All Are Welcome

A Novel

By: Liz Parker

Narrated by: Carly Robins, Dara Rosenberg, Andrew Eiden, Janet Metzger, David de Vries

A darkly funny novel from a fresh new voice in fiction about brides, lovers, friends, and family, and all the secrets that come with them.

Tiny McAllister never thought she’d get married. Not because she didn’t want to, but because she didn’t think girls from Connecticut married other girls. Yet here she is with Caroline, the love of her life, at their destination wedding on the Bermuda coast. In attendance - their respective families and a few choice friends. The conflict-phobic Tiny hopes for a beautiful weekend with her bride-to-be. But as the weekend unfolds, it starts to feel like there’s a skeleton in every closet of the resort.

From Tiny’s family members, who find the world is changing at an uncomfortable speed, to Caroline’s parents, who are engaged in conspiratorial whispers, to their friends, who packed secrets of their own - nobody seems entirely forthcoming. Not to mention the conspicuous no-show and a tempting visit from the past. What the celebration really needs now is a monsoon to help stir up all the long-held secrets, simmering discontent, and hidden agendas.

All Tiny wanted was to get married, but if she can make it through this squall of a wedding, she might just leave with more than a wife.

©2021 by Elizabeth L. Parker. (P)2021 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“Parker's train-wreck wedding tale is amped up by well-matched narrators.” —AudioFile Magazine

“A dramatic and darkly funny dose of WASP culture. Liz Parker takes on dysfunctional families, destination weddings, and the fact that sometimes the most difficult person to accept is yourself.” —Laura Hankin, author of Happy & You Know It

“In her buoyant, sharply observed, and painfully hilarious debut novel, All Are Welcome, Liz Parker tells the big story of a small lesbian wedding. Over a meticulously planned weekend at a sunstruck Bermuda beach club, the hard-packed, jovial WASP surfaces of two seemingly similar Connecticut families come loose to expose long-buried secrets, uncomfortable truths, and a monsoon of dysfunction. By the time the clouds part, Parker has illustrated with blistering wisdom how, for many of us, finding happiness—alone or with another—begins with first seeing who we’ve been in, and to, our families, and then deciding who it is we will be.” —Bill Clegg, author of The End of the Day

Great Performance Somewhat Insufferable Characters

Honestly, the whole story was good. Paced well, acted well, a lot of good drama, and you stayed very well hooked.

But HOO BOY, who has anything in common with these characters besides trying to please parents?? All rich. All white. All shitty and kinda awful people. I get the feeling that's how they were meant to be written, so that must mean that author did a great job. So she DID do a great job! Thank you, Liz Parker!!

Seriously though, I could never quite think of a resolution I would be happy with. This story here is why we should eat the rich. It was hard to care about country clubs and destination weddings and brand name dropping, but I did finish it, so I must have cared enough.

Like I said, fun, diverting, well written and well performed, but I will literally not miss a single one of these characters. (Though I do hope that Hank gets to run around and be himself and Tiny (Georgia???) finds someone who actually does give a shit about her.)

Great listen, well done!

Had a great time listening to this audible. Fun story and well paced. Good Job!!

Angst and drama

If that’s your thing, you’ll love this title. Wasn’t for me. Every character was somehow broken and unlikable.

The tone was set in the introductory chapters and it never got better. Kept hoping it would. Kept hoping for a twist or a resolution. Never happened. The only “satisfaction” came in the last five minutes. Too little too late to satisfy me.

Narration was ok. They each did a good job voicing different characters. I didn’t care for a couple of them, tone of voice and style of reading. Everything was so overly dramatic. That was the tone of the story, though, so maybe that’s what the author wanted. Others may like them fine.

Tore right through it!

With its memorable cast of characters and hilarious tone, this book explores family dynamics in such a relatable way. Tiny is so lovable! This one was hard to put this one down, and then when I got to the end, I found myself wishing I had more time with my new crew of friends—Tiny, Caroline, Tripp, Daisy, Hank, Andrew, Connie, Bitty, Dick, Peter & Mabel. You’ll definitely laugh and probably cry—SUCH a great read!

There is a lot going on here!

Wow! All are in fact not welcome as the secrets and lies jam packed in this book will surely reveal.

4.5 stars

All Are Welcome by Liz Parker is very similar to any Elin Hilderbrand book, just with more humor. It combines relationships, secrets, and multiple perspectives to provide an entertaining story. I like that, while I strongly suspected one thing, I never knew for certain what would happen with Tiny and Caroline until the very, very end. There are a few funny moments, as well as some with a lot of heart. I found that I didn't want to put the book down, which is rare for me.

Carly Robins, Dara Rosenberg, Andrew Eiden, Janet Metzger, and David de Vries are all great narrators and enjoyable to listen to.

I rate All Are Welcome 4.5 stars rounded up to 5. There would have been less confusion if there weren't so many names starting with the same consonant (Caroline/Connie, Daisy/Daphne). I hope there will be a sequel to explain what happens next.