Now thirty-six and single, Natalie expects endless comments about her love life when she attends her baby sister's wedding. Worse, weddings are always drama-filled disasters in her family. She needs emotional support to get through the weekend, so she enlists the help of her friend Connor Douglas, the dependable family doctor.
The wedding reception goes south when a drunk aunt announces a family secret that sends Natalie reeling and shakes her faith in love. Luckily, she has her long-time friend to lean on—a man she somehow ends up kissing. But there’s no way this could turn into anything lasting, is there? That’s impossible for her, especially now…
There hasn't been a book by Jackie Lau that I haven't loved. She's one of my favourite authors at writing comedic situations that are also romantic and emotional. In this book, we have a main character that truly might be one of the characters that's closest to my heart now. She's in her 30s and doesn't want children. She lives within a family that's constantly asking her questions about when she's going to have them and that really affects her. I related a lot to her since I'm sure I don't want children and I've had a very similar journey with a lot of my relatives. She has to accept throughout the book that there are some members of her family that are trying to accept her and love her and who are fighting for her and some members that aren't worth caring for. Also, even though there were some tense moments and some sad moments, everything was so funny surrounding the problems with the weddings and I appreciated the sister relationship and that was also very relatable since I also have a younger sister who's my best friend and who's going to get married before me.
I absolutely adored that Jackie Lau doesn't shy away from talking about important issues that affect the everyday life of her characters. In this book, there was a lot of talk about racism and especially internalised racism because Natalie is biracial with an Asian dad and a white mother. Additionally, it discussed problems and decisions surrounding pregnancies, abortion and postpartum depression. It was talked about in such a caring and tender way. It described how it also affects the people who surrounds the person who's suffering especially the children of the mother who's suffering of the postpartum depression and how they understood her as they got older. I'm so happy it discussed Natalie's abortion in a way that didn't diminished the way she felt but it wasn't this traumatic event that she was going to regret. I appreciated all those talks so so much.
Connor was a fantastic hero. We didn't know everything about him since the beginning but I rooted for his happiness because he was obviously a good person who cared a lot about Natalie even if he wouldn't admit it. As we knew more about him, I began to love him and ship them as a couple and not only caring for Natalie and her happiness. What I adored the most about them is how different they were and how much they understood each other as well. Especially since she was such a pessimist about the world and he was a ray of sunshine. The gradual realisation that they cared for each other as more than friends was the best thing to read about. What I have to say is I'm aromantic and there were a lot of arophobic things as the phrase "just friends" was constantly used and it was implied that even though she didn't want kids she had to want romance otherwise she would be REALLY weird. I know those things weren't on purpose because there were a lot of discussions on prejudice and what other people think about your life and I know the author wouldn't do that to other people but it would be nice not to see those things in romance anymore. Other than that I have nothing bad to say, I loved every minute!
