Helpful Score: 6
As much as I wanted to like this book, I couldn't even read it. The description of the book sounded cute and fun but the story itself was too slow and was not at all interesting. I tried several times to get into it but eventually gave up.
Maybe you have to be very young and living on your own in a big city trying to figure out your life's path to "get" it.
Maybe you have to be very young and living on your own in a big city trying to figure out your life's path to "get" it.
Not my cup of tea. I usually like this genre. Writing was very disjointed & skipped around a lot.
Girls in White Dresses is a meandering story of a group of friends living through their 20s. As such, it speaks to the newness of life, moving out of our parents home, the dating scene, jobs, finding yourself, relationships, and of course, weddings.
The book went back and forth between the friends. At times, it was a little difficult to keep the characters straight. That made the story a hard to follow and thus to enjoy. Perhaps, that is the nature of being in your twenties - going here and there until you finally figure it out?
A light, easy, summer read.
The book went back and forth between the friends. At times, it was a little difficult to keep the characters straight. That made the story a hard to follow and thus to enjoy. Perhaps, that is the nature of being in your twenties - going here and there until you finally figure it out?
A light, easy, summer read.
What a book - this book is so good, I am putting it on my shelf to read again, that never happens! A collection of a short stories or a book with characters weaving in and out - I don't know or care how you call it, it was excellent.
As a girl who finds herself right in the thick of this book, I found my friends amongst her characters and even found myself in some of the same situations. I think this is why I fell so much in love with this book because I could completely relate to all of the characters. I enjoyed that each chapter involved a few of the friends, but you saw them again in another chapter. So yes, maybe it was a collection of short stories, but because you saw the characters again, I think it is a book where each chapter highlights a different character. I will not divulge any details - because this is a must grab, purchase it quickly.
I will be buying this book in bulk for my girlfriends - I know they will love to read about us at the time we are right now in our lives.
As a girl who finds herself right in the thick of this book, I found my friends amongst her characters and even found myself in some of the same situations. I think this is why I fell so much in love with this book because I could completely relate to all of the characters. I enjoyed that each chapter involved a few of the friends, but you saw them again in another chapter. So yes, maybe it was a collection of short stories, but because you saw the characters again, I think it is a book where each chapter highlights a different character. I will not divulge any details - because this is a must grab, purchase it quickly.
I will be buying this book in bulk for my girlfriends - I know they will love to read about us at the time we are right now in our lives.
I was hoping to like this book, but I couldn't even get through the first chapter.
I loved this book! It's almost written in the form of short essays rather than a continuous story. I laughed out loud several times. Great debut. I'm looking forward to reading Jennifer Close's next book.
Isabella, Mary, and Lauren have been best friends for most of their lives. They had initially met in college and later discovered that they had quite a bit more in common with each other than they had expected. As their friendship has gone on through the years, they have watched as everyone else around them has gotten married, started families, and found success in their chosen careers. However, the three college friends have consistently noticed that they are 'always the bridesmaid, never the bride' as they struggle through young adulthood together.
As the women gather together to celebrate the good fortune of bride after bride, they find themselves evaluating their own lives and hoping for more in the future. As regularly as clockwork, they get together to ooh and ahh over the most inane bridal gifts; spend time reminiscing about events they would much rather forget; and drink champagne toasts by the case. They collect party favors by the dozens; eat endless trays of hors d'oeuvre; and cheerfully wear the most garish pastel dresses ever designed.
Meanwhile, these women are grappling with some major issues within their own lives that seem to transcend all the congratulatory celebrations that they attend each week. Isabella is stuck working in a dead-end job, Mary is dating a really nice guy whose mother is a stubborn perfectionist, and Lauren is waitressing at a mid-town bar and wondering why she finds the sleazy bartender so attractive. Amid various booze-filled family holidays, on-the-job flirtations, hungover bridal showers, and disastrous ski vacations, the women share the wild frustrations and soaring joys of modern life with each other.
To be perfectly honest, I wasn't quite sure how enjoyable this book would actually be for me. Mareena's friend had initially recommended Jennifer Close as an author to me - after having read and thoroughly enjoyed this particular book for herself. Since our tastes in reading are usually so different, I filed Jennifer Close in my 'Eh...Maybe' category. Mareena put this book on our wishlist about three years ago, and it literally just became available to request approximately a month ago.
Since this book arrived at a moment when I was wondering what to read next, I started it immediately. I was actually pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed reading this book. The story was well-written and remarkably easy reading for me. I would definitely give this book an A+!
As the women gather together to celebrate the good fortune of bride after bride, they find themselves evaluating their own lives and hoping for more in the future. As regularly as clockwork, they get together to ooh and ahh over the most inane bridal gifts; spend time reminiscing about events they would much rather forget; and drink champagne toasts by the case. They collect party favors by the dozens; eat endless trays of hors d'oeuvre; and cheerfully wear the most garish pastel dresses ever designed.
Meanwhile, these women are grappling with some major issues within their own lives that seem to transcend all the congratulatory celebrations that they attend each week. Isabella is stuck working in a dead-end job, Mary is dating a really nice guy whose mother is a stubborn perfectionist, and Lauren is waitressing at a mid-town bar and wondering why she finds the sleazy bartender so attractive. Amid various booze-filled family holidays, on-the-job flirtations, hungover bridal showers, and disastrous ski vacations, the women share the wild frustrations and soaring joys of modern life with each other.
To be perfectly honest, I wasn't quite sure how enjoyable this book would actually be for me. Mareena's friend had initially recommended Jennifer Close as an author to me - after having read and thoroughly enjoyed this particular book for herself. Since our tastes in reading are usually so different, I filed Jennifer Close in my 'Eh...Maybe' category. Mareena put this book on our wishlist about three years ago, and it literally just became available to request approximately a month ago.
Since this book arrived at a moment when I was wondering what to read next, I started it immediately. I was actually pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed reading this book. The story was well-written and remarkably easy reading for me. I would definitely give this book an A+!
I was expecting your standard beach read chick lit. And this was chick lit but with a little something more. Each chapter was more like a short story as a group of college friends goes from graduation and into their early 30s - new jobs, new apartments, romances, office politics, weddings, babies, etc. They all connected and kept coming back to the same central group of friends although some of the chapters were told from the viewpoint of someone in the extended circle of friends. What I really liked was that each chapter/story was well written and had one or two good quotable lines that were either laugh out loud funny, poignant, whimsical, witty, biting, or just good very true moral-of-the-story this-is-life kind of lines. Well written and will definitely read more of this author.
great book
