Introduction

A Today Show #ReadwithJenna Book Club Pick

Jenna says:

"I am OBSESSED with this summer read. We follow our protagonist, Phoebe, who has hit rock bottom. With nothing to lose, she travels – alone – to a hotel in Newport, Rhode Island with the intent to leave her past behind... She arrives to find the entire hotel is booked for a wedding, and she’s mistaken for one of the guests. Meanwhile, the bride has prepped for every possible thing that could go wrong...except, well, Phoebe. The two form an unexpected friendship – leading to shocking confessions and new beginnings for them both. ‘The Wedding People’ is the perfect book to wrap up your summer reading list – it’s a darkly comedic yet heartwarming story about love, loss, and the people who come into our lives that change us forever. I absolutely LOVED it, and I know you will too."

A propulsive and uncommonly wise novel about one unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help her start anew.

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.

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined?and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.

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Discussion Questions

From the author:

1. What role does Phoebe’s humor play in the story? Does it change how she relates to the different characters in the book? Does it change how she views the world? What about how she views her own past, present and future?

2. Discuss the different relationships between the women in the novel. What does female friendship mean to each of them?

3. Phoebe’s chance encounters with “the wedding people” changed the course of her life as she had planned it. Have you ever had a similar experience? Discuss the life plans you’ve made and how they changed, for better or worse.

4. Author Allison Espach juxtaposes the real, deep components of human relationships with the superficial pomp and circumstance that come along with a wedding. How did those two elements work together to drive the story forward?

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