The Wedding People: A Novel

· Sold by Henry Holt and Company
65 reviews
Ebook
384
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

The runaway New York Times bestselling Today Show Read With Jenna Book Club Pick, with more than 1.5 million copies sold, about an unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help her start anew.

Named a Best Book of the Year by The Guardian, Time, Chicago Tribune, Elle, Real Simple, and Glamour

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.
The runaway New York Times bestselling Today Show Read With Jenna Book Club Pick, with more than 1.5 million copies sold, about an unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help her start anew. Named a Best Book of the Year by The Guardian, Time, Chicago Tribune, Elle, Real Simple, ...

Discover more

Ratings and reviews

65 reviews
Paula Pugh
August 5, 2024
A very engrossing look at the many ways people’s lives and outlooks morph over one week of wedding activities. One woman intent on suicide interacts with the wedding party members and guests, impacting everyone and herself. Lost love and found love, secret feelings, and family woes pepper the pages, giving insight to the characters. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinionAre my own.
Did you find this helpful?
A J Moschette
August 23, 2025
Refreshingly real. If only everyone could be this honest all the time. The characters are all richly developed and easy to relate to. It is easy to fall in love with fragile Phoebe and exhilarating to cheer her on as she begins to discover who she really is and who she wants to be. The relationships between characters span the emotional spectrum and there are many playful and sweet moments to savor.
Did you find this helpful?
Carol Iozzo
January 25, 2025
The overall book was great. It relates to real life experiences. However, I did not like the plot at the beginning of the book showing Phoebe as suicidal because it is not positive nor a good start for a plot. Also, I did not like the profanity used throughout the entire book. It could have been avoided.
Did you find this helpful?

About the author

Alison Espach is the bestselling author of The Wedding People, a New York Times Editor’s Choice, a Today Show Read With Jenna Book Club Pick, a Barnes and Noble Book Club Pick, and a #1 Indie Next Pick. The Wedding People spent several dozen weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list and will be published in over 35 countries. She is also the author of Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance, a Chicago Tribune and NPR “Best Book of the Year,” as well as The Adults, a New York Times Editor’s Choice and Barnes and Noble Discover Pick. Her fictional audio series In-Depth Market Research Interviews with Dead People is an Audible Original. She has written for McSweeney’s, Vogue, Outside, LitHub, Joyland and other places. She lives and teaches creative writing in Rhode Island.

Alison received her MFA from Washington University in St. Louis. She has been a writer-in-residence at the Ucross Foundation for the Arts, Millay Arts, The Wassaic Project, the Cuttyhunk Writers Residency and the San Miguel Literary Sala.

Alison Espach is the bestselling author of The Wedding People, a New York Times Editor’s Choice, a Today Show Read With Jenna Book Club Pick, a Barnes and Noble Book Club Pick, and a #1 Indie Next Pick. The Wedding People spent several dozen weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list and will b...

Rate this ebook

Tell us what you think.

Reading information

Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.