Save the date for this funny and poignant novel of family, friendship, letting go, and moving on by the award-winning author of Room to Breathe.Once upon a time, Melanie Layton and Tennyson O’Rourke were inseparable—but their friends-4ever promises were shattered when an explosive secret was revealed at Mel’s wedding, a secret that destroyed her family. The two haven’t spoken for the past … spoken for the past twenty-some-odd years, and they’d be happy if they never crossed paths again.
But now Mel’s daughter and Teeny’s son have fallen in love—and announced their engagement.
Which means the two women must tolerate one another and play nice long enough to plan their children’s dream wedding. From the beginning, they clash. Melanie imagines a classy, elegant event, in keeping with tradition. Teeny’s vision is a bit more extravagant, and thanks to her habit of marrying well, she’s got the cash to plan the flashiest wedding of the season.
Complicating matters are the men in their lives: Tennyson is falling for the wrong guy, and Melanie is trying to hold on to a flailing marriage. Amid the flurry of cake tastings, dress fittings, seating charts, and bridal showers, Mel and Teeny confront their past mistakes—with twenty years of pent-up drama.
When the day of the wedding finally arrives, their friendship might just be something old and something new.
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From friends in youth to eternal enemies.
A hilarious plot of how two girlfriends now see themselves at their children’s wedding when they vowed never to speak to each other again.
Finding out the reason for all this confusion leads us to gossip and misunderstandings that anyone could go through – in addition to the surprise of fate in making them meet again.
Read and enjoy.
4 stars
4 1/2 STARS!
An emotionally charged story of love, laughter and heart! With her latest release Liz Talley delivers an array of characters that grab onto a reader’s soul quickly and refuse to let go as we accompany them on a journey of healing and enlightenment. I was hooked fairly quickly and rarely put it down as page after page brought cringe worthy laugh out loud moments and heartwarming character richness. I loved their story through every cheesy, heartfelt memory! I wanted a little more closure on Melanie at the end, but overall really enjoyed the read!
Tennyson O’Rourke was a hilariously over the top character and you couldn’t help but love every minute of her. She doesn’t apologize for speaking her mind in life, and she’s had a lot of living along the way to show for it. She’s returned home to Louisiana just as her son announces his engagement … to her former childhood best friend’s daughter!
Melanie Layton is really easy to like even thought she’s a little uptight. She’s underappreciated by all and really tugs at our hearts as the story progresses and we learn more about her. She can’t believe the woman who betrayed her trust and had a hand in ruining her idyllic family life is going to be her daughter’s mother-in-law. Talk about awkward!
I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a romantic comedy filled with down home family realness. The characters have some crazy moments and it’s filled with so much heart you’ll be overflowing by the end.
As I’ve mentioned in other reviews of Liz Talley’s novels, she has a gift for creating flawed, fascinating, and memorable characters. The two main characters here are Melanie and Tennyson, who grew up as best friends and later became enemies after Tennyson trashed Melanie’s wedding by publically revealing a family secret. It is now two decades after Melanie’s wedding to Tennyson’s ex-boyfriend, Kit, and Melanie’s daughter and Tennyson’s son Andrew are engaged. This engagement forces Melanie and Tennyson together, despite the obvious antipathy between the two women.
As Melanie struggles with her floundering marriage and dissatisfaction with her life, Tennyson likewise struggles with her own identity, and facing up to the havoc she wrecked upon Melanie’s family. Given the extent and consequences of Tennyson’s betrayal, I probably could not forgive Tennyson. However, I understand Melanie’s recognition that her life is better with Tennyson in her life, and Melanie’s subsequent need for forgiveness and moving on.
Some reviews complained about the unlikability of Melanie and Tennyson. Whether or not characters are likable is not important to me. What is important to me is whether or not I can engage with the characters, and Liz Talley excels in creating the clashing characters of Melanie and Tennyson. This point was driven home to me as I was reading the scene where Melanie, her daughter Emma, and Tennyson go to Dallas to pick out Emma’s wedding dress. I don‘t really care about the details of wedding dresses, nor do I know anything about designers, but I realized I enjoyed this scene because I cared about these two characters and their interaction.
Finally, some reviews slammed the book for not being a romance nor a romantic comedy. This book, while humorous in places, is not a romance nor a romantic comedy. (Note there is a romantic element between Tennyson and a younger cop) Unfortunately, some sites (NetGalley, Goodreads, and BookBub) identified The Wedding War as a romance, and even a romantic comedy. Given that characterization, I understand the reviewers’ dislike of the book. However, as a women’s fiction book (which the book clearly is), this novel is excellent. For fans of women’s fiction, or fiction in general, I heartily recommend The Wedding War.
Melanie “Mel” Layton and Tennyson “Teeny” O’Rourke used to be best friends. When Teeny and her boyfriend, Kit broke up their first year of college, Teeny never expected that her best friend Mel would start dating him later and eventually marry him, thus killing their friendship. It didn’t help that Teeny decided to attend their wedding and drop a major secret on their family and friends.
Now, 20+ years later the unthinkable happens, Mel’s daughter is now engaged to Teeny’s son and the two of them are going to have to put aside their differences so their children can have the wedding of their dreams. Too bad Mel and Teeny each have different ideas of what that dream wedding will look like.
As Mel and Teeny go through the emotions of helping plan the wedding, they start to spend more time together, and their old friendship starts to peek through. Throughout the story there are some fun, laugh out loud moments; some emotionally tearful ones; and some loving, regretful ones.
Overall this story will take you full circle from the beginning of Mel and Teeny’s friendship through present day with their new form of friendship. Be ready to laugh, cry and swoon and these two women try to find their way to happier times.
I just adored this story. Teeny was so fun and out there you couldn’t help but laugh at things she’d do. Mel was the opposite…quiet and reserved and always doing what she is suppose to do. Together they offset each other wonderfully and you could really see why they were such good friends in the past. If you are looking for a swooning love story, this is not it….this is more a story about two women; their friendship together; and why they need to go back to being best friends.
The plot seemed good and I tried to get pass the swear words but when the F bomb was dropped I quit reading it. Not my style of reading.
While reading this I couldn’t help but fell like I was reading a book for young adults. The characters sure did act like it. This is a silly book about friendship. It’s an easy read, and once I got involved I figured I would finish it just to say I had, but I would not recommend. Just too juvenile.