Christine is the lucky recipient of the plum assignment from Bespoke, the top bridal magazine and her present employer. But luck actually has nothing to do with it. She earned that opportunity by buttering up the head honcho of the Ripton clan, and to the victor go the spoils. So here she is, in a converted old castle in Ireland, for the wedding weekend of the century, and all she has to do is report it out.
The first item on the gala destination wedding agenda is the Friday night welcome dinner where she is placed at the head table alongside Gloria Beaufort, the founder of the Glo Cosmetics corporation. Before Gloria joins the dinner, Christine is introduced to the family dynasty-Gloria's son and his wife, their two sons, their daughter-in-law, and the bride-to-be, Jane, and her mother. With the exception of Jane and her mom, the rest of the bridal party is as entitled and snotty as one might expect. Christine sympathizes greatly with the wedding planner whose task it is to produce the most lavish and over-the-top wedding production that money can buy. As the hors d'oeuvres are cleared and dinner is served, Gloria makes her entrance and waves away the food in favor of glass after glass of French champagne. She is thrilled at the raging storm outside the castle and guarantees a wedding spectacle-right before a flaming brick bursts through a window and sets fire to the tablecloth, signaling the end of dinner.
The next morning Christine wakes early and makes herself a coffee at her room's coffee machine. As she brings the cup into bed, she hears a blood-curdling scream coming from down the hall. She runs in the direction of the sound as the other wedding party guests run with her-right to Gloria's suite where Jane has discovered Gloria lying in a pool of her own blood. The family consensus is to not report this to the police, and carry on with the wedding festivities as they try to solve the crime themselves and tamp down any bad publicity. The family brand is a little tarnished now and even the wedding planner and the family priest concur that an expensive wedding could solve a lot of problems. After hiding the body in a basement freezer, the Riptons are prepared to greet and entertain their rich and influential guests as if nothing out of the ordinary ever happened. What could possibly go wrong?
This was an amazing read. What started out as a Kevin Kwan-like portrait of the rich and beastly quickly morphed into an atmospheric who-dunnit, complete with shady characters, hidden staircases, and wedding mayhem. Everyone was a suspect and Christine could only put her trust in the cute bartender, who also was not what he seemed. Will she be able to tell the true story of the wedding of the century without being fired? Will Gloria's death be solved (or at least revealed)? This is a novel you have to read to believe!
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