My Rating: ⭐️⭐️
Title: Four Aunties and a Wedding (Aunties, #2)
Author: Jesse Q. Sutanto
Format: eBook (NetGalley)
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 3/29/22
Publisher: Berkley Books
Categories: Adult Fiction, Romance, Women’s Fiction, Contemporary, Mystery, Humor
Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**
Thank you to Berkley Books for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!
The aunties are back, fiercer than ever and ready to handle any catastrophe–even the mafia–in this delightful and hilarious sequel by Jesse Q. Sutanto, author of Dial A for Aunties.
Meddy Chan has been to countless weddings, but she never imagined how her own would turn out. Now the day has arrived, and she can’t wait to marry her college sweetheart, Nathan. Instead of having Ma and the aunts cater to her wedding, Meddy wants them to enjoy the day as guests. As a compromise, they find the perfect wedding vendors: a Chinese-Indonesian family-run company just like theirs. Meddy is hesitant at first, but she hits it off right away with the wedding photographer, Staphanie, who reminds Meddy of herself, down to the unfortunately misspelled name.
Meddy realizes that is where their similarities end, however, when she overhears Staphanie talking about taking out a target. Horrified, Meddy can’t believe Staphanie and her family aren’t just like her own, they are The Family–actual mafia, and they’re using Meddy’s wedding as a chance to conduct shady business. Her aunties and mother won’t let Meddy’s wedding ceremony become a murder scene–over their dead bodies–and will do whatever it takes to save her special day, even if it means taking on the mafia.
Content Warning: Drug Use
I absolutely struggled through this one which is the opposite experience I had with book one of this series. I read the first book in 2 days! This one…I could barely finish, it’s taken me a month and I basically skimmed it to the end.
What didn’t work for me? You have to suspend your belief A LOT for this one, and as much as I tried, I couldn’t do it. I don’t know if it was because of my reading mood – I wasn’t in the mood for slapstick humor? Meddy is getting married to Nathan and flies to Oxford, England for the wedding – her aunts and mom bring the chaos as usual and this time they’ve hired wedding planners/vendors to help them. What they don’t know is this family of wedding planners has a sinister motive for helping them with this wedding. When they do find out these planners/vendors are not who they say they are – it is straight chaos until the end of the story.
The aunties that made me laugh in book one, made me cringe a lot in this one. They try to learn how to talk like the British and it’s kinda funny at first but the more it keeps going on, it’s just tiring. It’s even more chaotic than book one and this all takes place at Meddy’s wedding! It was too much chaos for me. I wanted Meddy to take control of the situation and obviously she does not know how to do that. Plus she’s lying to her fiance/husband for 90% of the story. It’s supposed to be her special day, couldn’t she have told Nathan at least?
Some things I appreciated about the story? The Indo-Chinese represenation like in book one. No matter how crazy Meddy’s family is – she loves them.
Why you should read it:
- you love chaotic, ridiculous, zany stories with slapstick humor
- Meddy’s Aunts and mom are wild haha
Why you might not want to read it:
- not in the mood for chaos
My Thoughts:
I really enjoyed the first book and I wish I stopped there. You will enjoy this story if you want more of the chaos Meddy’s Aunts and her mother brings…they bring it even more in this sequel. Unfortunately, I couldn’t suspend my belief enough to enjoy the wild ride this story took me on.
📚 ~ Yolanda
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