Daughters of the Bride

April 11, 2016
Mallery (the Fool’s Gold series) enthralls readers with this introduction to the small seaside community of Los Lobos, Calif., as she follows the lives of a bride’s three daughters. Maggie Watson is getting married again almost 24 years after being widowed. She wishes that her daughter Courtney could do better than working as a maid at the Los Lobos Hotel, but she doesn’t realize that Courtney does much more than a maid’s work. Maggie’s daughter Rachel is a talented hairdresser who is still in love with her ex-husband and is surprised when he begins pitching in to help her out. And middle daughter Sienna enjoys her work for a nonprofit that assists women who are escaping domestic violence. While Maggie enthusiastically plans her wedding with plenty of variations of pink, Courtney is embarking on a romance with a sexy music producer who happens to be the grandson of her boss, Rachel and her ex begin to make tentative steps toward reconciling, and Sienna stuns herself by agreeing to marry her boyfriend. Mallery thoroughly involves readers in the lives of her characters as they face realistic, believable problems and search for their own happy endings.

Starred review from June 15, 2016

There's nothing like a wedding to ratchet up tension, but when it's the long-widowed mother of three sisters who is tying the knot and the plans get more complex by the day, the stage is set for a poignant narrative with more than a few surprises. With different but interwoven stories and personalities, Courtney, Sienna, and Rachel come into their own in a story that highlights three separate relationships (four if you count the blissful bride and groom). The multilevel plot is rich with assumptions, expectations, and classic family dynamics, plus exceptionally well-developed and appealing characters. VERDICT Funny, tender, moving, and shot through with enough emotional drama to resonate with anyone who's survived a family wedding, Mallery's hardcover debut is pure delight and a rewarding read for romance and women's fiction fans alike. Mallery (Best of My Love) lives in Seattle.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2016
Three daughters attempt to juggle their mother's upcoming wedding and their own tumultuous love lives in this novel from Mallery (The Friends We Keep, 2016, etc.). Rachel, Sienna, and Courtney are sisters, but they couldn't be more different. Rachel is recently divorced and trying to raise her 11-year-old son. Sienna is a commitment-phobe who gets engaged often but finds it more difficult to stay engaged. Courtney, the youngest, has long felt like the black sheep of the family. When they come together to help with their mother's second wedding, each runs into her own share of drama. Rachel finds herself reconnecting with her ex...but can she trust him not to hurt her? Sienna gets engaged once again, but she's not sure if this guy is the one for her. And Courtney is juggling a lot of secrets, including her career aspirations and a burgeoning relationship. Over the course of planning the wedding, the sisters are forced to confront their pasts and decide whether they're willing to take chances on love. Switching between so many points of view is sometimes tedious, and the story feels overlong as a result. Some of the "secrets" and misunderstandings don't pack quite the dramatic punch they're meant to, but the relationships among the sisters feel real. The book is at its best when focusing on their family bond. Readers looking for sister relationships, wedding details, and steamy scenes will enjoy Mallery's latest.

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June 1, 2016
Maggie Watson's three daughters are about as different as siblings can be. Rachel, a hairdresser, divorced husband Greg after his one-night stand and is trying her best to raise her son, who's just hit puberty. Sienna works as a donation coordinator in a thrift shop. She's forced to say yes when her overbearing boyfriend proposes in front of all the guests at her mother's engagement party. Courtney is tall and accident-prone. Her family hates that she works as a hotel maid and have no idea there's a new guy in the picture for her. However, the sisters are united by their desire to help their mother have the wedding she always wanted. Maggie has been collecting wedding ideas for 40 years, and she wants them all, including birds and a cotton-candy machine. Four women find true love in best-selling and prolific Mallery's (The Friends We Keep, 2016) heartwarming sisters' tale. Mallery's strong talent for revealing the dynamics of the different relationships in a woman's life makes for a resonant story.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)