Book Club August 2021- Dial A for Aunties
By: Jesse Q Sutanto
Published Year: 2021
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 299
Summary (Provided by Goodreads): When Meddelin Chan ends up accidentally killing her blind date, her meddlesome mother calls for her even more meddlesome aunties to help get rid of the body. Unfortunately, a dead body proves to be a lot more challenging to dispose of than one might anticipate, especially when it is inadvertently shipped in a cake cooler to the over-the-top billionaire wedding Meddy, her Ma, and aunties are working at an island resort on the California coastline. It's the biggest job yet for the family wedding business—"Don't leave your big day to chance, leave it to the Chans!"—and nothing, not even an unsavory corpse, will get in the way of her auntie's perfect buttercream flowers.
But things go from inconvenient to downright torturous when Meddy's great college love—and biggest heartbreak—makes a surprise appearance amid the wedding chaos. Is it possible to escape murder charges, charm her ex back into her life, and pull off a stunning wedding all in one weekend?
First Impression
This cover is everything! The bright colors, the art, the title. It immediately caught my eye over and over again. When I finally read the summary I was intrigued. Maybe not completely in love at first but then a few more times and a few reviews I definitely knew I needed to read this book and that it would (hopefully) be a blast).
What I thought
Oh my goodness. This was one of the most fun books I’ve read in a long time. I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump and I flew through this book in a little over a day.
Meddeline (Meddy) works as a photographer for her family’s wedding planning business which is owned by her mother and her 3 aunties. Meddy and her Aunties are Chinese-Indonesian and are of course, overbearing and meddlesome (all with good intentions of course). When Meddy accidentally murders her blind date on the eve of the biggest wedding that the family has, she calls her mom who calls her aunties to help. Things get even more complicated when the body ends up at the resort and things start going wrong with the wedding.
Admittedly, I was a bit tentative when I started this book. How do you accidentally murder someone? How do you cover up something like that realistically and get away with it?? How is this book going to make any sense? But someone, Sutanto doesn’t just pull it off but makes it fun and enjoyable.
Meddy and her aunties are a blast. I’ve read a few books that involve very involved aunties and sometimes they can cross a line from being involved because they love you to being controlling. I never felt that way with Meddy’s aunties. Like yes, obviously they cross some privacy boundaries, but I never once got the feeling that they wanted anything but the best for Meddy and were fully supportive of her and who she was.
I also never was able to figure out where this book was going next. It was one wild ride and I couldn’t put this book down. I had a smile on my face for the majority of this read. Was it a little bit ridiculous at times? I don’t think you could have a book like this without some ridiculousness. But, I absolutely love a good shenanigan and, like I keep saying, it was done so well. The shenanigans made sense to me so it helped a lot.
This was such a fun book and perfect for a summer read. I flew through it. I loved the story, the characters, the writing. Everything about it was a joy. When I got to the end I also discovered that there is going to be a sequel! I can’t wait to be reunited with Meddy and her Aunties.
What Book Club Thought
The funny thing about this book was that I read it, loved it so much, that Denise picked it as her book club choice. I was a bit surprised by how oddly divisive this book was! Three of us loved it and absolutely flew through it, two people had a bit more of a struggle. One gave up on it completely, the other said she may try to push her way through. It shocked me because I loved this book so much!
It was funny because we all had some moral issues with the story so we were able to discuss that. There also is going to be a sequel and the summary finally came out so we read that. The three of us who enjoyed the book all got very excited after reading the sequel for more Auntie shenanigans.
It seems like most of Book Club struggled a little through the first part of the book where Meddy has a lot of flashbacks and it’s not as silly. Once the shenanigans begin and the silliness takes hold, it’s very easy to fly through. I liked discussing the jokes and the things that made me laugh with all of the girls and I think it made a fun and slightly different Book Club choice