The Wedding Writer: A Novel

by Susan Schneider

Four talented women, one glossy wedding life should be as perfect as a bridal catwalk… right?

Lucky Quinn writes up weddings for one of the hottest bridal magazines. And it wasn't easy to get there. From humble beginnings, she outsmarted her way into the center of New York's glamorous magazine industry – making up for her background with a sharp mind, whip-thin physique, and ceaseless ambition.

Then, in one day, her life is utterly transformed; two of the magazine's major competitors fold, and Lucky is named Editor-in-Chief, replacing the formidable, but aging Grace Ralston, who had been at the magazine's helm from day one. Grace taught Lucky everything she knows, but now it seems that she taught her too well…

As the ripples of Lucky's promotion spread, the intricate lives of four women begin to unfold. Felice, Your Wedding's elegant and unshakeable Art Director is now being shaken for the first time by troubles at home. Sara, the Fashion Director, is famed for her eagle eye for fashion trends and exquisite hair. But, for all her know-how, "the Angel of Bridal" has never come close to starring in a wedding herself – she's picked the dress, but where's the groom? Grace, recovering in the wake of her sudden, humiliating fall from power, must learn to accept herself – and love – after a life dedicated to fulfilling other women's dreams. And, through it all, Lucky begins to discover just how lonely the top really is.

Genres: Chick Lit, Fiction

368 pages, Paperback

First published May 19, 2011

About the author

SUSAN SCHNEIDER is a philosopher and cognitive scientist. She is the Blumberg-NASA chair at the Library of Congress and NASA and the Director of the AI,Mind and Society group at the University of Connecticut. Podcasts, chapters, videos, etc. are available at her website: Schneiderwebsite.com

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too many things kept bothering me while reading this book for me to enjoy it. The dialogue was very choppy and unnatural sounding, and readers never got to stay with each character long enough to actually get anywhere. Just as a character learns something life-changing and potentially devastating, the author switches to someone else (most likely the boring protagonist, Lucky), and we return to the character we're wondering about 30 pages later, and nothing seems to have changed. Anything exciting is brushed over, every female coworker of the seemingly untouchable Lucky is the exact same kind of nasty at one time or another, and there aren't distinct enough voices for each woman. Any love interest for any woman seems tacked on as an afterthought. I didn't identify with any character or sympathize with them because they weren't constructed very well or relateable.

[May Vin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was already bored with the book, and when I read that Lucky was eating dumplings in a bento in a Thai restaurant, I just did not want to read anymore.

You DO NOT eat dumplings in a bento box in a Thai restaurant. Even if its fusion, please, don't.

Ok, maybe I'm just over-sensitive. But man was this book hard to read. I gave up at page 38.

[Marie’s Book Boutique · Rating 3 out of 5]

To read my full review here mariesbookboutique.wordpress.com/2018...


