Review: Always the Bridesmaid by Whitney Lyles.

Posted December 8, 2008 by Rowena in Reviews | 4 Comments

Main Character: Cate Padgett
Grade: 4 out of 5

What do you do after you walk down the aisle at four weddings over the course of just a few months–none of them your own? What’s left after you’ve donned the must-have-not dresses of the season, forked over your cash, and faked smiled your way through countless photos? After you’ve dealt with the smashed guest, the mushed cake, the dashed hopes, and the missed bouquets? That’s what Cate Padgett is starting to wonder, as she embarks on stint after stint on the sidelines, watching friends swap bar-hopping for baby-naming …while her own love life goes nowhere fast. But is Cate unwilling to settle down–or just unwilling to settle? And can anyone really judge her if they haven’t walked in her dyed-to-match shoes?

Wild, witty, and full of weddings to cry over, Always the Bridesmaid is an endearingly romantic comedy about standing out in the corwd even when everyone’s wearing the same celery-green dress ….and daring the make every day The Happiest Day of Your Life.

I didn’t intend to buy this book, I was just browsing the bookstore shelves and came across this one and started reading it right there in the aisle and before I know it, I’m almost done with the book and the store is closing and even though I didn’t want to buy the book because I’m poor and this book cost $14 (I know, I’m cheap too!) but I ended up buying this book because I wanted to finish it and I did and I enjoyed the book.

This story is about Cate Padgett and how she’s always a bridesmaid, never ever a bride. She’s dating this good looking guy who never remembers to return her calls and she’s getting fed up with it all. She does a lot of things for him and even though Paul (the boyfriend) could be sweet at times and he was good looking, I never did warm up to him. He got on my nerves with all of his not calling and then the hike in Hawaii sealed his fate on my I DON’T LIKE YOU list.

Over the course of this book, we see Cate as she goes from one wedding to the the next while still in this dead end relationship and you see her just living her life and learning from everything. You see her hanging out with her friends, wondering why her boyfriend doesn’t call as often as a boyfriend should and though this book is about Always being a bridesmaid, I thought it would be more like 27 Dresses but it wasn’t.

It was more about Cate then about being a bridesmaid. It was an easy read, one that wasn’t hard to fall into and though I enjoyed the book, I didn’t exactly love it. It was just good, the ending was really abrupt which would have pissed me off even more if there wasn’t another book out for this book, so this is the first book in this series (I don’t even know what this series is called but I’ve seen three books after this book so far) and I’m curious enough to finish the series out so I’ll be looking forward to reading more books by this author. I ended the book and thought, “What the hell? That’s it?” and then Chloe reminded me, “Well there are other books in that series, right?” So I stopped being irritated.

I enjoyed Cate as a main character and I enjoyed Ethan and all of Cate’s friends. This was a delightful read and I enjoyed the cast of characters in this story, I’m curious enough to read the other books so that should tell you something.

Should you read it? If you’re into chick lit, then yeah I say give it a go just don’t expect fireworks. This was a fun and quick read and enjoyable and that’s about it.

This book is available from Berkley. You can buy it here.