isn't bad enough, Astrid is forcing Eloise to be the "modern bride", which among other things means a canary yellow feathered wedding dress. (Yeah, you read that right.) To top everything off, Eloise is suddenly feeling as though she might be making a mistake marrying Noah.

Will it be the wedding disaster of the century? Or will there even be a wedding at all? Will Astrid sue her for dropping out of the wedding?

With a few laugh-out-loud scenes, hilarious wedding antics, and plenty of touching moments, this book is another wonderful chick lit read by a great author. Anyone that says chick lit is all fluff obviously hasn't read Melissa Senate's books - they are anything but. Her plots are solid and well-crafted, and she delves into serious subjects. The characters are so real that they nearly jump off the pages.

Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes a good Marriage/Wedding chick lit type of novel.

Rating:
Summary: Another fun chick-lit from Melissa Senate!
Review: Is there such a thing as a free wedding? Eloise Manfred gets an offer she cannot refuse. She will have a $100,000 wedding with all the trimmings if she accepts to be part of a new wedding feature in Wow Weddings magazine -- the magazine she works for. She is the "Modern Bride," and her wedding gown, bridesmaid dresses, reception hall, rings, honeymoon, and wedding registries should all be what the egocentric editor-in-chief sees in a modern wedding. The problem is that Eloise hates everything that has been chosen for her (all tacky stuff) and adores the beautiful things that are chosen for the feature's "Classic Bride." But Eloise has more things to worry about, like the fact that she's having cold feet. Why is she having second thoughts about marrying a guy as perfect as Noah? To make matters worse, her troubled brother is having some commitments problems of his own and Eloise wants closure regarding her wayward father. There are some fun twists throughout the novel.

This is a spin-off of See Jane Date. This is Eloise's story. I read See Jane Date about two years ago, possibly longer than that, and it took me a while to remember Jane and the other characters. Ms. Senate took a little too long to release a spin-off novel. But it doesn't matter, for this novel makes a great stand-alone. The story is fun, fast-paced, and entertaining. The characters are well developed and the story is consistent from beginning to end. Eloise annoyed me at times with her commitment phobia, but her phobia is justified later on in the book. I would have liked to read more scenes with Noah in them though. And the whole baby and reluctant new father storyline reminded me of one of the character's dilemmas in The Solomon Sisters Wise Up. Anyway, all in all, I enjoyed reading Whose Wedding Is It Anyway? This isn't the best chick-lit out there and the ending is kind of predictable, but the novel is a cute, no-fuss read to enjoy on a lazy afternoon, and I recommend it as such...

Rating:
Summary: Pretty standard stuff
Review: This is pretty standard chick lit stuff.

Melissa Senate is an entertaining writer and therefore has written a fun book. However, weddings in chick lit are so "done". Still, the store was fairly entertaning and the characters were your usual mixture of nice and mean.

An average entry into the Red Dress Ink series.

Rating:
Summary: Senate does it again. . .
Review: WHOSE WEDDING IS IT ANYWAY brings back loveable characters (ie Eloise, Jane, Amanda & Natasha) from Senate's debut novel, SEE JANE DATE.

WWIIA's heroine is Eloise Manfred who's just signed a contract w/her boss for a free $100K wedding to be featured in her employer's magazine "Wow Weddings". Although, people tell Eloise nothing's for free, she finds out the hard way as she's forced into "choosing" a Big Bird wedding dress, rubber bridesmaids dresses and square wedding rings that her boss insists are perfect for the ultra Modern Wedding spread.

In addition to boss-related wedding disasters, Eloise's impending marriage has her chomping a pack of Tums per day despite having found the perfect man. During her hilarious and crazy experiences putting together the ultimate Modern Wedding, she's forced to deal with long-ignored and painful family issues that ultimately lead her to the answers about herself and her family that she never knew she always needed.

The characters in WWIIA are heartwarming and real in yet another fast-paced enjoyable read by Melissa Senate - can't wait to see what she comes out with next.

Rating:
Summary: Amusing story line
Review: WOW Weddings provides the $100,000 funding for each of two marriage ceremonies if the brides agree to being videotaped, keep journals, and accept the type of ceremony offered. Thinking she will receive a free wedding, co-workers Eloise and Philippa agree to the terms. Eloise will have a modern ceremony while Phyl will be more of a traditional bride.

Rather quickly, the two brides learn that there is no such thing as a free lunch as the cost of freedom is high. Eloise hates her modern wedding that emphasize a yellow wedding dress with bird feathers out of Sesame Street and a hall that looks like Dracula was the interior decorator; Phyl detests her traditional setting that reminds her of her grandmother. Both would like to swap roles, but neither wants to say anything that might jinx their nuptials as both have relationship issues to contend with even as they step closer to the first step down the aisle.

Though this chick lit tale sounds like an inane reality show and contains some silliness, Melissa Senate injects several deep issues on relationships within the amusing story line. Eloise and Phyl are strong centers to the dual plot while the support cast provides depth either to the wedding scenarios or the brides. Sub-genre fans will want to attend the galas while agreeing with the two women as to WHOSE WEDDING IS IT?

Harriet Klausner