Always the Bridesmaid [Paperback]

Whitney Lyles (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 3, 2004

What do you do after you walk down the aisle in four weddings in a few months-none of them your own? What's left after you've donned the must-have-not dresses of the season, forked over your cash, and fake-smiled your way through countless photos? After you've dealt with the smashed guest, the smooshed cake, the dashed hopes, and the missed bouquets? That's what Cate Padgett is starting to wonder, as she embarks on stint after stint on the sidelines, watching friends swap bar-hopping for baby-naming...while her own love life goes nowhere fast. But is Cate unwilling to settle down-or just unwilling to settle? And can anyone really judge her if they haven't walked in her dyed-to-match shoes?

Wild, witty, and full of weddings to cry over, Always the Bridesmaid is an endearingly romantic comedy about standing out in the crowd even when everyone's wearing the same celery-green dress...and daring to make every day The Happiest Day of Your Life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

For any bridesmaid who's gone down the aisle too many times accompanying others, Lyles's uneven but perky debut will provoke many grins and groans. Wedding-weary Cate Padgett, kindergarten teacher, freelance photographer and reluctant San Diego single, has endured more than her share of "bride's slave" duties. She's had to buy overpriced shower presents, don nightmarish wedding garb she can hardly afford and suffer through a bachelorette party where she's given a lipstick vibrator for a favor, along with a penis crown she's supposed to wear while having a lap dance from a male stripper her pal Val calls "Cheesedick." Cate would much rather plan her own wedding, but she's having trouble figuring out who her groom should be GQ-cool "No Call Paul" or her faithful friend, caterer Ethan Blakely? Although Lyles's prose style wavers from wooden to wonderful, her eye for delightful details-a bride who becomes a controlling and fiendishly demanding diva, the ubiquitous wedding drunk, over-orchestrated "fairy tale" touches that backfire (brides falling off of bucking horses are so not Martha Stewart) and a freakish costume change at a Hotel del Coronado wedding that leads to Cate's happy ending-makes this the ultimate bridesmaid gift.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

With a closetful of tulle and dyed-to-match shoes, Cate Padgett is beginning to wonder if she is on her way to becoming a career bridesmaid. Could she already be doomed, at the age of 26, to a future of unflattering dresses and embarrassing wedding toasts? Though she has hopes of marrying her handsome boyfriend, Paul, his hot-and-cold behavior and frequent, lengthy business trips make her despair of ever having a wedding of her own. When a chance encounter at (where else?) a friend's wedding reception brings Cate's high-school best friend Ethan back into her life, she's faced with an age-old question: Should she dump the unreliable Paul and pursue the safe and steady Ethan? There's not much new in this story of matrimonial hope rewarded; this is a tale that's been told many, many times before, and most readers will predict the novel's outcome by the end of the first chapter. Still, the outlandish wedding mishaps and twentysomething angst will appeal to fans of the plucky-single-girl genre. Meredith Parets
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Trade (February 3, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425195139
• ISBN-13: 978-0425195130
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #759,408 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quite entertaining, February 3, 2004

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Always the Bridesmaid (Paperback)

In just a few months, San Diego kindergarten teacher Cate Padgett has earned a Purple Heart as she has served in combat, being a bridesmaid at four weddings. Besides purchasing gifts that the members of the Cheney energy task force could not afford and buying and wearing one time use ugly dresses, Cate also attends boring bachelorette galas.

Cate is sick of helping others on their trip down the aisle. She feels ready to plan her own wedding. However, she wonders whom she should encourage as her mate. Should she select the centerfold hunk "No Call Paul" or her faithful companion dependable nice guy Ethan? That is assuming either would even walk down the aisle with the perpetual ALWAYS THE BRIDESMAID.

Fans of contemporary tales will find the amusing ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID quite entertaining especially the scenes leading up to and occurring at a wedding. Readers will recognize the diva from hell, the drunk who was stoned before arriving, and other disasters that typically make up a decent sized wedding ceremony. Though who should prove the victor between the rivals is too obvious to everyone as Paul's ego is bigger than the Pacific Ocean, making him the top discerning fan a loser. Still this is Cate's choice so that the audience will have to read this amusing charmer to decide whether either one is the groom or if there even is one in this unhappily unmarried chick lit tale.

Harriet Klausner

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must Read Book, February 7, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Always the Bridesmaid (Paperback)

Always the Bridesmaid is a hilarious story about what to expect as a bridesmaid...comedy! I found the book hysterical and romantic all wrapped into one. The characters in the book are so real and you can put yourself in their shoes. Great and quick read with lots of comedy, romance, and never boring. Right from page one I knew I would love it!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Laugh Outloud Funny, April 13, 2004

By 

FictionAddiction.NET - See all my reviews

This review is from: Always the Bridesmaid (Paperback)

Cate Padgett is surrounded by friends who are getting married. Meanwhile Cate has an almost non-existent boyfriend she refers to as No Call Paul and a growing collection of hideous bridesmaid dresses taking over her apartment.

Cate begins to reassess her life and relationship with Paul and it doesn't take long to figure out that Paul just isn't cutting it. Before she gets the chance to break up with Paul, he beats her to the punch. Shocked by the dumping, Cate surrounds herself with good friends to help her feel better.

She surprises herself when she begins to realize she's developing feelings for her long-time friend Ethan. Cate is worried that acting on these feelings will ruin their friendship.

With a growing mountain of hideous dresses and dyed shoes, Cate must decide if her friendship with Ethan is worth the risk. If she doesn't take the risk could she be passing up on the possibility of ever finding happiness and marriage for herself?

Anyone who has ever had to deal with the hassle of being a bridesmaid will appreciate and relate to Cate Padgett. Always a Bridesmaid is full of comedy, style, wit and romance.