REVIEW: The Wedding Sisters by Jamie Brenner

In The Wedding Sisters by Jamie Brenner, Since the day Meryl watched her three young daughters pretending to be brides, with their father part of the play-acting by ‘walking them down the aisle’, she couldn’t wait to plan their real weddings. And with her eldest daughter Meg newly engaged to a senator’s son, Meryl’s own dream is coming true as she helps her with the details. But she didn’t expect that her other daughters, Amy and Jo, would also announce their own engagements over the next few months. With three weddings and each woman entering into very well-known families, Meryl has her work cut out for her.

“We’re throwing one party–one–and the girls can share it, or you can hand all this off to their rich future mothers-in-law and let them take care of it. Or we can find some way to space this out over time. But I’m not going to go bankrupt throwing three weddings this year.”

In the process, Meryl realizes that her own longtime marriage to her husband Hugh has seen better days. And finding out that he is losing his job and possibly their apartment is only putting more pressure on her. While Meg, Amy and Jo each face their own individual problems, Meryl must try to be supportive as she watches her own world crumble. Between the incredible attention The Wedding Sisters (as dubbed by the media) are getting, her mother suddenly moving in with her and Hugh, and trouble dealing with her daughters’ future in-laws, she’ll just be happy when she finally gets to see them walk down the aisle.

‘That was the thing about weddings: They forced family members to deal with one another, like it or not.’

The Wedding Sisters was a whirlwind of a novel, centering mainly around a trio of sisters and their mother, all of whom were scrambling to figure out their lives while everything around them turned upside down.

“There is no job, no career, no appearance, no amount of money–that is more important than love.”

This was quite an adventure. I have to say that author Jamie Brenner was able to hold my attention from page one and tell a story that was both entertaining and heartfelt. Sure there were times where I wanted to have a serious talk with some of the characters (or smack them) over some of their decisions or their attitude. But my reactions felt real and I think very similar to what it’s like for most of us to deal with our own family and friends. It’s not always easy or pretty handling emotions so it felt like Meryl, Meg, Amy and Jo were shown in an honest light, making mistakes, being selfish and ultimately being supportive of one another.

There were a lot of layers to this book, with the wedding problems being at the forefront of course. But each couple, even Meryl’s mom Rose, had their own issues to work through which certainly added depth to the story. I liked that although each of the three young women were marrying into affluent families so it seemed like they were sort of copying each other, their relationship problems were actually quite different. And they each handled the situation completely differently which I appreciated. The ending (which was more of a happy-for-now) felt like it was pretty true to their characters and even made me chuckle a bit.

Meryl and Hugh’s marriage also underwent some changes and to me it felt like having her mom Rose move in with them may have forced them to deal with certain aspects of their past that they had never really discussed over the years. It was interesting to see how their thirty year relationship held up next to the newish love their daughters had with their fiances and to see how they all had something to learn about themselves. I did want to mention that Rose in particular had a very poignant role in how things progressed and although she was a tough woman to like, she was undoubtedly my favorite character.

Part madcap adventure, part family saga, The Wedding Sisters touched upon subjects serious, lighthearted and at times frivolous. But through it all, author Jamie Brenner painted a realistic picture of how complicated–and important–family truly is to each of us.

Book Info:

Publication: Published June 7th 2016 | St. Martin’s Griffin |

Meryl Becker is living a mother’s dream. The oldest of her three beautiful daughters, Meg, is engaged to a wonderful man from one of the country’s most prominent families. Of course, Meryl wants to give Meg the perfect wedding. Who wouldn’t? But when her two younger daughters, Amy and Jo, also become engaged to celebrated bachelors, Meryl has to admit that three weddings is more than she and her husband, Hugh, can realistically afford.

The solution? A triple wedding! At first, it’s a tough sell to the girls, and juggling three sets of future in-laws is a logistical nightmare. But when Hugh loses his teaching job, and Meryl’s aging mother suddenly moves in with them, a triple wedding is the only way to get all three sisters down the aisle. When the grand plan becomes public, the onslaught of media attention adds to Meryl’s mounting pressure. Suddenly, appearances are everything – and she will do whatever it takes to keep the wedding on track as money gets tight, her mother starts acting nutty, and her own thirty year marriage starts to unravel.

In the weeks leading up to the nuptials, secrets are revealed, passions ignite, and surprising revelations show Meryl and her daughters the true meaning of love, marriage and family. Jamie Brenner’s The Wedding Sisters invites readers to the most unpredictable wedding of the year.