The front cover for this book is perfect of this story. A pile of Your Wedding Magazines are stacked in the centre of the cover; with a pair of wedding shoes with a red soles on the top. Pink and red rose petals float down the page giving it a romantic feel. The title is in a swirly font and coloured in red; which tie's in with the sole's of the shoes and the floating petals. The author's name is coloured in a navy blue and stands out well.
Your Wedding Magazine, provides brides and grooms everywhere ideas for their big day. The Magazine has just seen two of their top rivals in the wedding magazine industry. However the magazine's sales are going down and the bosses are not happy about this.
Grace is in her fifty's and has been working at Your Wedding Magazine since the beginning and is Chef editor. She is good at what she does; managing her co-workers in an industry very fears. Grace takes wedding writer Lucky under her wing; teaching Lucky her wisdom and expertise. Grace is single and has a strained relationship with her daughter.
Lucky is young and eager to learn and flourish in a job she dearly loves and work's hard at. She is single and some might say married to her job! She is approached by the bosses of Your Wedding Magazine and given a promotion to chef editor, in order to shake and freshen the magazine up. But this means Grace is out the door and now finds herself jobless and heart-broken to think Lucky would do this to her without a second glance.
Lucky revels in her new job and is keen to show her bosses just what she can do for the magazine. She not only has a new swanky office but a hefty pay rise also comes her way. But she knows she is going to have to make some hard decisions in order to prove herself. The only problem is she has to work with her colleges who are understandable worried and shocked by their beloved Grace's quick departure. They also have thing's in their private life's going on, but will it affect their work and possible their job? Can Lucky manage her worried colleges after what she has done to Grace? Does she feel bad at all? Will Lucky's bosses be impressed by her ability to manage her work and fellow colleges? Can she improve the magazine's numbers?
Mean while Grace is struggling with no work, bad heath and has a relationship with her daughter that is rocky. Will Grace's health get sorted? Can she find another job with another magazine perhaps? Will she be able to build bridges with her daughter?
I found The Wedding Magazine by Susan Schneider a fast pacing story and gives the reader an in-depth insight into the world of wedding magazine industry. Gosh it's really is a dog eat dog world industry, with people stepping on others toes just to get to the top. I certainly couldn't do it that's for sure. As in-depth as it was it was maybe a bit much, I sometimes felt overwhelmed with it all and it took a bit of enjoyment out of reading at times. This novel is certainly an eye-opener in to the magazine world and how fears it is. All the characters are all very different, and bring their own lives it to the story. The description was really out of this world and you can certainly tell Susan has worked in the industry for a long time, she knows what she's talking about!
All in all I did enjoy the story line but as I said earlier I felt overwhelmed with the in-depthness of this industry.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book put me off at first. It felt like Devil Wears Prada except that everyone was the devil - ever character equally reprehensible and none of them worthy of sympathy.

Then the characters grew on me and I came to really like the flawed personalities and I looked forward to picking it back up each time.

The intense "insider" view made more sense to me once I realized that the author has been a wedding writer. I can only hope the backstabbing culture has been exaggerated here. Or it may be that she thrives in it as her characters do.

[Shannon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ok, I didn't actually finish this. It was boring. None of the characters were likeable. Usually, when I get a free moment to read, I am excited to get back to my book. But with this book, the feeling was...ugh, I have to read that one. So I stopped reading it.

[Abigail Matheny · Rating 2 out of 5]

A few highlights:

- the plot is... decent (I worked in the wedding industry so the topic piqued my interest mildly) but the characters are awful. The main character, Lucky, is hard to fall in love with and harder to root for. She never grows. The four "main" characters do not get equal time to shine.
- Editing is absolutely non-existent.
- The author switches narration without properly identifying who is speaking and when... It's cluttered and hard to follow. For instance, a chapter will be labeled "Felice" then it will switch into Lucky's train of thought without signaling it switched. So choppy!! Honestly I've never read fiction like this before.


Overall super hard to finish (ps: ending is lack luster for being sooo long).

[Julia Fedorova · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an OK beach read. Some sentences were not written very well, forcing me to reread and try to figure out who was saying what. Also, some jumping forward in time with no idea as to how much time had passed.

[Jill Hardy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wanted to stop reading, but kept going. I was disappointed by the level of interest in the characters.

[Nichole Porter · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little all over the place. I didn't enjoy it and sometimes lost track of which character it was. It also seemed to wrap up too neatly at the end which wasn't very believable

[Christy Everett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book! A bit of romance, independence, family, work, and trying to make it all balance.

[Yin Wah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well. I give it a 2.5 out of 5. (round off to 3 stars).

[Marissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted more wedding, less of sad single workaholics being randomly catty. A lot of random threads that didn’t really come together.

[Stephanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Worst book I ever read.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gave this book a 3.5 Jewels rating on my blog: http://onebookshy.blogspot.com/2011/0...

The publicity blurb for this book grabbed my attention right away as it made me think of "The Devil Wears Prada". I had really liked both the book and the movie so I hoped to be similarly entertained with The Wedding Writer. I am pleased to say that I wasn't disappointed. The author's obvious experience in this field shines through brilliantly in both the plot and the starring players.

