Author: Alison Espach
# of Pages: 384 (hardback)
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Synopsis: It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She's immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years—she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe's plan—which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.
Review: I was expecting a fun romance from the protagonist being in an unexpected situation.
What I did not expect is that very very early on, it's revealed that our protagonist Phoebe is actually at the hotel to KILL herself. I even had to reread the synopsis (I briefly skimmed it before reading to get general vibes), and this rather large detail that sets the tone of the book is deceivingly MISSING.
Although more of an existential read than I was expecting, I could almost give it 4 stars since it's covering a topic (being true to yourself) that is less typical of other chick-lit adjacent reads (although being targeted more to an in their late 30s to early 40s audience going through a midlife crisis).
The problem is that the pace is sooo slow. I expected having to learn about various people at the wedding via Phoebe meeting them at the hotel, but many chapters were of unnaturally staged conversations that served as a long expositions on a character's backstory.
I couldn't help but repeatedly put the book down. I wouldn't recommend it in a hurry.
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