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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Liz Talley clearly understands women — the enduring power of friendship, the strength and beauty of the human heart, the many ways that forgiveness heals. Funny and heartbreaking, The Wedding War is sassy Southern women’s fiction at its absolute best.
Engaging, rich characters who made me cry and laugh out loud. I loved it!
I had a hard time putting this book down, full of emotion that will will have you laughing out loud and crying through out the story. Melanie and Tennyson were best friends growing up and then a betrayal broke this friendship and family apart. Fast forward and now their children are getting married to each other, can they set aside their differences go forward with their lives.
I could identify with Melanie with her personal life. Tennyson was a little bit over the top but she won my heart more towards the end. I highly recommend this book. I read through my kindle unlimited.
What a breath of fresh air!!! If you loved 80-90’s nighttime soaps – this one is for you!!!
Two childhood best friends ripped apart due to some event the reader isn’t privy to at the start of the book and become mortal enemies. Fast forward two decades and a bit, and they discover their children fell in love and are going to be married – and they must plan the wedding together!
So starts a hilarious tale of two women trying to outshine each other and prove they are the better person.
In my mind’s eye I see Melanie as Sally Field’s character from “Steel Magnolias” and Tennyson as Goldie Hawn’s character in “First Wives Club”.
This book was so well written description-wise that as I read I felt I was watching a movie in my head. And of course when Melanie referenced “Steel Magnolias” for her wedding colours – “blush & bashful”, I may or may not have applauded (okay I applauded – I’m a fan okay!?)
I really enjoyed this book. It was hilarious in parts (wedding cake fight anyone?); it was heart-breaking in parts; it had parts where there was acceptance of the circumstances.
This ultimately was a story about love, forgiveness and finding (and appreciating), to steal a line from “Grey’s Anatomy” ‘Your person’ – the one that fits you and makes you the best version of yourself.
I was deflated when it finished, man I grew to love those two sassy ladies. I’ll most definitely be checking out more of this author’s work.
Some people tell their secrets to their best friend and the secrets are locked safe…… until that bond of friendship is broken, then the lock holding the secrets is broken also.
Two best friends Tennyson and Melanie held a secret that could destroy a life. They shared an attraction to the same new boy at school. The aggressive one got the guy and the other loved him from a distance. The guy, Kit, is very attractive, smart and soaks in all the attention he gets and obviously think he deserves.
The friendship is broken and years later, as fate would laugh as those that plan their future, the children of these two former best friends, find each other, fall in love and want to get married. This leads to Tennyson and Melanie having to help plan a wedding and not start a war!
Many other themes are running throughout the book besides friendship and they blend to form a wonderful story! I had so many emotions while reading. I really disliked Tennyson, at first. That shows great development by the author, that I felt so strongly about a character in a few chapters. I feel like I know the characters in this book. The scenes are expertly described. The dialogue flows effortlessly. The pages flew by as I was so immersed in reading. Several parts had me laughing and a few crying as well.
I totally enjoyed this book and recommend it highly. Liz Tally has added another fantastic book to her collection! I want to thank NetGalley and the author, Liz Talley, for allowing me the pleasure of reading this amazing book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own, not influenced by receiving the advance reader copy.
Do you love drama, laughter, love and secrets? Then The Wedding War is for you. The best drama filled book of 2020!
Melanie grew up more privileged than Tennyson did but the two were best friends. Tennyson had a boyfriend that Melanie also liked and ultimately ended up marrying. At that wedding a secret came out that ruined a family and of course the friendship. Imagine the surprise from both when their children meet at college, fall in love and now the moms are helping to plan the wedding. Tennyson has lived life and now has several homes as well as money and Melanie has lived a very stable life. Neither wants to be out done so it’s a bit of a competition to see who can do what. There are some truly funny moments and times when the two seem to forget they are now enemies and actually get along. Great story about how even the best of friends can have life tear that close friendship apart. I received an ARC from Netgalley and am voluntarily leaving my review.
A wonderful, heartwarming romp of a tale!
I couldn’t put this book down. Loved the premise of two childhood BFFs who became adult enemies and couldn’t avoid each other when their children get engaged. It’s Women’s Fiction set in the South with humor and great characters.
The wedding war needs a truce!
Tennyson (Teeny) O’Rourke and Melanie (Melly) Layton had been the closest of friends when they were young but they hadn’t spoken in twenty years after the disaster at Melanie’s wedding. Now that their children Emma and Andrew are getting married with Tennyson and Melanie deciding that they needed to call a truce between them but that didn’t last more than a second because each of them wanted to outdo the other in the planning the wedding festivities.
The Wedding War by Liz Talley isn’t a romance except for the relationship between Emma and Andrew but the rekindling of a friendship between Tennyson and Melanie that had many misunderstandings about what actually happened during the ending of the friendship.
Liz Talley has written a story that reminds me of Steel Magnolias with the relationships between all of the characters and it would make a great movie.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
I enjoyed this story of two longtime friends that became enemies before they became related through their children’s wedding.
At the heart of it all it’s the story of secrets and how secrets are fine until maybe one is used to hurt someone. It’s the story of learning to forgive and how sometimes we really do just need a good talk with a good friend that knows our entire story.
The story of the tenor in the gondola was great and made me laugh. The Wedding War is a fun story that delivers a strong punch of a moral which redeemed the parts of the characters that I didn’t care for.
Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for an ARC at my request. This review is my own and freely given.
Former best friends, Tennyson and Melanie are reunited when their children decide to get married. In this book, they try to outdo each other, during every step of the wedding planning, making a hilariously entertaining story. It’s a cat fight until the very end.
I laughed so hard during some of the scenes. It was like if anything could go wrong it would. But I also enjoyed the slow reuniting of best friends as came to terms on their past and learned they could still be friends if they put everything aside for a fresh start.
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 romance, and even as 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.
I received an Advanced Reader Copy of this book from the publisher and am voluntarily reviewing the book.
What a fun and witty read! Talley does an exceptional job detailing a friendship gone wrong. Two ex best friends must come together for the nuptials of their children. Chaos ensues and the reader will find themselves giggling uncontrollably at the characters’ antics! I hadn’t read anything by the author prior to this one, but she is definitely a new favorite!
The Wedding War by Liz Talley a conflicting four-star read. This is certainly going to e a novel that will divide opinion as some will love it, but some won’t enjoy it as the writing is very good and passionate, but the characters aren’t always what you want them to be. I think this is going to e one of those stories where if you have always had great friends then you will likely enjoy it, but if you have ever had a friend betray you then this will just rile those wounds, and it may not be the one for you.
Once again Liz Talley has written an awesome read, The Wedding War sucked me in from the very beginning to the very end I fell in love with the characters in this book. I laughed and cried and felt the love/hate with Melanie & Tennyson. True friendship lives forever. We all have that one friend that is going to ride/or die with you. Melanie and Tennyson balanced out each other, meek & mild vs bold & brassy. This story covers all the bases and will leave you with a warm feeling of what true friendship, love for their children and families is all about.
I am not sure what everyone else read, but this did not work for me at all. I have read/listened to the authors catalogue and enjoyed them all. This one was filled with immature, obnoxious, childlike pathetic whiny people that were quite frankly horrifyingly awful. I really wanted to like it and yet it just turned out to be a waste of listening time (I listened to the audiobook). If you want to read this author try any other title except this one. She is truly fabulous.
Loved this Funny Rom com, I could picture Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep as the mothers, so fun to imagine the characters while reading, good laugh , good read !
A wonderful, heartwarming story that will have you quickly turning pages until the satisfying conclusion.