The characters appeared to be right on target with some of the bitchy, backstabbing behaviour that you would expect from certain types of women. I must admit to not caring at all for Lucky at various times throughout the story. Though I did like how her tale comes almost full circle and she became a much more sympathetic character for me as the story ends. All of the leading women had interesting storylines with similar, but slightly unique challenges and obstacles. Of the four, I think Grace was easily my favorite. Her issues with sudden unemployment, odd effects of stress on her body, an unexpected love and the strained relationship with her daughter help add a lot of depth to this page-turner. I found myself really rooting for her and the hoped for outcome on all of her trials and tribulations.

Susan Schneider's writing style is very easy to read and flows smoothly from one lady's chapter to the next. She is quite descriptive and draws you right into the story. I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to others who like juicy stories with a bit of grit. ~ I must say that it also made me glad that I'm not employed for this particular publication!

[Kiwiflora · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chick lit? With a cover like that? You bet. Light and fluffy but not necessarily frothy. The dark side behind all those gorgeous and lavish bridal magazines - the ladder climbing, the back stabbing, the pressure for perfection - no magazine subject matter would appear to be immune.

The bridal magazine is 'Your Wedding'. Grace is the editor, probably modeled on Anna Wintour or Amanda Priestly, has been at the helm of the magazine for many years. Not old - 56, but perceived as being past it by the men who run the show, she is brutally replaced by Lucky (annoying name), who is young, ambitious, talented and far too skinny. From the start she charges through with the changes she wants to make, in the process alienating the other staff. There are two other women who have been on the magazine for a long time - Sara, early 40s, looking for love, and Felice, similar age, married with a teenage son going through his own teenage dramas. The magazine, the changes taking place and the impact these have on the lives of these four women are the core of the book. But we also learn quite a lot about the back stories of each of these women. As well as a fair bit about the nasty world of magazine publishing.


It's hardly literary fiction, but it is not so bad as to not be an enjoyable read. There is quite good commentary on the ageing process while working in the beauty industry which is essentially what bridal magazines are, being single/married/a mother/ working in such a ruthless industry. And how we define our own personal image when we are surrounded by fantasy images which of course is what us average mortals face every day, but much more so in a bridal magazine where everything is about creating a fantasy. And finally, is it all worth it really?

[Kristin (Kritters Ramblings) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great girlie chick lit to get an insider's look into the magazine world and more specifically the bridal magazine world. I absolutely adored that at the center of this book were women who held powerful positions and took the reigns on the professional lives. Ironic, that only one of the main characters was in a successful marriage with child.

Being a woman who always wanted to be in the working world and never seeing myself as the stay at home mom - nothing wrong with that role, my mom was an excellent CEO of the household - I just don't see myself as handling that kind of a job! I loved reading a book where women are in a professional situation and are succeeding. The interactions between women in the workforce is unique, as we are a more feeling gender, in the most part, I think it is extra hard for us to check our feelings at the door of our offices. I am guilty, but I think with each year I am in the workforce I realize that a job is a job and friends are friends.

Spoken from different perspectives, it was easy to realize which character was speaking. I think they each had a unique voice that made for a full story to be told. From beginning to end, I was rooting for each woman to find success in her own way - may it be out of the office, in a relationship or on the homefront. I honestly would love to see a sequel and see where the women end up and how through their relationships they affect one another beyond the workplace.

A great piece of women's fiction that is perfect for a weekend read. Light, but full of heart I would recommend it to any age group.

