3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wedding Role Reversal, June 2, 2006
This review is from: Daughter of the Bride (Paperback)
With her engaging and breezy style, Francesca Segre captures the odd experience of having your mother plan a fancy wedding before you do. The organic humor of the role reversal in DAUGHTER OF THE BRIDE is only heightened by the author's wit and candor. It's a new and welcome take on the "where's my husband?" genre. A pleasure and thoroughly recommended.
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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Cold and Hot, Hit and Miss, July 30, 2006
This review is from: Daughter of the Bride (Paperback)
I purchased this book because the author is a part of Nano (fellow participants will get the reference) and I wanted to support the cause, so to speak. I know I would want someone to do the same for me. However, that's where the loyalties pretty much end. I cannot rave about this book because the author's origins. Not that Ms. Sergre should not be comended for finishing a novel and finding a publisher. It's hard work. But when I pay ten bucks for a book, that's hardly enough. The book needs to stand on its own. And it falls a bit short.
There are moments of pure genius in Daughter of the Bride. Segre can be, and is on occasion, hillarious. It's wonderfully subtle and takes you by surprise.
However, I struggled with the main premise that it's just so odd to be the daughter of the bride. With a 50% divorce rate, you would not think it atypical. Some of the dialogue is pretty forced (the mock mom's dates show is horrid). Characters come in and out of play at a dizzying rate. I dare you to keep it all straight. Worse yet, many of the characters have very similar names, which is a big novel no-no.
Daniella, our protagonist, seems very disjointed and strikes me as very immature. How is it that a 30-year-old woman is still wistfully pining away for prince charming? And has no clue what she wants in partner, but wants to be married? How does she date that many men over the course of nine months, ditch them all for a variety of semi-shallow reasons, and wonder about the root behind her singleton status?
For the first hundred pages, Daughter of the Bride is a charming, entertaining story of a woman dealing with her mother getting married while she's still single. Daniella's memories of her father are very touching. But after a time, the interest starts to wane. The book becomes little more than a chronological account of all her dating activities sprinkled with a few moments of wedding-planning stress.
Bottom line: it's boring. Mind-numbing, clock-watching boring a good 40% of the time. And the lukewarm conclusion left me unsatisfied.
When it's good, it's great. But there's something missing. There's no magic, no spark, here. And very regretfully, no compelling reason for you to pick up this book and read it.
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Funny, smart, and thoughtful, March 22, 2006
This review is from: Daughter of the Bride (Paperback)
Mature women acting giddy and feeling romantic, young sassy single women wondering when they will find similar lovejoy. If you like the reality of the Sex & the City type dating treadmill New York women must run on, you'll enjoy and empathize with the main characters trials and tribulations in dating.
This is a really funny and enjoyable read that is more than just about being single in the new millenium. This is a warm and funny look at an increasingly common situation in which the BRIDE in is old enough that she should get the senior discount on her honeymoon vacation package.
There are very funny scenes showing the humor in being a 60+ bride planning a wedding with a daughter everyone expects to be a bride. I especially enjoyed some of the financial news reporter scenes where you get a sense of the madness of the NYSE trading floor. But also there are really touching poignant moments where Danielle's (the main character)money-honey toughness is exposed and we see her human desire to find love in a fast-paced complicated world and also to come to terms that the remarriage of her mother is another level of letting go her deceased father, who is present in everyone's minds as the plans for marriage #2 are underway. There is no pat and convenient resolution, it feels like a true story.
This is a great book to share with your mother/daughter/stepmother/stepdaugher/allergic florist/Wall Street trader friend etc. Give hope to your single or widowed friends!
In the interest of full disclosure, you should know that the author is a friend of mine, but after reading this I will genuinely encourage her to write more!
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