After three wedding-related books were included in last year’s Summer Reading Guide, I started to think about other books set during weddings or where a wedding plays a big role. And voila! This book list came to be.
We’ve got wedding planners, guests, and, of course, characters getting married. Some of these books portray joyful celebrations, but more often than not, things are going horribly, terribly wrong. While you might guess there are more romance novels with a wedding theme, we found way more mysteries and thrillers. It makes sense: weddings can bring high emotions along with interesting (often remote) locations and a crowd who may or may not know one another. But if romance and thrillers aren’t your speed, we’ve still got you covered.
As always with our book lists, we hope you’ll share your favorite wedding and wedding-adjacent novels in the comments section.
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I almost put this down in the early chapters when the dark premise was revealed, but this tragicomedy turned out to be profound, compassionate, and deeply life-affirming. When Phoebe checks into her swanky Newport, Rhode Island inn, she finds out that she’s the only guest who’s not there for the weeklong wedding. Phoebe is hitting bottom; she doesn’t care about a wedding. But to her surprise, she finds herself absorbed by the drama unfolding around her and pulled into the action. And—because she has nothing left to lose—she finds herself telling the truth for the first time in ages, to herself and to others. Though grim in parts, this story is bursting with insight, sharp humor, and a pervasive humanity. I can’t wait to read what Espach writes next.
This second chance contemporary romance centers on Eli and Georgia, a couple who met and fell in love when they were teenagers, but broke up five years ago under painful circumstances. Now they’re back in California to celebrate the wedding of their mutual best friend Adam, and for his sake, they’ve resolved to pretend that everything is fine and they’re both at peace with how things ended. But the truth is they never got over each other. When they’re brought back into each other’s lives for a week to help pull off the wedding, sparks fly. This was a delightful, smartly-written read with heart and depth; I flew through it. (Open door.)
Rowley’s sequel to his smash hit The Guncle is a heartfelt story of a family embracing new love amidst grief—with the help of a European vacation. Five years after we left off, Maisy and Grant’s dad plans to marry an Italian marchesa. She’s lovely, but the kids are resistant to change, so Gay Uncle Patrick is charged with shepherding them across Europe, getting them used to the idea along the way. The three travel to London, Paris, Salzburg, and Venice, before arriving at the glamorous Lake Como resort where the families are gathered for the wedding—and Patrick meets his match in the marchesa’s sister, otherwise known as the kids’ Launt (that is, Lesbian Aunt). Hilarious antics ensue. Reading The Guncle first is recommended but not essential. Big-hearted, entertaining, and brimming with dad jokes (and innuendo).
Guillory’s debut was inspired by frustration: she wanted to read more books about people like her and her friends: single, with jobs, and living in cities (instead of quirky small towns like you often see in romance). Oh, and she wanted to see black women in the pages. Enter The Wedding Date. Drew and Alexa meet cute in a broken-down elevator; sparks are flying within seconds. Drew’s in town to watch his ex marry his best friend (ouch). He doesn’t have a date, so he asks Alexa to come along—and pretend to be his girlfriend. But soon the fake relationship starts to feel surprisingly real. But they both have big jobs they love, in different cities. Drew’s track record with women isn’t great. Alexa is black, and Drew is white. In short: it gets complicated. But it’s a rom-com, so they’re going to see it through. Heads up, readers: this is seriously racy in parts.
Agatha Christie meets The White Lotus in Condie’s adult debut. When a mudslide prevents anyone from accessing or leaving a luxury Big Sur resort, it means the guests are trapped with a murderer. Among the guests is Ellery, a newly divorced woman who’d planned the trip as a twentieth anniversary celebration but instead is traveling alone. Upon her arrival, Ellery is wounded to discover most of the resort’s guests are there for a wedding—but before the event can take place, Ellery finds the groom’s dead body in the pool. She starts investigating, but before she gets any answers, another guest turns up dead. The suspenseful plot kept me turning pages, but I especially appreciated the poignant passages on love, loss, and grief.
This contemporary Pride & Prejudice update is set in Pakistan, 2001, and features a modern-day version of the family you know and love: the Binat family includes a sharp-witted father, marriage-obsessed mother, and five daughters. Despite the difference of centuries, it’s clear how women’s concerns are similar between Austen’s time and Kamal’s. Alysba teaches English, and in a fun opening scene she challenges her teenage students to reinterpret Austen’s famous opening line. Kamal uses her heroine’s profession—and accompanying love of reading—to explore themes of colonialism and identity; she also despite these weighty themes she keeps her tone light and sometimes irreverent. (Just wait till you hear how the Bingleys make their money!) This is, above all, a rom com—and it’s a fun one.
