Four Aunties and a Wedding
By: Jessie Q Sutanto
Published Year: 2022
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 304
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This in no way shape or form influenced my opinion of this book.
Summary (Provided by StoryGraph): Meddy Chan has been to countless weddings, but she never imagined how her own would turn out. Now the day has arrived, and she can’t wait to marry her college sweetheart, Nathan. Instead of having Ma and the aunts cater to her wedding, Meddy wants them to enjoy the day as guests. As a compromise, they find the perfect wedding vendors: a Chinese-Indonesian family-run company just like theirs. Meddy is hesitant at first, but she hits it off right away with the wedding photographer, Staphanie, who reminds Meddy of herself, down to the unfortunately misspelled name.
Meddy realizes that is where their similarities end, however, when she overhears Staphanie talking about taking out a target. Horrified, Meddy can’t believe Staphanie and her family aren’t just like her own, they are The Family—actual mafia, and they’re using Meddy’s wedding as a chance to conduct shady business. Her aunties and mother won’t let Meddy’s wedding ceremony become a murder scene—over their dead bodies—and will do whatever it takes to save her special day, even if it means taking on the mafia.
First Impressions
I absolutely loved Dial A for Aunties and was super excited when I saw there was going to be a sequel. While I don’t love this cover as much as the original, the fact that it was continuing with the same characters was enough to make me immediately pick up this book. I was beyond excited when I was offered the opportunity to get my hands on it early.
What I thought
For as much as I loved the first book, I disliked this one. Well, I wouldn’t quite say I disliked it, but it was a disappointment.
Meddy is finally getting married to Nathan. Of course, her mother and her 3 aunties have to poke their noses in and they encourage Meddy to hire a family of Indo-Chinese wedding planners that reminds Meddy of her own family. The night before her wedding, Meddy overhears Staphanie, the wedding planner and Meddy’s equal, talk about taking out a target and comes to the conclusion that Staphanie’s family is a part of the mafia.
I think everything that worked in the first book is what didn’t work in the second. The Aunties went from being over the top to unbelievably over the top. I felt like in the first book it was a lot of acting out of love and misunderstanding that made things a bit ridiculous whereas in this book they were making conscious choices to act ridiculous and therefore read as caricatures of themselves. I also felt like Meddy was just dumb in this book. Plus I really disliked the way she spoke about still being embarrassed by her family, especially in front of Nathan’s parents.
I would have hoped that after everything Meddy had been through with her family it would’ve opened up communication and bettered their relationship, but it seem to be just the same, except now Meddy is just as clueless. In the first book, I was on the edge of my seat because I wasn’t sure how it was all going to work out and come together. With this one, I picked up immediately on what the true problem was and while I didn’t know exactly how it was going to get solved, I didn’t feel that same page turning desire.
Unfortunately, there was less Nathan and Meddy in this story and more Big Aunt and Fourth Aunt. Not even too much her of mom, which I would’ve loved reading more of their back and forth.