The Bridal Party – Maria Frankland

Have you ever been to a party…and deeply regretted it?

Caitlyn and her nine hens arrive in Dublin for a never-to-be-forgotten weekend.

As the drink flows and the laughter echoes, her attendees put aside their buried resentments and secret dark agendas.

But one of these disturbing agendas will be executed—no matter what.

Ten is about to become nine. Who will be the one?

Review

I really liked the redesign of the cover; it’s much more eye-catching, but it is also a bit misleading because it makes you think that the main death will be bloody. Perhaps very nitpicky, but I wanted to point that out to start.

A soon-to-be bride’s life is cut short unexpectedly when she and her bridal party, including friends, future family in-law, and some questionable choices, travel to Dublin for her bachelorette (or hen party) celebration. We get introduced to the nine women travelling with Caitlyn, the bride, and even though most of the book is seen through Jen, the best friend’s lenses, once the death kickstarts the book, we read from the point of view of everyone, even from the detectives’s and the groom’s, Ben.

There were A LOT of characters; there are a lot of books that have wide casts of characters; however, in The Bridal Party, it gets very info-dumpy at times, especially when the party arrives in Dublin, where the author introduces everyone to the reader and their link to Caitlyn. It wasn’t till everyone was being questioned that my mind was able to identify who was who. I must say, though, some bridesmaids had identifiable voices, so that helped.

It took me around a week to finish this, even though it was about 230 pages, but it got very boring when the book stalled after Caitlyn’s death because we spent all the time in one single setting, the police department, everyone being questioned, and every time a chapter finished, the other was the same, just from a different point of view. This, paired with the fact that I saw from a mile away how everything was going to pan out, made for a bit of a slog of a read. Still, I think Frankland’s writing is fine, and perhaps I will check out more of her books, depending on their synopsis more than anything else.