Rating: 
Summary: Joyless
Review: "Wedding Season" aspires to be the intellectual version of chick-lit, but comes across as pretentious and preachy. Name-dropping everyone from Julian Barnes to Anais Nin, Darcy Cosper's debut novel ends up an empty, bitter-tasting mess.
Joy is fiercely anti-marriage, but somehow has gotten roped into being a bridesmaid/guest at seventeen weddings in six months: A debutante wedding, two gay commitment ceremonies, a Web-based wedding for an open marriage, and weddings for her brother, mother, and father.
Then Joy's boyfriend Gabe drops a bombshell -- he wants to marry her. Without really thinking about it, she accepts. But she also has to deal with her lesbian friend Henry's possible breakup, her pal Joan's breakdown, and the possibility of her boyfriend cheating on her with a sexy, sly memoirist. Does Joy really want to get married after all?
It's easy to see "Wedding Season" as a novel about how some people are happiest when unmarried, and how singleness is not a disease. Sure, happiness can't be bought in a little velvet box. But dig a little deeper into the book's message. How independent can a woman be if her determination to remain unmarried is based in a bunch of childhood neuroses and fears? Not very inspiring.
Cosper's writing isn't anything to write home about. Her thin plot is worth about twenty pages, so she stretches it out with the seventeen weddings -- several of which are glossed over -- and a dozen subplots. But half the subplots lead nowhere, and the main plot itself putters to an unsatisfying halt.
Despite being called a "comedy of manners," there's nothing remotely witty or intelligent in this story. The author apparently harbors some bitterness towards marriage, and therefore trots out many arguments against it. So it's not witty, not intelligent -- it's merely a preachy tract, wrapped inside quirky anecdotes about chaotic weddings.
Joy herself is a wretched character -- stodgy, peevish, and neurotic. Worse, Cosper has her acknowledge her neuroses, but not overcome them -- at the end, she's as messed-up and fearful as ever, and has treated her long-suffering boyfriend like a doormat to boot. Other characters like the gay brother, the good girl, the neurotic mom and gorgeous boyfriend are merely cardboard cutouts. The only likable character is lesbian pal Henry; despite her over-the-top personality, she's the sanest person in the whole book.
The neurotic bitterness and preachiness of "Wedding Season" spoil what could have been a fun light romp. Despite the back-cover comparison to Jane Austen, there's no comedy and no manners in this flaccid piece of chick-lit.
Rating: 
Summary: Chick lit, yes, but more too
Review: Although cloaked in the guise of chick lit, this book is really a journey of one character finding her way when her desires and beliefs are mutually exclusive. The bones of the book represent a thoughtful exploration of friendship, integrity, truth, and love fleshed out with colorful characters and witty banter. Read at a surface level, it may appear to be a bon mot of manners and mannerisms, but the book artfully expresses life/love philosophies in the actions and beliefs of the primary characters.
Several alternative endings would have worked. The chosen ending suggests that the author is as afraid of finding out whether "happily ever after" exists as is her heroine. It would be interesting to see a sequel to the work. In the end, one fails to believe that the story has, in fact, ended and the threads are left hanging as to what happens with several primary characters.
Still, it is a fun and easy read, and one that kept me reading late into the night to finish. I read that Robert Evans bought the film rights and I look forward to seeing this in film. Ultimately it's an independent film masquerading as a romantic comedy.
Rating:
Summary: A Lovely Surprise
Review: Although Wedding Season is witty and smart and has enough laughs to go around, there's a quiet poignancy that sneaks up on you and makes this book worth your attention. The protagonist has constructed this protective edifice of belief around herself, and Cosper orchestrates events so that they keep challenging and prodding Joy's world until a deeper truth is revealed. The book sneaks up on you with a quiet accumulation of telling details which add up to a complicated, humane and real character - just as it does in life! Ignore the naysayers below - I don't know what book they were reading.
Rating: 
Summary: entertaining and honest
Review: cosper's wise, wry take on the modern relationship is the kind of book you attempt to read slowly -- so as to prolong your stay in the delightful world the author has created -- but inevitably you fail, propelled on by the engaging storytelling. wedding season manages to be both witty and heartfelt, entertaining and honest, and joy emerges a lovable, flawed, insightful heroine. i'd kibitz with her over a glass of wine at pantheon any day of the week.
