Alice's Review: Girls in White Dresses

Summary:  Wry, hilarious, and utterly recognizable, Girls in White Dresses tells the story of three young women grappling with heartbreak and career change, family pressure and new love--all while suffering through an endless round of weddings and bridal showers.  Isabella, Mary, and Lauren are going to be bridesmaids in Kristi's wedding. On Sunday after Sunday, at bridal shower after bridal shower, they coo over toasters, eat tiny sandwiches, and drink mimosas. They're all happy for Kristi, but they do have the ups and downs of their own lives to cope with. Isabella is working at a mailing-list company, where she's extremely successful, and wildly unhappy. Mary is in love with a man who may never love any woman as much as he loves his mother. And Lauren, a waitress at a midtown bar, finds herself drawn to a man she's pretty sure she hates.  With blind dates and ski vacations, boozy lunches and family holidays, relationships lost to politics and relationships found in pet stores, Girls in White Dresses pulls us deep inside the circle of these friends, perfectly capturing the wild frustrations and soaring joys of modern life.

Review:  I’m not quite sure where to begin with this one… I’ll start with how difficult it was for me to keep track of all the characters.  I thought about making a list to figure out who was who and how they know each other.  In the end, I vetoed the idea because a book shouldn’t require that much effort.  Especially a chick lit novel of 300 pages.   It was a little frustrating.  The other thing is that with these new character introductions, it was difficult to get invested in their story lines.  Especially since one of the main characters had a major life change and there was hardly an explanation as to what happened.  I would much rather have read about what that than about another friend whose relationship is on the fritz because of a Presidential election.  It was annoying to say the least.

I know this seems unfair, especially since I love books written like this.  They are more factual than poetic.  You get to know the characters much in the same way you get to know people in real life, through conversations.  There aren’t many people who reveal everything about themselves when you first meet them.  You need to foster the relationship, talk, get to know them, and I felt that Ms. Close handled that beautifully.  I just wish she had focused more on Isabella, Lauren, and Mary and less on the gaggle of friends constantly thrown at us.

Of the three main characters, I like Lauren the best.    I liked  her attitude.  The scene at Kristi’s bridal shower made me laugh.  I loved her spunk.  She wasn’t the only comic relief in Girls inWhite Dresses.  The novel was pickled in humor.  I laughed a lot.  And I especially enjoyed Lauren and Isabella’s story arch. 

It’s difficult to say if I would recommend this novel or not. I’m happy I read it, but I’m also happy I didn’t buy it.  It’s been on my TBR pile for a while and it’s my introduction to Jennifer Close.  I would definitely read her novels again, but they would be library books and not purchases.  

Final Take:  3/5
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