Alison Espach

Lila (aka Delilah) is getting married to the tune of $1M, reserving, for the wedding week celebrations and the hosting of her guests, an entire Victorian New England castle that has been converted into a ten-star boutique hotel. No! Lila’s late departed father, Henry, was not an expat Russian oligarch but rather was known in the junk dealerships market of New Jersey as the King of Sh!t. He died of colon cancer several months earlier and it was his dying wish that she marry and spend that show more part of her legacy on her wedding. She was marrying Gary, the Gastrologist who treated her father’s illness, until his death. (sotto voce), Do they even have Victorian castles in New England, or for that matter, anywhere else in the U.S.?*

Before the hotel was booked for the event, Phoebe, an adjunct English Professor of Literature at a college in Missouri, had booked a room at that same hotel, intending to commit suicide where she and her ex-husband had vacationed twelve years earlier on their honeymoon. (I might have gotten some of the details mixed up but chalk it up to poetic license and pretend that I am some Hollywood producer changing the details for unexplained expedient purposes) …

Despite the intending suicide desire, there is a lot of dry humor in the book which I enjoyed. Also, love triangles, unrequited love - and one weird weirdo that we don't meet but who does something very curious to the "antique" car hired especially for the wedding party transports.

A suicide in the hotel before the wedding would ruin it (the wedding) and Lila would have none of it – entreating Phoebe not to do so but rather wait out the week as one of her wedding people guests. What ensues is an interesting, mostly honest relationship between the bride and Phoebe. The MCs are all interesting, and Phoebe most of all. She charms Lila, Gary, Marla, and Patricia (Gary’s sister and Lila’s mother, respectively) with her directness, her scholarly knowledge, and her new-found malleability (she was after all planning a suicide and no longer needed to put on a face for anyone). But, the friendships she develops over the few days before the wedding, changes Phoebe and she no longer grieves over the husband that left her. A strong intimacy develops between Lila and Phoebe, which is beautifully and touchingly portrayed in several scenes between the two in Phoebe's room and adjoining bath.

I absolutely loved the writing style, in particular, the smooth flowing prose descriptions and one on one’s between Phoebe and other characters, contrasted with the switches to shallow choppy exchanges between characters, “….said XXXX”, “….said XXXX”, “….said XXXX”, “….said XXXX” - whenever there were a number of characters taking part in a conversation.

This is not a suspense thriller. There are no twists or unexpected jaw dropping moments. The biggest mystery is whether or not Gary and Lila will get married. I doubt even that is a mystery. I loved delving into the lives of the characters, and I loved that there was no unnecessary Epilogue, describing where the characters were and what they were doing half a year or ten years later.

All the stars!

*Well, wudda ya know? I learned that there are several castles in New England – I am definitely going to have to plan a castle trip to New England, sometime soon! show less

Phoebe Stone, an English professor from St. Louis, wants to kill herself at a lovely oceanfront hotel in Rhode Island. However, upon arrival, she encounters a hotel full of people ready for a six-day vacation wedding. Like most suicidal people, Phoebe tells someone about her agony - the bride-to-be. They end up engaging in honest conversation, and the bride-to-be begs Phoebe not to ruin her wedding week. Phoebe ends up not killing herself and gets drawn into the wedding activities.

She show more discovers that the looming marriage has cracks all over it - and all over the wedding party. In the nascent friendship with the bride, Phoebe finds that the bride has habitual problems being authentic with anyone except herself. She also discovers that the couple themselves has potential red flags in their relationship just a few days before the big event.

Much drama ensues, including the exposure of a whole lot of hidden affections. The story unwinds with everyone - including the truth-telling, suicidal Phoebe - coming to terms with being themselves more fully. The whole event is one massive coming-of-age tale for each major character.

If you like a narrative filled with drama, this book has it in spades. The main thing I didn't like was an overemphasis on sex and an over-abundance of the f-word. I'm not a prude, but sometimes, it seemed that the whole party was one giant verbal orgy played out over several months. Instead, I wished more nuance and drama could have followed instead of just having everyone talk about having crude sex with each other.

Still, this book offers an entertaining diversion that shines a light on human nature - and the reader's own humanity. It speaks about being true to yourself and your feelings while weaving through complex relationships, filled with betrayal, death, and confusion. Despite its dark beginning, it ends up celebrating life in all its forms, most of all in its deeply human form. show less

Her whole life felt like work now. Even the parts that used to be the most fun, like reading over the summer or orgasming during sex or having conversation with her husband at dinner. They felt like things she had to be really good at now, in order to prove that everything was normal.

When her fifth try with IVF ends in miscarriage, Phoebe falls into a funk and drinks too much. Her husband falls into Mia, a pregnant colleague. Since Phoebe and her husband both teach at the same university show more (although he has tenure and she's an adjunct), it's awkward. After the divorce, Phoebe is left with a job that can't pay the bills or even provide health insurance, and a cat. So once the cat dies, she decides to spend a night in a small, luxury hotel on the coast and commit suicide. The problem is that the hotel is otherwise completely filled with a wedding party and Phoebe is pulled into their orbit despite her best efforts.

She looks out at the ocean spread before her. From up here, the water looks calmer than it does in movies. It looks like a flat and reliable rug, as if it knows nothing about what is to come. And it's true that Phoebe expected more from the ocean, maybe because she read too many Herman Melville books in which the ocean knows everything about the future--foreshadows death with every wild and loud crash of a wave.

As Phoebe learns to say what she means, she's drawn into the lives of the wedding people, from the bride determined to make every detail perfect, to the tween daughter of the groom, to the bride's mother, Phoebe becomes important to helping them work through family dynamics and communication failures. As for Phoebe, she's pulled back into life despite her best efforts and wondering what trying again will mean for her.

This novel straddles the line between humor and brutal honesty with an assured deftness. More than anything, this is a novel about failures in communication between people, and in people's failures to communicate with themselves. Phoebe is a great protagonist; her years of measuring her words and actions have made her a keen observer of human relations and her newfound willingness to say what she means gives the people she's interacting with a lot to react to, both positively and negatively. But while Phoebe now speaks her mind, she's never cruel and she might be what the members of this wedding need. show less

Read on one level, this is an entertaining kind of "beach read" about a depressed woman who books into a luxury hotel intending to kill herself, only to be caught up in the festivities of a lavish wedding party. On another level, it's a slightly deeper examination of finding oneself and rediscovering the will to live wholly and authentically. I appreciated that there was more to it than meets the eye, and while some of the plot points beggar belief, Espach's humor and deft writing carried me show more through the more ridiculous aspects.

4 stars show less