For the Love of Friends

A Novel

By: Sara Goodman Confino

Narrated by: Andrea Emmes

A sharp and hilariously relatable novel about the business of weddings, the toll they can take, and the lengths one exasperated bridesmaid will go to for the love of friends.

Lily Weiss is her mother’s worst nightmare: thirty-two and single - the horror! She’s also a talented writer but hides behind a boring job at a science foundation. To her friends, she’s reliable and selfless, which is how she winds up a bridesmaid in five weddings in six weeks. Anything for her three best friends and two (younger) siblings, right? Even if her own love life is...well, she’d rather not talk about it. To keep her sanity, Lily needs a safe place to vent.

And so her anonymous blog, Bridesmania, is born. The posts start pouring out of her: all the feels about mom-zillas, her vanishing bank balance, the wicked bridesmaids of the west, high-strung brides-to-be, body-shaming dress clerks, bachelorette parties, and Spanx for days, not to mention being deemed guardian of eighty-eight-year-old Granny (who enjoys morning mimosas in the nude) for her brother’s destination wedding.

So far the blog has stayed anonymous. But as everyone knows, few things online remain secret forever...

When all is said and done, can Lily help all five couples make it to happily ever after? And will her own happy ending be close behind?

©2021 Sara Goodman Confino. (P)2021 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

My type of jam

I felt I could relate to the characters being similar in age to myself as well as being single till my 30s. It was a fun read I didn't want to stop listening too.

loved it

I really enjoyed reading this author. I look forward to reading more books by this author in the near future.

Great!

This was fun and enjoyable to read, 3.5

Crazy moments but I could relate to Lily at many levels.

Glad I got this one!

Just too predictable

semi-spoiler alert (no details)
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I knew where this story was ending from the first few chapters. I kept hoping there was going to be a twist and was disappointed that it didn't really have one.

I'm glad I listened thrift the end

I have mixed feelings about this story. the premise was good, the narrator did a good job but I nearly spotted listening halfway thrift because the characters were so unlikable and immature. that being said, once the obvious drama hits and Lilly has to work her way out of it, it gets better. I'm bldg I finished it but it wouldn't be worth spending a credit.

Really cute Story, but

The narrator does not fit the character at all and is very annoying. Luckily, the story is cute.

Entertaining, but not a good audible listen. May try reading this one myself.

It was alright. There were some funny moments, but not as many as I expected. I love 27 Dresses and this is a lot like it (there is even a reference to it) and this is a similar enough storyline. Not completely, but enough to see the influence.

The narrator was hard to listen to. I found myself having to rewind several times when I got distracted. It made it hard to fully focus and easy to drift away from the book. I may have enjoyed it more if I read the book myself. The voices were a bit much for me and I think they made it sound a little whinier than intended.

I’m not sure why the character chose to make the blog. No matter if you are anonymous, the details she put in made it obvious it was her. I would’ve saved some of that for my diary and changed a few things for the blog, especially since she’d published to a pretty popular website. I get she didn’t think anyone would read, but there’s always a chance. She also kind of stuck her nose up to all her friends as If she was better than everyone. It got to be a lot sometimes. In that same light, she never said no to any of their ridiculous demands. It’s one thing to let minor things go, but changing yourself completely is where I would’ve said absolutely not.

Now, I did enjoy most of the book. The sad thing is, there actually are brides who act the way her friends did. They tend to think of the wedding party as objects made to prop them up on their big day and not individuals who are complex and have their own lives to live. Being expected to shell out thousands and dye hair and tan is becoming more and more of a thing. Asking people to travel to different countries and to pay for things even if they can’t afford it, or don’t participate. All that sounds like a movie, but are things that are becoming expected now. I’ve heard some horror stories from people I know, or read about. The wedding industry certainly does make good entertainment!

For the love of Lily

I was sad to see the ending of this book. Not because it was a bad ending.. because I came to love Lily! I related to her so much, I felt like we were friends and I was listening to her chaotic life while bundled up on the couch. We can all relate to the messiness of late 20s- early 30s. This is a book all about truly finding yourself and having to face your mistakes, your flaws and the realization that, it’s not always about you. I wish Lily’s blog was a real thing. I’d definitely turn notifications on for those posts.

Loved the sarcastic humor...

Characters were very relatable. Made me laugh out loud 😀 My Audible subscription ran out in the middle of the book, so I renewed it to find out the ending....Nice twist in the final chapter! 👍

Pretty painful

Really hard to suspend my disbelief at how characters treated each other (and themselves). Pretty ridiculous conflicts and resolutions. Performance was good though a bit over enunciated so wasn’t quite natural sounding.