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The Accidental Bride: A Romantic Comedy
 
 
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The Accidental Bride: A Romantic Comedy [Paperback]

Janice Harayda (Author)
2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)


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Book Description

June 8, 2000
With just one month to go before her fairy tale wedding to the third richest man in the second largest city in Ohio, Lily Blair is suddenly beset by doubts. Even though she appears to have it all - a budding career and a five-carat engagement ring from the man of her dreams - she can't decide whether to plunge headfirst into the security of married suburban life, or follow her career dreams solo to New York. And while the zany and loving cast of friends, family, and co-workers keep pushing her towards the aisle, Lily knows that, despite the passion she feels for her fiancé, she alone must come to terms with the biggest decision of her life.

As she locks horns with her mother on nearly every detail, issues like veal medallions vs. chicken wings become battles in an event being staged with all the grandeur and precision of a full-scale military operation. The situation grows funnier and more desperate at every turn as Lily must confront an absurd bridal fair, an unsympathetic psychiatrist, and the local gossip column. Before she loses her sanity, she looks to her heroine, Jane Austen, for inspiration. The result is hilarious, sweet, and smart. For Lily Blair is a real heroine for the 90s and beyond, and The Accidental Bride who will keep surprising you until the end.


Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in today's computer age, Harayda's debut novel is a witty and wise comedy of manners that pays homage to Jane Austen. Lily Blair, 27, a newspaper reporter and free spirit, has become engaged in haste and refuses to repent at leisure. Shortly before her wedding to "the third richest man in the second largest city in Ohio," she decides to call the whole thing offAbut can she? Lily's family is leaning hard on her, for various class-conscious reasons, to tie the knot; and after all, not only is Mark rich and generousAhe gave Lily an engagement ring "the size of a sweet potato"Abut he's also handsome, charming and reads Lily's beloved Austen in his spare time. When Lily's father makes her promise to get therapy before she calls off the wedding, her therapist tells her: "It's a very tough world out there for single women... if you break your engagement, there is a good chance you will spend the rest of your life alone." For Lily, however, there are two stumbling blocks to marrying Mark: she has never pictured getting married at all, and her heart belongs to New YorkAwhile Mark's father has bought them an extravagantly hideous house in Ohio. Harayda's sharp characterizations and wry humor gleefully lampoon bridal showersAchicken-liver centerpieces sculpted in the shape of a cruise ship, for exampleAand other absurd style-over-substance nuptial minutiae. Harayda fleshes out Lily with a refreshing combination of emotional fragility and headstrong, illogical self-awareness, making her all the more endearing. Readers will find themselves rooting for Lily to triumph in defining her own version of a happy ending. (June) FYI: Harayda is vice president of the National Book Critics Circle.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Lily Blair is having second thoughts about her upcoming marriage to Mark, a man everyone, including her parents, believes is the perfect mate for her. Beset by doubts and riddled with anxiety, she calls off the wedding. Unfortunately, she has quite a time convincing anyone, including her fianc?, that she is serious. Harayda's first novel has plenty of snappy, witty dialog, humorous scenarios, and sexual innuendo; its only weakness lies in the two main characters, who seem strangely flat and one-dimensional. It's difficult for the reader to really care whether they decide to march down the aisle or dissolve their relationship. Rest assured, the ending ties up all the loose ends, with Lily and Mark living (but not necessarily married) happily ever after. A nice but marginal purchase for public libraries.AMargaret Ann Hanes, Sterling Heights
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; First Edition edition (June 8, 2000)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0312262817
  • ISBN-13: 978-0312262815
  • Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,108,811 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Janice Harayda (www.janiceharayda.com) is the author of two comedies of modern manners, "The Accidental Bride" and "Manhattan on the Rocks." She has been a staff writer and editor for Glamour, editorial director of Boston magazine, and the book editor and critic for The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer.

Jan received the first of many honors and awards when she won a photography contest in American Girl magazine in adolescence. Later she attended Girls' State, won first place in the Ohio Excellence in Journalism competition, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and served as a vice president of the National Book Critics Circle.

As a child, Jan spent part of every year living in a two-room shack without running water in the Pine Barrens region of southern New Jersey. You can read about her recent activities by going to her Web site and clicking on the page labeled "My Diary." Her future books include a comedy of baby boomer manners and a travel narrative based on her experiences while dancing with Scottish Country Dance groups throughout Scotland.

"You haven't lived," she says, "until you've done 'The Dashing White Sergeant' with a Scotsman who's had one too many glasses of Glenfiddich."