Well this is new: a murder mystery from Nantucket novelist Hilderbrand that brings back beloved past characters. Celeste and Benji’s wedding is supposed to the big event of the season … until Celeste finds her maid of honor’s body floating in the bay on her wedding day. She was up before dawn because she was sneaking away from the scene of the festivities with a packed bag. Everyone thought Celeste and Benji were the perfect couple, so what is going on? As the Nantucket police open their investigation, the timeline moves back and forth between the wedding weekend and the start of the couple’s relationship, allowing the reader to slowly put the pieces together. This easy-reading mystery features well-developed characters, a solid plot, plus the food and style readers expect from Hilderbrand.
I found this book to be a delightful, engrossing, just-the-right-amount-of-zany surprise. Our heroine is Daphne Berg, a popular plus-size fashion influencer. Daphne’s hard-earned equilibrium is rattled when her old frenemy Drue surfaces after a 7-year absence, begging Daphne to lend her platform and presence to Drue’s high-society wedding to a reality tv star. Daphne’s instincts say no, but she’s never been able to resist her charming friend. Soon enough, she’s at a million-dollar affair on Cape Cod, learning the troubled bride she’s attending engineered the whole event with social media in mind—right down to the brand sponsorships Drue sold for big bucks. And that’s when things really take a turn for the worse. A fun and fresh tale of female friendship, family secrets, influencer culture, and love.
This 2020 mystery puts a modern spin on Agatha Christie’s classic And Then There Were None, setting a destination wedding on a remote Irish island, accessible only by boat, with guests whose lives are connected in ways they never could have guessed. When a magazine publisher weds a handsome reality tv star, she wants her wedding to be magazine-worthy: the designer gown, the atmospheric location, everything perfect to the last detail. But when the guests arrive, including old colleagues, boarding school friends, unreliable family, and untrustworthy friends—things begin going wrong, as long-buried secrets threaten to burst forth at exactly the wrong time. And then they find the dead body. Told in rotating points of view, this was cleverer than I’d expected. An enjoyable mystery that’s excellent on audio. (I would have appreciated a content warning for self-harm; a murder mystery is certain to have triggers but that one took me by surprise.)
J.T. Ellison’s thriller takes place at a gorgeous villa off the Italian coast, where the beautiful setting clashes with sinister events. The book opens right before a big society wedding, and nothing is going right for the bride and groom as skeletal remains were just found on the island they reserved for the wedding. Could this be an omen? As more guests arrive, we learn that almost every character has something to hide—and then they start dying. With suspicions and secrets swirling, the bride realizes that she knows very little about her groom’s first wife or the circumstances around her death. Twisty and treacherous, this gave me serious Rebecca vibes with a dash of And Then There Were None.
This January 2022 release features Olga, a Puerto Rican Brooklynite who works as a wedding planner to the ultra-rich—those who might think nothing of spending seven figures on a wedding. The juicy wedding details made for fascinating reading (and are rooted in Gonzales’s real-life experience), but the emotional heart of this story lies with Olga’s family of origin: their revolutionary father was a heroin addict who died years ago of complications from AIDS; their mother abandoned the pair when they were young so she could fight for Puerto Rican independence. Now 40, Olga finds herself restless with the life she’s leading, her brother feels trapped for his own reasons, and the two find themselves torn between the success they’ve found and the ideals with which they were raised. This is a story about finding love and healing, breaking free from past hurts, and also very much about the past and present of Puerto Rico. I loved this, and found the ending particularly satisfying.
As editor Jenny Jackson says, “if there is one truth universally acknowledged within the Kevin Kwan universe, it is that a single man without possession of a fortune must be in want of a rich wife.” The single man in this comedy of manners is the Viscount St. Ives, known internationally as “Viscount St. Abs” after a photo of him ironing shirtless went viral. He’s not particularly concerned with the family’s money problems; he’d happily live out his days surfing in Hawaii instead of moving through high society. But his mother needs him to marry up. English major types will recognize this as a reimagining of Anthony Trollope’s Doctor Thorne, but zero experience with the 19th century novel is required to drink down this plotty, binge-worthy, completely-over-the-top delight.
Do you have any favorite novels set during weddings? Please share in the comments.
P.S. 50 engrossing and adorable rom com books and movies for your Valentine’s weekend and 18 fresh and flirty contemporary romance novels for your TBR.
