Product Description

Despite being cursed with a boy's name, Kevin "Vi" Connelly is seriously female and a committed romantic. The affliction hit at the tender age of six when she was handed a basket of flower petals and ensnared by the "marry-tale." The thrill, the attention, the big white dress -- it's the Best Day of Your Life, and it's seriously addictive. But at twenty-seven, with a closetful of pricey bridesmaid dresses she'll never wear again, a trunkful of embarrassing memories, and an empty bank account from paying for it all, the illusion of matrimony as the Answer to Everything begins to fray. As her friends' choices don't provide answers, and her family confuses her more, Vi faces off against her eminently untrustworthy boyfriend and the veracity of the BDOYL.

Eleven weddings in eighteen months would send any sane woman either over the edge or scurrying for the altar. But as reality separates from illusion, Vi learns that letting go of someone else's story to write your own may be harder than buying the myth, but just might help her make the right choices for herself.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #78104 in eBooks
• Published on: 2008-05-06
• Released on: 2008-05-06
• Format: Kindle Book
• Number of items: 1

From Publishers Weekly
Reichs is the daughter of bestselling thriller writer Kathy Reichs, and her cute romantic comedy debut makes BDOYL syndrome—imagining your wedding day as the Best Day of Your Life—scarily palpable. A 20-something Washington, D.C., wine buyer, Vi Connelly (née Kevin—her parents expected a boy) embarks on an excruciating, crushingly expensive odyssey: she attends more weddings than you can count on two hands in less than two years, all the while searching for the love of her life, and mooning over her lost first love Caleb Carter. Fans of Meg Cabot's 27 Dresses will find that Reichs rewards those patient enough to sit through all the toasts, and Vi's Web store purchases allow for some comic e-mail–based retail moments. (May)
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Customer Reviews

Great book
This book works on two levels: First, it's very funny. For example, I almost fell off my couch laughing during the scene when our heroine -- who's resorted to becoming a guinea pig at NIH in order to stay financially afloat as her frequent wedding attendance drains her bank account -- attempts to conceal that fact from the man of her dreams in a hospital lobby. Not aiding her effort is her battle against an itch caused by a recently applied experimental ointment. And the wedding-brawl scene (think Jets versus the Sharks in wedding gear) near the end successfully blends comedy with dramatic resolution.

Second, the book succeeds in carrying us through the heroine's emotional journey (which coincides with her physical travel from wedding to wedding to wedding). The book's comedy doesn't make that journey feel less real. Indeed, at its core, the book is a thoughtful examination of love, commitment, and marriage -- and how hard it can be to combine all three in one relationship.

In short, this a great debut for the author, and I highly recommend it.

A must-read for summer
Order this well-priced paperback and throw it in your beach bag for summer! The main character, Vi, has many friends and excels at relationships of all kinds except the romantic kind. She hasn't yet found her "perfect someone" - perhaps partly due to her idealized views of love and marriage. The story from that point forward is not the formulaic one you might expect. Reichs keeps you engrossed and wanting more.

Those familiar with Washington, DC, will recognize the city Reichs portrays so well - everything from the abundance of lawyers and overeducated single people to the city's inability to deal with snow. She names real places, such as the main characters' favorite Sunday night gathering spot. Other places are thinly veiled and given similar names (Dean & DeLuca = Darien & Dodd.) Anyone who has tried to order breakfast at Kramerbooks & Afterwords will laugh out loud at her description of that experience. Reichs gets the details right, and this sets the scene for a story that keeps your interest, with many laugh-out-loud funny passages. At the same time it addresses some serious questions about love, and views marriage through a thought-provoking lens. A truly impressive first novel.

fun chick lit tale
Kevin "Vi" Connolly may be the gender bedding equivalent to A Boy Named Sue, but she is a die hard romantic who expects one day her Prince Charming will sweep her off her feet. She has felt that way since she was six years old and carried a basket of flower petals at a wedding. However two decades plus later she remains single and a bit wary of being a bridesmaid instead of the star attraction.

She knows part of her problem is not settling like some of her friends have. Vi insists on finding her soul mate. As she closets one dress after another, not to be used again, she begins to wonder if she will ever find her beloved.

Although THE BEST DAY OF SOMEONE ELSE'S LIFE is thin on sustenance, readers will commiserate with the beleaguered heroine who has gone down the aisle eleven times to hear someone else say "I do". Vi laments about the materialism waste of buying expensive dresses for one time use as symbols of failure. Although the story line lacks substance, chick lit fans will appreciate Vi's on target analysis of the honor of being in the wedding party, but the defeat of not being the star attraction.

Harriet Klausner