About the Book
It’s the wedding of the century. Her big brother – the man who was a second father to her after their dad passed – is the groom. And Nicole is fighting just to keep her head above water.
She’s surrounded by an aloof bride-to-be, a psychotic mother of the bride, ridiculous bridesmaids, and a town that feels like a parody of Americana. Her own family is perfectly fine with everything – with the exception of her wise-cracking cousin Ella, whose antics only serve to get Nicole even further into trouble. The wedding stress is invading all aspects of her life, including her own relationship. Nicole only wants what’s best for her brother – but what if that involves her brother leaving his fiancée at the altar?
As the wedding day approaches and tensions continue to rise, Nicole is forced to figure out what love, loyalty, and honesty mean – before it’s too late and she loses everyone she loves.
My Review
In the Event the Flower Girl Explodes by Abby Rosmarin sure caught my attention from the get go. Interesting title, a catchy cover, and I’m a sucker for a book about weddings. We follow Nicole, whose big brother Andrew is getting married. Nicole doesn’t mesh with Andrew’s fiancée Cora from the first meeting, and things only get more awkward and strained from there. It was difficult for me to understand from the get why Andrew was so secretive about his relationship with Cora. We get flashbacks of Nicole and Andrew and they seemed incredibly close, so I was confused why she didn’t know he proposed until she got the engagement party announcement. And that was really the theme for me throughout the story – I felt like I was always missing a chunk of information. And Nicole was hard to like for most of the story. She treated almost everyone around her quite poorly, and I was waiting for her to do something to redeem herself, but when she acted the way she did at the wedding rehearsal to her own brother, I knew then she wasn’t going to get the redemption I was really hoping for. I actually liked Rosmarin’s writing style – it was fast-paced and there were funny scenes and it kept my attention, but I felt like I was constantly questioning what I was reading. I kept going until the end because I figured it would all come together or finally make sense for me, and it really didn’t. I closed the book feeling more confused as ever.
2.5 stars
