Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  Fathers of the Bride

AUTHOR:  Marshall Thornton

PUBLISHER:  Kenmore Books

LENGTH:   236 pages

RELEASE DATE:  August 28, 2021

BLURB: 

After more than two decades together, Andrew Lane and Miles Kettering-Lane are going through a nasty divorce. Not only are they unraveling their relationship but also their business—Miles once had a popular home show on cable with Andrew serving as his producer/manager—the failure of which they blame on each other. Now, they’d be happy to never, ever see each other again. But the daughter they both adore, Kelly, announces she’s getting married, and that means one very important thing: a wedding.

Thrown together, at event after event—meeting the in-laws, planning the wedding, throwing an elaborate engagement party—the two clash over everything until, their future in-laws, Bradley and Pudge Lincoln and Terry and Lissa Collins, try to take over the entire wedding. The Lincoln-Collins’ are very wealthy, to quote Pudge, “People think we’re in the one percent but that’s so embarrassing. We’re barely in the two percent!”

Andrew and Miles realize they have to work together in order to compete with the overbearing Lincoln-Collins’ and give their daughter the wedding she deserves. Along the way, they realize things just might not be over between them.

REVIEW: 

Andrew Lane and Miles Kettering-Lane have been married for over 20 years.  But they have been estranged and separated for two years – not speaking except through lawyers and accountants.  But when their daughter Kelly returns home from the Peace Corp in Africa to announce that she has met someone and they are getting married, it comes as a complete shock to both fathers.   Now Andrew and Miles are going to HAVE to figure out a way to work together to give their daughter the dream wedding she deserved.  Just one tiny problem.  Kelly has absolutely no interest in planning her own wedding.  She would like her fathers to do it 😉   Miles of course has loads of ideas – and Kelly is quite happy to let him take charge as long as her her other father works with him and agrees.  Not an easy feat for two men who have not been in the same room or spoken directly to each other in years.

Kelly’s fiance Avery seems to be a lovely young man.  His family on the other hand?  UGH!  Unbelievably wealthy, clueless and privileged – which makes for some jaw dropping moments for Miles and Andrew and Andrew’s boyfriend Raj (and that whole name disambiguation is another gem :P).  Raj is a social media influencer and Andrew is his manger.  He also is the source of a lot of the hilarity and drama that ensues.  After all – if it’s on the ‘gram, it didn’t happen 😀

The groom’s mother Pudge and stepmother Lissa let their full Karen freak flag fly.  They want to take over the entire wedding, but Kelly and Avery hold firm.  The kids throw them a bone letting them plan a completely over the top engagement party.  This party was unbelievable – except that if you’ve seen shows like My Super Sweet 16, Bridezillas, Platinum Weddings and many others, you will recognize that this is not necessarily an anomaly.  As the engagement party goes horribly wrong, Andrew and Miles are thrown together and things change in their relationship.  But there is still a lot to deal with.

As the wedding day approached, Kelly and Avery continue to show a marked disinterest.  Pudge and Lissa continue to try to muscle their way into the planning.  Again – so many funny moments result from their cluelessness.  But when it gets down to the wire and things inevitably go a little off the rails and things sometimes do with a wedding and all the vendors and people involved, Miles and Andrew discover that maybe they aren’t as over as they thought they were 😉

Well this was delightful!  I really love Marshall Thornton’s storytelling abilities and I completely enjoyed this book from page 1 through the very satisfying end 🙂  The families and relationships here could not be more strikingly different.  I loved all of the little things that the author was able to drop into this story and illuminate with humor – not preaching.  Whether it’s cultural appropriate, sensitivity training, parents and children disagreeing completely on what a wedding should look like or to the degree to which Social Media and “influencers” have changed our lives – for better or worse – there are plenty of head-scratching moments to make the reader go hmmmmm.  There were so many laugh-out-loud moments in this story 🙂  But underneath, the reality that the love is still there between estranged spouses conveys the heart and warmth of the book.  The alternating POVs of the Fathers of the Bride as well as a few glimpses of Kelly, their daughter, really add to the special humor of the story.  I loved knowing what each character was thinking and why.  They whole backstory of Andrew and Miles is conveying in such a way as to feel totally organic to the tale.  The hilarious characters of Lucas the nosy neighbor, Avery’s entire family, Raj, Andrew’s erstwhile boyfriend all add to the fun an games of this book.  Highly recommended for any fans of rom-com, second chances, enemies to lovers, HEA stories – particularly for mature characters 😀  Absolute LOVED it!

RATING:

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