Rating: 
Summary: pretentious
Review: Darcy Cosper is a thinker not a writer. She gets so caught up in Joy's principles that she neglects the plot. Though she does have some insightful thoughts on the institution of marriage in todays society, she forgets to resolve anything in her book. Joy's stance on marriage is obviously derived from her parents divorce. What happens between Joy and Gabe? More importantly what about Joan? I would have liked to see more of what happened to her and her pathetic excuse for a husband. And Chris? unresolved. When writing a book it is in my opinion that you resolve or at least explain the problems of the characters thoroughly. Obviously Darcy Cosper is more intersted in getting her own opinions across than writing a story. She should be writing for newspapers and magazines. she should not be writing books.
Rating:
Summary: Enough already
Review: Enough already with the author's and the publisher's blabbering on about the Jane Austen connection. This is not at the level of Jane Austen. I don't think Jane Austen could have stomached observing this world. And Jane Austen was a true talent. There is a fair amount of pretention to the writing, and perhaps too much flattery given to the airhead fluttering about Manhattan with a martini in her hand, pretending to be Deep and Smart. Yes, there is a bit too much effort showing in the writing...especially in terms of the attempts to be Deep and Smart. And Witty. And Philosophical. And just so Clever. Who are these people writing the rave reviews? The author? The agent? The agent's and the author's friends?
Rating:
Summary: A cool drink of water on a hot summer day.
Review: How refreshing! A completely absurd, fabulous, fantastic vision of life in New York City, and if you've been missing "Sex and the City"-- no, let me stop myself. If you're bummed because you've read all of Jane Austen's novels too many times, AND you miss "S and the C", this author has come to the rescue. I loved Joy and her friends, and found myself snorting with amusement on pretty much every page. Although the chaos of Joy's insane summer of social obligations provides her with plenty of distraction, it's clear that the real story here is that of a heroine making an agonizing choice that we, all of us, have been trained not to choose, on pain of something really bad-- except that in Joy's case, you look around at all of the people in her life, and at who she is, and realize that it's something really pretty good. There are plenty of people in this book that you just want to smack sometimes, but you also want to hang out with them, go to some of these parties yourself, and most of all, find out what happens to them next. I'm already waiting for a sequel.
Rating:
Summary: I'm Divorcing this book before the honeymoon
Review: I am adding this book to my personal worst list. I had such high expectations and it definately didn't live up to any of them. If you are expecting a fun, chaotic, spoof on courtship, engagement, wedding planning, and marriages forget it. I was truly so disappointed in Joy, she was a kill joy. The reason why I gave the book one star was for Gabe. The only likable character.
Rating:
Summary: Should have been a lot better...
Review: I am so disappointed by this book. By the time I hit page 15, I felt like I'd read at least 100 pages. It's such a shame, since the plot has the potential to be really really funny. Instead, the book is really really wordy -- so wordy that it almost feels like you're reading a college lit book. Too bad the Shopaholic Lady didn't think of this book first -- I'm sure she would have did a lot better job. Reader beware...
Rating:
Summary: pretentious
Review: i am thoroughly disappointed with this book. i was hoping it would be a simple "chick lit" book considering the title, but it turned out to be very pretentious. the characters in the book are incredible new york-social-elitist snobs. the author continually attempts to prove her intellectual prowess to the audience. for example, she incorporates obscure, elitist phrases into her characters' speech. it's obvious that this is a first work, as the author's style and attempt at proving her wit and knowledge completely eliminates any credibility. when was the last time you used "cri de coeur" in a sentance? knock off the obscure literary references, too -- it's nice that you can quote anais nin at the drop of the hat, but don't shove it down our collective throat! the characters are dull and protypical new yorkers; the lives and personalities created for them could not possibly exist. i mean, please, mummy's a lawyer and daddy's an academic, boyfriend's a perfect, wealthy photographer, and all joy's friends are ultra-feminists with brilliant careers -- and every one of them becomes a philosopher at a moment's notice. totally unbelieveable! the biggest flaw in the book is that its organization is incoherent -- random thoughts are inserted where they shouldn't be, completely messing up the flow of the story. i give this book one star because of the author's naievete and inability to create realistic characters -- people DO have flaws, you know -- give your characters' some!
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