For the Love of Friends

A Novel

By: Sara Goodman Confino

Narrated by: Andrea Emmes

Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's Summary

A sharp and hilariously relatable novel about the business of weddings, the toll they can take, and the lengths one exasperated bridesmaid will go to for the love of friends.

Lily Weiss is her mother’s worst nightmare: thirty-two and single - the horror! She’s also a talented writer but hides behind a boring job at a science foundation. To her friends, she’s reliable and selfless, which is how she winds up a bridesmaid in five weddings in six weeks. Anything for her three best friends and two (younger) siblings, right? Even if her own love life is...well, she’d rather not talk about it. To keep her sanity, Lily needs a safe place to vent.

And so her anonymous blog, Bridesmania, is born. The posts start pouring out of her: all the feels about mom-zillas, her vanishing bank balance, the wicked bridesmaids of the west, high-strung brides-to-be, body-shaming dress clerks, bachelorette parties, and Spanx for days, not to mention being deemed guardian of eighty-eight-year-old Granny (who enjoys morning mimosas in the nude) for her brother’s destination wedding.

So far the blog has stayed anonymous. But as everyone knows, few things online remain secret forever...

When all is said and done, can Lily help all five couples make it to happily ever after? And will her own happy ending be close behind?

©2021 Sara Goodman Confino. (P)2021 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Heartwarming story!

I genuinely loved this story. I enjoyed that it focused mostly on friendships between women and finding self awareness! As a romance fan, the romance in this was a nice complement to the main story and did not overshadow the main character's personal journey. The narration was good for the most part! Overall, I'm so glad I listened to this book. A lot of OMG moments while driving. So much fun!

narrator is like a monotone text to speech reader

The story was good but the narration is quite boring. I didn't like how she read the lines. When you're used to Andi Arnt, this book's narrator is like a monotone text to speech reader.

Whine

If you want to listen to 40+ chapters of whining this is the book for you

Loved it

The story is fun but serious too. I laughed and cried. Narrator is excellent, I’ll be looking for more of each of their work

Entertaining, but not a good audible listen. May try reading this one myself.

It was alright. There were some funny moments, but not as many as I expected. I love 27 Dresses and this is a lot like it (there is even a reference to it) and this is a similar enough storyline. Not completely, but enough to see the influence.

The narrator was hard to listen to. I found myself having to rewind several times when I got distracted. It made it hard to fully focus and easy to drift away from the book. I may have enjoyed it more if I read the book myself. The voices were a bit much for me and I think they made it sound a little whinier than intended.

I’m not sure why the character chose to make the blog. No matter if you are anonymous, the details she put in made it obvious it was her. I would’ve saved some of that for my diary and changed a few things for the blog, especially since she’d published to a pretty popular website. I get she didn’t think anyone would read, but there’s always a chance. She also kind of stuck her nose up to all her friends as If she was better than everyone. It got to be a lot sometimes. In that same light, she never said no to any of their ridiculous demands. It’s one thing to let minor things go, but changing yourself completely is where I would’ve said absolutely not.

Now, I did enjoy most of the book. The sad thing is, there actually are brides who act the way her friends did. They tend to think of the wedding party as objects made to prop them up on their big day and not individuals who are complex and have their own lives to live. Being expected to shell out thousands and dye hair and tan is becoming more and more of a thing. Asking people to travel to different countries and to pay for things even if they can’t afford it, or don’t participate. All that sounds like a movie, but are things that are becoming expected now. I’ve heard some horror stories from people I know, or read about. The wedding industry certainly does make good entertainment!

great laugh

Get ready to laugh I really enjoy this book, this is the second book I read by Sara Goodman and this is the second one I really enjoy, I first found her books on Kindle, and after really enjoying her last book that made me want to continue the journey of laughing so I got this one and it didn't disappoint.

if you're looking for something light and to laugh like no one is around this is the book.

I enjoy so much also the narrations by Andrea Emmes she really did a great job bringing so much to the story and characters making the story even more laughable and appealing.

So good

Very entertaining!
Initially I had some trouble getting past poor sound quality combined with poor choices made by protagonist. Once I got past that I was extremely entertained. Can’t recommend enough!

Cute

It was a fast listen- I enjoyed it very much! Not a deep story- just a humorous love story!

Cute story, some annoying voices

Some characters were whiney. But overall the story was really funny and relatable! A cute, light, easy read!

So much drama!

What could go wrong with creating an “anonymous” blog outing your bridezilla friends?! But seriously, is wedding planning like this?! These brides were horrific. Funny read, but boy am I glad I’m already married.