 

Customer Reviews

42 Reviews
5 star:
 (4)
4 star:
 (8)
3 star:
 (4)
2 star:
 (8)
1 star:
 (18)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
2.3 out of 5 stars (42 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Lightweight, amusing read but hardly Jane Austen, May 24, 2000
By 
This review is from: The Accidental Bride: A Romantic Comedy (Paperback)
Janice Harayda obviously idolizes Jane Austen: Austen quotes preface each chapter, heroine Lily seeks guidance from and solace in Austen novels, and at times, Harayda's writing style seeks, rather self-consciously, to imitate Austen's. Unfortunately, Jane Austen this book ain't.

There are plenty of interesting things to say about the predicament of a woman swept toward the altar by familial and societal forces that overwhelm her better judgment, but Harayda just doesn't have the skill to elicit them. Over and over again, she settles for the snappy, Cosmo-girl one-liner. Worse, her characters are black and white cutouts, either all-good (everyone from New York) or all-bad (everyone who never left Ohio). There is no complexity or nuance there; for example, Lily's fiance Mark is so utterly nice and good and perfect as to be unbelievable and completely uninteresting. Likewise, her mother is so awful and carping and self-absorbed that that one wonders why Lily even speaks to her at all. (Contrast, for example, Jane Austen's characters, who exhibit their flaws as often as their virtues.) Harayda's anti-Ohio fixation is so relentless and overblown as to overwhelm the story; even the weather in Ohio (gun metal skies & tornadoes) isn't as good as the postcard-perfect sunny skies of the Big Apple. When the NYC homeless man handed Lily a flower (instead of urinating on her feet, say, as would happen in most of the five boroughs), I almost threw the book against the wall in frustration. And I'm not even from Ohio!

The novel does contain some amusing scenes and funny lines; the parody of a Martha Stewart magazine is by itself worth the price of admission. And despite the flaws described above, there is a sort of breezy charm that helps carry things along. If you keep your expectations low, and just want to while away some time on the beach or stairmaster, you might give it a try.

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars A light, amusing read, March 11, 2001
This review is from: The Accidental Bride: A Romantic Comedy (Paperback)
When I picked this book up at the library, I thought it would be so cool to read a book set in Ohio. I was a little disappointed because the author kept bashing Cleveland ~~ a city that has worked hard to reinvent herself into a metropolitan. But that's beside the point.

For every bride or bride-to-be, this book is definitely something that we all can relate to! Lily experiences last-minute jitters about getting married to the guy of her dreams. With three weeks to go, she decided that they haven't known each other long enough to get married ~~ plus she wanted to go back to New York. It is a hilarious account of an overbearing mother who is pushing for the wedding of the millenium, father-in-law who couldn't resist to show off his newest daughter-in-law-to-be, a fiance who is perfect beyond words, even hilarious accounts of the kids in there ~~ every bride's nightmare come true! ~~ Lily had to fight her way through all the entanglements to really discover what she really wanted.

I found it amusing ~~ it would have been even better if she hasn't kept knocking Ohioans down throughout the book. You can relate to Lily as she struggles with loving Mark but not wanting to get married to him just yet. You can roll your eyes at the sisters who are so snotty and suburban. You can shudder when the mother of the bride keeps insisting on carrying through with the wedding. And you will just love the grandmother who is practical and on Lily's side throughout this confusing time. You will shudder at some of the stuff at the bridal fair. Every bride will enjoy this light-hearted novel and find something in it to relate to.

And Lily will keep you guessing to the end. If you can get past the snide remarks about Ohio and the Midwest, then you will enjoy this book.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars It's an accident alright, March 12, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: The Accidental Bride: A Romantic Comedy (Paperback)
Reading this tale of a pathetic, dysfunctional woman and her stupid, tiresome life feels like rubbernecking a multiple car accident in which no one was wearing a seat belt. The "heroine," Lily, is clueless almost to the point of retardation, and her family and friends are two dimensional if they're lucky. It is impossible to suspend disbelief to the extent required to believe in one single exchange of dialogue or one single thought ascribed to any of these absurd characters. The only vaguely redeeming things about this irritating book are a couple of snappy oneliners and a Martha Stewart spoof, but that's just not enough to make it worth the price of admission, or even the time it would take to borrow it from the library....
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
One month before her wedding to the third richest man in the second largest city in Ohio, Lily Blair awoke in the middle of the night and realized that she did not want to get married. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
oil wrestling, bridal fair, bridal consultant, veal medallions, karaoke nights
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Colony Heights, Jane Austen, Martha Stewart, Los Angeles, City Lights, Charlotte Blair, Ohio State, Nick Monford, Caroline Van Allen, Red Sox, Tess Mahoney, Central Park, Buck Slayton, Cassandra Austen, Corky Klingel, Holy Family Cathedral, Nicholas Monford, Northanger Abbey, Art Felden, Aunt Lily, Commodore's Club, Rock Hall of Fame, Stan Harmon, Aunt Grace
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