Girl has to go to 17 weddings in one summer though she herself never wants to get married. She has a Dude who she has been dating for two years and for the most part shares the same feelings she does. But of course, that changes. Half way through he asks her to marry him and she says yes. The book ends with her wanting to stick to her beliefs in that she believes in marriage so much that she doesn't want to do it because she doesn't think it's real that people can be with just each other for the rest of their lives. The book ends with them breaking up, which is rare for chick-lit. I don't think I have ever read another book where that happens.I liked the protag a lot in this book. I liked her job (running some sort of freelance writing business where people pay them to write randomness). I liked her friends, I liked her boyfriend (with the exception of his name being Gabe and his family not liking her, which was way way too similar to the last book I read, which had the exact same things. The Dude being named Gabe and his family thinking the Girl wasn't good enough. Creepy!). I liked all the weddings she went too, as they were all different. There was way too many characters in the book and I couldn't keep them straight half the time. I liked that her best friend and the person she owned her business with and her brother were all gay. Like I read somewhere one time and liked the saying, every girl needs a best gay and you don't see that enough in chick-lit. Is it because half of the US would automatically turn off because of that? Because if written well, I always find the gay charecter super entertaining. And all three in this book were written pretty well.Pro: Entertaining story and good positive role model. And story didn't turn out like they always do.Con: Way too many characters and the "villain" was kind of lame.Grade: C
While the premise was a good start to the book, it fell flat very quickly. Joy has somehow managed to rsvp to seventeen weddings from April to September. She is so anti-wedding and dreads having to explain over and over again how she and her boyfriend, Gabe, are perfectly content never getting married and living a long committed life together -sans the wedding for themselves. Throughout the book there is a man-stealing character named Ora that, even though I wasn't really enjoying the book, still got under my skin and I kept waiting for her to get hers. Ugh, I couldn't stand her! As the book progressed, I could tell that the character was heading to a fork in the road. She was either going to succumb to her biggest enemy - getting married, or she was going to go her separate ways with Gabe. So for me, everything fell flat. From the main character who I couldn't understand, to the anti-climatic ending, I just wasn't that impressed with the book.
Do You like book Wedding Season (2004)?
I needed a little brain candy. I searched through my piles of books waiting to be read and the pastel dresses on the cover promised that this would be an easy read. And it was. However, there was a little more depth than I anticipated and I was pleasantly surprised. Joy has 17 weddings to attend in one season. SEVENTEEN. She is in a handful of them and all her friends are getting married. She is staunchly anti-marriage and it seems her long-term boyfriend is okay with that. Or is he? Some of this book is typical- "no man can be faithful, you better marry him before he leaves you", but the author challenges why women let those stereotypes perpetuate through her characters. She presents different perspectives about what marriage means to people. By the end, I was satisfied, both in giving my brain a break from some of the heavier stuff I'm reading and in finding a story that wasn't pure fluff. Food: Starburst. A little sweet snack that is enough to carry you through to your next meal. Fruity, light, and you like some of the flavors better than others.
—Maryann
Oh-so-appropriate to read Wedding Season the week of my daughter's wedding. An intelligent, witty--if sometimes meandering--read. What's not to like about a story with a strong-minded, strongly realized main character. Gabe, the love interest, is white-bread bland, but the rest of the cast makes this foible totally forgivable. I would have chosen a different ending, but Cosper's ending allows the reader to close Wedding Season with a sense of completion. While I don't line up with many of Cosper's takes on life, I have no quibble with her talent. I am content agreeing to disagree.
—Ann Miller
I actually really loved this book. I do get where a lot of the criticism comes from, it does get pretentious a lot of the time, the character development is very scattered (there are way too many characters so many wind up only caricatures), and sometimes you do want to slap Joy and tell her to stop overreacting and get a grip. But I do think you can really feel for her if you understand where she is coming from in the first place and sympathize with what she is going through. It's a shame so many people couldn't finish the book but I like that it didn't end in your typical cookie-cutter was that a lot of chicklit does.
—Diana Egielski
