Book Review: The Wedding Writer by Susan Schneider

The Wedding Writer by Susan Schneider is one saucy and juicy read! It’s a behind the scenes look at the goings on at a bridal magazine publishing house including all the fighting, back stabbing, job stealing, and gossip that goes along with it. We also get a better look into the lives of four women: Lucky, Grace, Sara, and Felice who work there, or in Grace’s case – who had worked there. Now, I’m single and I’ve never, even as a young girl, been interested in a wedding but I loved this book! I do enjoy reading books that describe the workings at magazine publishing houses and I loved the mentions of all the top designers, shoes, and dresses – all that goes along with the wedding. As well, any novel that delves into the lives of women always manages to catch my attention and this novel definitely had that.

Lucky, who has had a bit of a rocky life, is writing wedding stories for a huge bridal magazine called Your Wedding and she’s good at it. However Lucky is hungry for more and has always been driven and ambitious. She wants to get to the top and sometimes to get there you have to walk on some toes that maybe you’d rather not. So when Lucky is offered the top position of Editor-in-Chief she jumps at it, even though it means ousting her best friend Grace. She rationalizes it by thinking that Grace is up there in years now and she’s had her chance; now it’s time for Lucky to shine and show what she can do.

For Grace, losing her job is devastating. She has based her whole life on working at the expense of friends and even her daughter Isla, not to mention a life of her own. Yet she thrived on it and loved it. Without her job, who is she? She is beyond stressed and to top it off her body starts rebelling against her and her hair is falling out. What else could possibly go wrong? Along with that she feels betrayed by someone, Lucky, who she thought was a friend.

For Sara, who absolutely idolized Grace, the job without her is not the same and she’s not all that fond of Lucky to begin with. She’s good at her job though but does she really want to work for someone she doesn’t respect? Sara is another one who has devoted her life to the magazine and is still not married and has no prospects – or does she? There was that man she met so long ago…

Felice is a wife and mother. Her son has been doing nothing but worrying her sick lately and it doesn’t seem to be getting better. She too is stressed beyond her limits. Work is her only refuge, a place where she knows what needs to be done and she does it well. Yet her whole life seems to be falling apart around her and she’s just watching it – is the job really worth all that?

With Lucky’s promotion things begin to unravel and Lucky starts to wonder if it’s all worth it – the back stabbing and grovelling. She wants to make it to the big time and be respected – it’s all she’s ever wanted, but things don’t seem to be going along as smoothly as she had hoped. Not to mention that you’re never really safe; it seems there is always someone waiting in the wings to stab you in the back believing they can do a better job than you.

This novel, while a chick lit, also delves deeper than that. It touches on some issues like women aging in the work force and how, more often than not, they are tossed over for a younger model. In some professions this may not matter as much but in a publishing industry like the bridal magazine, it’s huge. Younger means better and fresher ideas. Being on the older side myself this isn’t something I agree with at all. I think that The Wedding Writer would make a good book club pick for this reason as well as I think the individual women’s lives could spark some good conversation.

I really enjoyed The Wedding Writer by Susan Schneider. I think those that love weddings or like reading books that describe the behind the scenes at a magazine would enjoy reading this novel. I picked it up and had it finished the next day as I wanted to keep getting back to it to see what would happen next. It was a welcome read after the last one I had so I appreciated it even more!

You can purchase your own copy of The Wedding Writer by Susan Schneider here in the US and here in Canada. Better yet you can pop by tomorrow as Susan will be here with a guest post and I’ll be giving away a copy of her novel!

© 2010, Darlene of Peeking Between the Pages. All Rights Reserved. If you’re reading this on a site other than Peeking Between the Pages or Darlene’s Feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.

My copy of The Wedding Writer by Susan Schneider was received for review from Diane Saarinen of the Saima Agency.

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