As I picked up Allison Rose Greenberg’s Bad Luck Bridesmaid, I was expecting to be floored. While it would be a stretch to say I thought this book would become an all time favorite, I definitely had high expectations. After all, the story’s about a woman who believes marriage just isn’t for her. Marriage isn't her thing; even when her “perfect” boyfriend proposes, she can’t say yes. The whole premise is a pretty big shift from the typical romance novel formula, as most of the novel focuses on the aftermath of the breakup. However, Greenberg’s execution of Bad Luck Bridesmaid isn’t nearly as enticing as the premise, falling flat. Part of it is that Greenberg attempts to juggle multiple storylines at once and ultimately fails to deliver a very satisfying ending to any of them. In all, I didn’t love it; I didn’t hate it.
The book is unofficially split into two parts: background and the wedding. This structure would actually work quite well except that these two sections are more or less the same length, meaning that the first half feels extremely slow, while the second one feels like a sprint. The first half relies heavily on character exposition to the point that there’s very little dialogue, especially at the very beginning. In this way, much of the first half feels like you are slogging through a stack of files at work. In this first part, we learn about Zoey Marks; her curse; her new perfect boyfriend, Rylan; and how her curse ultimately leads to their relationship’s demise.
Too much of the book is spent detailing Zoey, a character I just could not get on board with. And for me at least, the main character is the make or break factor. After all, if I am going to be stuck with someone for a few hundred pages or so, I want to like them. Even if I don’t like them, I want them to be complex and interesting with each page offering a new look at who they are, peeling back the layers. Instead, I was stuck with Zoey. The novel uses a first person narrative, and yet, Zoey continuously refers to herself as Zoey Marks? For me, Zoey was just a little too quirky, and yet completely plain, to the point where her need for individuality made her slightly unbearable. She’s not particularly groundbreaking as a character—which is fine, because who doesn’t love a regular, relatable plain Jane character?—but the issue is that Greenberg continuously begs us to believe Zoey is different. From her arm tattoo to her disinterest in marriage and love for independence, Zoey is different from every other woman in the story. If the whole “not like other girls'' trope is a dealbreaker for you, maybe it’s time to break up with this book.
In the beginning half we also learn why exactly the book is called Bad Luck Bridesmaid as it comes from Zoey’s fear that she’s ruined several weddings because her disdain for marriage poisons her friend’s weddings, causing the marriages to erupt into flames before the “I dos” even transpire. From one of her friends realizing she’s too indecisive to get married to another coming to terms with her sexuality, Zoey is convinced they are not making it down the aisle because of her. Of course it’s clear that the whole curse and Zoey’s fixation on it is something much deeper,
Greenberg never gets to what that might be. Rather, despite Zoey’s negative feelings toward marriage, this is all attributed to her curse. The whole cursed bridesmaid storyline feels extremely overindulged and taken way too seriously. In particular, Zoey feels betrayed when she learns Rylan has told someone about the curse. I found it to be somewhat weakening to the entirety of the book as Greenberg relies on it so heavily. While it makes for a fun and interesting title, it acts as a bandaid and an easy way out of actually considering why some people just know marriage is not for them. Rather than examining Zoey’s feelings towards marriage and how those around her react to her disdain and disinterest, we just keep coming back to the curse.
And just as Zoey’s decided marriage is not for her, her best friend Hannah sets Zoey up with her cousin, Rylan Adams the Third. Just like Zoey, there’s nothing interesting about Rylan. He’s just a mid-thirties finance guy with blonde hair and a title. Despite how bland and uninteresting Rylan is, Greenberg crafts a beautiful romance between the two. It’s as if she turned on Taylor Swift’s Lover and just began furiously writing. And to be honest, I would bet money she did or did something along the lines of this, as the whole book is riddled with Taylor Swift references. The whole all-consuming, still delicate real love that Lover touches on is mirrored in Rylan and Zoey. Somehow, Greenberg manages to turn words into math and have two negatives actually create something positive because, for how unbearable these two are alone, they are extremely cute together. Cute really does not even scratch the surface of their relationship, as I found myself pausing periodically just to marvel at the level of realness Greenberg infuses into their relationship. If I had to boil this entire first part of their love down to a single Taylor Swift song, it would be “You Are In Love” because what Greenberg’s essentially done is capture what falling in love looks like. This whole portion of the book is arguably the best as we are less focused on Zoey’s exposition and are just happily swimming in the feeling of new love. Of course, the only issue with Zoey and Rylan is marriage. He craves it; she runs from it. So when he gets on one knee, she cannot accept his proposal because, after all, she is cursed.
In the book’s second part, Greenberg flashes forward a few months, and, a few hundred streams of Red later, Zoey is still reeling. After they break up, Hannah gets engaged to some Irish man she’s only just recently met. Now, Greenberg’s added a whole new cast of characters about halfway through the novel, and, oh, they’re in Ireland, because it’s a destination wedding though you’d barely know the book was set there other than a few references to the buildings being castles. So if you’re looking for a book that’ll take you on a trip, this isn’t really the one.
In Ireland though, the flaws in Hannah and her fiancé’s relationship become more and more apparent as they hardly know each other. As the total opposite of Zoey, you would think Zoey would be totally against this. However, Zoey is convinced that if she can get Hannah married, she can finally commit to Rylan. The only issue is that now, Rylan has a new girlfriend, Mara. With a cheating storyline not for everyone (and not really ever addressed), Rylan becomes sort of a villain? Suddenly, Zoey, who thinks she wants him back at any cost, begins to see him as cold and calculating (though this isn’t really ever addressed either). I will say that for all her mean comments about Mara and jabs at her, Zoey comes to her senses. She realizes that she’s the only one of them making comparisons, and she’s the one treating this man like he’s the last seat open in musical chairs. While I commend Greenberg for not really glorifying the cheating, nothing really comes from it. Other than a brief moment of realization that she has become the other woman, Zoey never faces the magnitude of her actions, and it feels like another lost storyline in the mountain of plots thrown in.
Adding to this pile, is Hannah’s fiancé’s brother, Graham. He’s essentially female Zoey Marks but even more grating as brooding is his main, and pretty much only, characteristic. This whole component could’ve been cut. While Greenberg manages to challenge and mold the common romance tropes, Graham felt like a checkbox on a to-do list. Have a brooding, dark-haired, flirtatious enemies to lovers character? Check. At the end of the day, the book could have had the same effect without him and would have been even better.
The ending sort of comes back to this whole cursed storyline where Zoey proclaims that she was in fact the good luck charm at all these weddings not the bad luck bridesmaid, it feels a little contrived and formulaic. Still, If you can overlook some of the issues I had with the book or they aren’t even issues for you, definitely give this book a chance. For all its cringe-inducing moments, it has some deeply relevant and real notes on womanhood, marriage, and friendship. Just as I was rolling my eyes and snickering at the predictable moments, Greenberg would slip in some serious commentary on female friendships and relationships—motherhood in particular. Again, while Greenberg doesn’t do a stellar job in delivering these pearls of wisdom, it must be said that they are there nonetheless. After all, I keep going back to the premise of this book. While one could argue that it’s less of a romance novel because it lacks a happy ending, I’d say, Bad Luck Bridesmaid, premise alone, extends the idea of what the romance genre is. After all, regardless of whether Zoey ends up with anyone, the relationships and love that she experiences are just as real.
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