[Pauline · Rating 2 out of 5]

Young, promising Lucky succeeds her mentor Grace as the editor-in-chief of a classic ‘Your Wedding’ magazine. Will she be able to convince staff members that she is capable of steering the magazine in the right direction? Can she keep the magazine on the right track in a recession? This sounds promising, but Schneider does not live up to my expectations.
Grace is created after Anna Wintour of Vogue, she is Miranda Priestly in the Devil Wears Prada, but the book is not only about her, but more about her insecure protégé Lucky. The other staff members are characters without depth. Just when you are starting to relate to them, Schneider cuts it off and switches viewpoint again.
Maybe this is just not my genre. The only thing I like about this book is the description of the interiors of houses and apartments in Manhattan, where taxis are being hailed and beautiful dresses are designed for fairly tale weddings. But that is not enough.

[Diana Townsend · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! It is really catty and silly, but there is some depth to it that surprised me. These women are so sad and pitiful in their lives, but all that matters is deadlines and business. I love the magazine part because I have always wanted to write for a Bridal Magazine... in my past like I believe I was an editor or something because I love to read stories about editing and things like that. Anyway, this was a fun read, longer than I thought it would be but it needed the length to resolve all the characters at the end.

[Kelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I could give this a rating of 1.5 I would. I didn't dislike it to the point that I didn't finish it, but it was boring. Some of the characters had personalities so similar to one another that they all just blended together. I don't really know what the main plot was "New editor takes over magazine and it's hard"? I guess that's how you would sum it up, but it wasn't very compelling. The side plots weren't well developed or thought out. I will not be reading this one again and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone either.

[Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I started reading this book I had high hopes because I'm a sucker for chick lit but as the story progressed I realized that it wasn't really going anywhere. I was waiting for the main character (lucky) to grow into something great but it never happened, in fact I think she moved backwards which was very disappointing. I felt like this book left a lot of lose ends which could have easily been snipped.

[Ginny · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great feel-good read if you're just looking for something to relax with this summer. It's also great for people who love magazines, because it's about a magazine journalist. Some of it is extremely unrealistic, though - the main character never finished college, yet she goes on to become EIC of a major magazine? Highly unlikely. But, it's all in the nature of poetic license and the book is a decent read.

[Tiina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Perhaps the world of publishing seriously lacks teamwork and is based on everyone competing with everyone else. It's tiring to read about, though. One would think that a magazine would do better if everyone was helping each other and working together towards a common goal.

A lot was going on, and on, and on, and then all of a sudden, the book very quickly came to an end. It could have been more evenly paced I thought.

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel follows an assistant editor of a wedding magazine who gets promoted along with the woman she ousted and several other assistant editors over about a one year period. Some of the stories were deeper than others, but overall, this book moved quickly and had the added hook of being about the wedding industry.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book because it sounded like Devil Wears Prada. I appreciated that the author wrote it from four different character's point of views. I felt like I had a complete picture of what the bridal magazine industry is like. However, I didn't really like Lucky-at all. I did like Sara and Grace. It was hard for me to keep reading and I felt like the end was anti-climactic.

[Bec · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't have high expectations for this book but have got weddings on the brain at the moment which made me pick it up. Nothing much seemed to happen in the first few chapters and once it got going I really wasn't sure which, if any, of the characters I was meant to like.

[Ann Warner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't usually enjoy books that involve shoes and clothes, however, on a whim I picked this one up and started reading and found it to be a literate, intelligent, enjoyable book. It follows the lives of four women caught up by the career choices they've made. Highly recommended.

[Judith · Rating 1 out of 5]

Why is it some writers want to write every little detail about something - like the awful lamb roast dinner she had to have with her mother? This was not great! In fact I skim read the last half (as it was due back) and could not be bothered extending it! Does that count as read!?

[Molly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my favorite. Maybe I'm just not girly enough to get overly Involved in all the wedding industry drama. The characters were interesting and unique and there were traits I could appreciate about them, but they seemed to be caricatures in some ways. Probably just not quite my kind of book.

[Anita · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. Susan Schneider is a wonderful writer with a fast, fun style and Lucky is a heroine that one falls immediately in love with. It's a wonderful peek into an unfamiliar world.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Captures what it's like to work closely with a group of women -- all that competition and jealousy along with true affection.