Phoebe Stone has had a rough life topped off by a particularly difficult past few years. Her career as an adjunct professor (and the book she's writing) has stalled, the last round of IVF treatment resulted in a miscarriage, her husband left her for a friend (one with a baby already!), and after all that, her cat died. So Phoebe has taken it upon herself to travel to an overpriced oceanfront hotel and kill herself. But when she arrives, she discovers that an over-the-top wedding has completely taken over the hotel, and after she shocks herself by confessing her suicidal intentions to the bride, Phoebe soon finds herself swept up into the wedding hysteria.
The description probably makes this book seem like a cliched happy-times-save-suicidal-person sappy story. But it's not. It would have been easy for Espach to fill this book with cardboard characters, and from the outset, it looks like they might be. But those stereotypes — privileged demanding self-centered bride, day-drinking mother of the bride, womanizing best man, angst-filled stepdaughter-to-be — are pulled aside to reveal remarkably realistic characters. The depictions of depression are also very realistic, without getting maudlin. This was a phenomenal book, and, if this is indicative of Espach's writing, I need to read more of her books.
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