Customer Reviews

The Bride Will Keep Her Name: A Novel

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is awesome. I can't put it down!! I just wish I was laying by a pool or on the beach with it except I have found myself reading it in between appts, with my breakfast cereal, before bed - any chance I get because I can't wait to see what develops next - great story-keeps you on your toes and I love the characters-you just feel like you know them. Highly recommend!!! You will LOVE it!!!

This books is a wonderful read. I am delighted that I chose this book as my first summer novel. I'm on day 3, sipping my Pina Colada on the beach in Maui, this book kept me entertained well past sunset. I am going to buy a copy for each of my girlfriends. I can see this as a movie!

The plot of this book packs as many silly twists and turns into it as a week's worth of As the World Turns. The plot is perposterous and the characters are so cheesy and romanticized I felt like I was reading the script for a new Spainish soap opera. To become engrossed in this book you need to suspend your disbelief to the point of having a lobotomy.
The most positive thing about the book is that it moves fast and the chapters are short. If you are on the beach with your kids, you have lots of breaks to look up and make sure eveybody is behaving themselves, and its the kind of book where you can be interrupted a thousand times and you can still pick up right where you left off.
It's silly and parts are entertaining but it's not well written or even vaguely realistic.

It is sad when you have to get to page 213 of a 255 page book to get to a part that really resonates with you. Its one thing to read a mystery and figure out the who-done-it part, but when you read a book that solidly fits into the women's fiction category, the reader is expecting a little more meat early on.

Jan Goldstein, a man who actually hits the woman voice with surprising accuracy, introduces us to Madison Mandelbaum days before her fairytale wedding to the too good to be true Colin Darcy.

Then poof, it's bordering on so-so again, then poof its good again, Mr. Goldstein has me wondering if he is a frustrated thriller/mystery writer just wanting to break out of the women's thing and into a better book centered on mystery societies and golden pigs. I think he might be on to something there.

So, the long and short of this book is, guess you never thought I would get to this part, Madison Mandelbaum receives an anonymous e-mail that suggests that her fiancé may not be the man she thinks he is. Sinister phone calls and disturbing clues turn up all linking Colin to the murder of a call girl. With the help of her two best friends, which Colin refers to as the witches in Macbeth, Madison has just days, if no hours to figure out if Colin is who she thinks he is or if she is capable of marrying someone who is not so perfect.

Jan Goldstein, author of the Los Angeles Times bestsellers ALL THAT MATTERS and THE PRINCE OF NANTUCKET, has once again penned a delightfully entertaining and engrossing novel. Our intrepid heroine is New Yorker Madison Mandelbaum, a spunky art gallery manager and bride-to-be. Madison is sure she has it all --- the perfect job, two best friends who are more like the sisters she never had, and Colin Darcy, her dreamboat English fiancé and investigative reporter.

The story begins as Madison and Colin are madly in love and just one short week from their wedding day. As Madison is rushing out the door of the gallery to meet Colin for a romantic dinner, she receives a cryptic message indicating that her fiancé may not be the man she thinks he is. A series of mysterious messages reveal that he may, in fact, have murdered a call girl and aspiring artist. Even more shocking is that the whole thing may be a cover-up involving major political players and other top officials.

Devastated by these accusations, Madison realizes she must find out the truth before the wedding, and fast. She turns to her two best friends (one an editor, the other a lawyer working for the DA's office) for help in finding out if Colin is guilty or innocent and who the mysterious tipster is. The three friends are soon caught up in a web of sex, murder and deceit. This is a world inhabited by gritty, desperate people who may pose a danger to them all. But as their amateur investigation continues, more secrets come to light than Madison ever could have dreamed. Along the way, she realizes there is more than one mystery she must solve and that many people in her life may not be who she thinks they are. Will she find the truth by the time she says "I do", or will her entire world be turned upside down by secrets she never would have imagined possible?

THE BRIDE WILL KEEP HER NAME is an all-around entertaining, fun read. It is the perfect book for brides, who will get a kick out of reading about a wedding in jeopardy --- an excellent break from the stress of planning one's own! Anyone who has ever been in love and found that love tested, however, will relate to Madison as she takes on the roles of both harried bride-to-be and super sleuth. Mystery lovers will appreciate the surprising twists and turns the story takes as our heroine digs deep into the lives of multiple characters, bringing to light some shocking revelations.

Goldstein has an uncanny way of making the reader empathize with his heroine, and yet the story remains playful from start to finish. The plot and the characters feel fresh and breezy, but there is plenty of meat here for readers to sink their teeth into. With characters like Madison's family members and co-workers to keep things light and often humorous, the book's dramatic side feels well balanced. Readers will not be able to put this one down until all the mysteries are solved.

--- Reviewed by Meredyth Temple

I read this book last Sunday ... it was very hard to put down, yet in the end, I was left somewhat unsatisfied. The book started out very well, and I loved that it blended a classic chick-lit type story with a mystery ... two genres I really enjoy. In the end, though, there were too many things thrown into the last few pages (a confession by a mother, an injury, and then a very random confession). I almost felt like the author had a page limit and tried to cram everything into the ending of the story. Overall, I would recommend the book, if only for its inventive melding of two genres, and I would try another book like this to see if the second time is the charm.

I really enjoyed this book and I'm ordering 2 more for friends. It kept my interest from page 1. Mickey Solomon

My book club read this last summer for a summer reading type book. It fit the bill. Everyone enjoyed it as a break from all our highly challenging novels. It was a cute story about a bride a week before her wedding who begins to become suspicious about the going ons of her fiance. It was a mystery type of story. We made the book club so much fun. We all dressed in white and sat by a book club member's pool and ate wedding cake while we discussed this novel. We also all brought our wedding albums and shared them for the first time with each other. Since most of us are married 30 or mor years this was especially interesting and fun. It was a cute book that was perfect for a summer book club. Read it.

This book is overall decent but that's about it. There were some suspenseful parts that really held my interest, but for the most part it was easy to put down. It was still mildly entertaining, but I didn't get into the characters too much. Plus the "sisterhood" gooey stuff with her two BFFs was a little more than I could take at times! Plus the title has absolutely nothing to do with the book, I'm not even sure why its in there at all. And the RANDOM confession by her mom that had nothing to do with the rest of the story really threw me off. It was ok to good! But not awesome.

I have read all three of his novels -- "Things that matter", "Prince of Nantucket" and The Bride Keep Her Name". I chose to read them in the order they were written. I loved all three of them, they kept me not wanting to put down to do my chores. Yet I did not want to finish because the characters became friends -- I did not have a Grandmother growing up; nor am I an artist and glad I did not have the problem that Madison had before she got married.

I rate each 5 Stars