REVIEW: MY EX-BEST FRIEND’S WEDDING, BY WENDY WAX

 

Prized and stored away for safekeeping, the timeless ivory wedding dress, with its scooped neck and cleverly fitted bodice, sits gently folded in its box, whispering of Happily Ever Afters. To Kendra, Brianna, and Lauren it’s a reminder of what could have been, the promise of a fairy tale, and a friendship torn apart. But as Kendra knows firsthand: it wasn’t the dress’s fault.

Once closer than sisters, Lauren and Bree have grown up and grown apart, allowing broken promises and unfulfilled dreams to destroy their friendship. A successful author, Lauren returns home to the Outer Banks, fiancé in tow, to claim the dress she never thought she’d wear. While Bree, a bookstore owner, grapples with the realities of life after you marry the handsome prince. As the former best friends wrestle with their uncertain futures, they are both certain of one thing: some betrayals can never be forgiven.

Now on the eve of her daughter Lauren’s wedding, Kendra struggles with a secret she’s kept for far too long. And vows to make sure the dress will finally bring Lauren and Bree back together—knowing they’ll need each other to survive the coming storm.

My Thoughts: When successful novelist Lauren James accepts boyfriend Spencer’s proposal and begins to think about going home to the Outer Banks for the wedding ceremony, she has some mixed feelings. Her former best friend Bree is not someone she really wants to see again. As she thinks back on their falling out all those years ago, she still feels the pain.

Back home, Bree hears the news and realizes that she is not so eager to reconnect either. After all, Lauren has gone on to become a best-selling author, a dream they both shared. But Bree is still working on her one and only manuscript after fifteen years.

Meanwhile, Lauren’s mother Kendra has just realized that a forty-year-old secret she has kept could be coming out soon. How should she reveal it in a way that will do the least damage?

Our alternating narrators in My Ex-Best Friend’s Wedding offer just what we need to know in the most titillating way possible, and I couldn’t help rapidly reading, wondering how the secrets and the past damages would be brought to light. A 5 star read.

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