Abbott, Hailey. The Bridesmaid. Paw Print, 2008. ISBN 978-1439519226 266 pp. $

**

Abby’s parents run Dove’s Roost, a wedding planning service. After seeing Bridezilla after Bridezilla, she and her older sister make a pact that they will never get married, which lasts until her sister’s college graduation. Carol, a vegetarian activist Harvard grad, is smitten with a truck driving rancher from Colorado. Mom and Dad have viewed their careers as practice to give their daughters perfect weddings, so in spite of everyone’s belief they won’t be irrational as all the Dove’s Roost’s clients past and present, emotions run high as the family gets caught up in planning the wedding.

Every bad wedding cliche rears its ugly head: ugly bridesmaid dresses, the strange wedding gift that no one can define, and the polar opposite desires of the two families involved (in this instance, played out solely by the bride’s parents). Abby’s crush on Noah (the son of the master baker in town who does a lot of business with Abby’s family) and her preoccupation with applying to go abroad for a soccer program in Italy add even more tension to the plot, which wraps up neatly and predictably. Recommended for larger collections.