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Have Books, Will Travel

I am a born traveler. My very first photo, snapped at the hospital shortly after my birth, became my first passport photo. I boarded my first international flight shortly thereafter, and I have been traveling ever since. To date, I have visited 4 continents, 24 countries outside of the USA, and 31 states plus Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico. My very patient husband jokes that I always start planning the next trip on the flight home (sometimes I actually start before that!). I think the planning is half the fun. Some of my favorite travel memories include family trips with my daughter and husband to Aspen, our honeymoon in Rome, Christmas with my parents in London, our little family's favorite beach trip to Puerto Rico, and my first solo adventure to Big Sky, Montana.  I am also an avid reader, reading more than 100 books every year and currently working my way through the Boxall 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list. I come by my love of books naturally. I was raised by a librar...
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Goin’ to the Chapel, And We’re Gonna Get Married ... Gee, I Really Loved These Reads

Last month I traveled to Boston for the wedding of one of my dearest and oldest friends. I saw almost nothing of Boston in between delayed flights, the Friday night dinner, the Saturday ceremony, and the evening reception, but I had precious moments with two of my closest friends and their families. It has been years since the days where most of my travel days were devoted to attending out of town weddings and bachelorette parties. Those were always frenzied reunions with old friends or family, and while my husband and I found ourselves zipping around the country, we rarely had much time to explore the destinations we landed in for those celebrations. For anyone else packing a bag for a wedding weekend, I have six suggestions for you!  

The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory is 100% wedding fun with more than a little smut rolled in. When political savant Alexa Monroe gets trapped in a hotel elevator with dreamy doctor extraordinaire Drew Nichols, the last thing she’s expecting is a love connection. Drew, desperate for a date to the wedding of his ex-girlfriend to his close friend, proposes a fake relationship and a weekend of wedding festivities. The pair hit it off and embark on a long-distance romance. Recommending this for anyone flying solo to a wedding; you never know when love might strike! This was a solid four-stars for me. Check it out here: The Wedding Date (The Wedding Date, #1) by Jasmine Guillory | Goodreads.    

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan is the outrageous story of the super-rich Chinese families who spend their days spending, scheming, and gossiping. Rachel Chu agrees to join her boyfriend, Nicholas Young, at the wedding of his oldest and best friend. Rachel imagines meeting her boyfriend’s family and friends and exploring Singapore, but she soon learns this isn’t an ordinary wedding, but the wedding of the decade, and Nicholas isn’t the humble professor she thought, but is heir to what could be one of the world’s greatest fortunes. If you missed this when it first came out 10 years ago, throw this in your suitcase, especially if you are going to be meeting your loved one’s family or are attending as a plus one. I promise nothing you encounter will be worse than what Rachel experiences! This was another solid four-star book for me. Check it out here: Crazy Rich Asians (Crazy Rich Asians, #1) by Kevin Kwan | Goodreads.

Do you have a bridezilla on your hands? Or are you otherwise feeling a little murderous about an upcoming wedding? Check out Lucy Foley’s The Guest List. A wedding celebration on a remote island off the coast of Ireland turns into a deadly event in this fun thriller. The wedding party is full of secret resentments, and this perfectly planned wedding ends with a dead body. The reader is kept guessing throughout. Who died? Who killed them? And why? There’s a long list of potential candidates, suspects, and motivations, but you have to keep reading to find out what happened. This was a solid four-star page-turner. Check it out here: The Guest List by Lucy Foley | Goodreads.

The Perfect Couple by Elin Hilderbrand is the fairytale love story of Benji and Celeste’s over-the-top, beautifully planned Nantucket wedding. Or is it? When the Maid of Honor washes up dead on the morning of the wedding, the wedding is called off. Hilderbrand flashes the reader back to past stories of friendships, affairs, and family dynamics. If you are in the wedding party, probably best to stay clear of this one (yikes!), but this is great fun for any other guests at a destination wedding. I waffled between three and four stars on this one, but ultimately gave it four stars because it was such a page-turner. Check it out here: The Perfect Couple by Elin Hilderbrand | Goodreads.

A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza is a family drama spanning several decades inside the lives of an Indian-American Muslim family. The book opens with a wedding where the family will be reunited with their estranged son and brother for the first time in many years. The author then flashes the reader back to the years before and the cultural and spiritual conflicts the family has withstood and which lead them to this estrangement. I enjoyed that the book brought in the different family member points of view throughout. The perfect read if you want something a bit heftier than the light reads recommended above or if you are traveling to a family wedding. This was another solid four-star read for me. Check it out here: A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza | Goodreads.

Finally, for anyone in need of a great wedding audiobook recommendation, download the great Jane Austen’s Emma. Austen is the grandmother of all chick-lit, and Emma begins and ends with weddings. Most will be familiar with this story from prior reads or the movie. I have read this and listened to it, and I really loved the audible adaptation of this novel narrated by Emma Thompson and a supporting cast of other terrific voice actors. It’s one of my favorite audiobooks and is a clear five-star experience. Check it out here: Emma: An Audible Original Drama by Anna Lea | Goodreads.  

Have fun! And this blog post is dedicated with love from me to Carrie and Chris with best wishes for a lifetime of happiness.

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