How to Ruin a Wedding

by Elba Luz, Mindy Kaling (Introduction)

When a professional wedding crasher storms the wrong party, an irresistibly charming man enlists her services for a job that’s about to give her outlook on love a run for its money.

Lucy Delgado knows all about things that don’t work out. Between two failed marriages and losing her job, “meant to be” doesn’t seem to mean much anymore. And watching her sister’s marriage deteriorate isn’t convincing Lucy otherwise.

Desperate for money and disillusioned by love, she turns her nothing-left-to-lose attitude into action as a professional wedding saboteur. Lucy knows how to play any part—old lover, nosy relative, wise stranger—to save brides and grooms from making the same mistakes she did.

Until she crashes the wrong ceremony.

For Anders Kennedy, Lucy’s timing couldn’t be better. She’s exactly what he needs to derail his own sister’s upcoming nuptials by posing as Anders’s new girlfriend so she can slip into the family circle and sabotage from within. And Anders has the kind of money Lucy can’t afford to turn down.

As they fake-date their way through family celebrations, high jinks, and secrets, Lucy and Anders are forced to confront their cynicism about marriage. Their schemes were meant for the greater good, but what if love really does conquer all?

Genres: Romance, Fiction, Contemporary, Audiobook, Humor, Chick Lit, Rom Com

303 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2026

About the author

Elba Luz is a lover of stories, whether in the form of anime, manga, video games, or, of course, books. A failed astrophysicist turned publishing professional in New York City, she can be found annoying people with facts about space or lounging about with her adorable pit bull Stormy. She writes romance for adults and teens.

Reviews

[Denise Plank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wasn't what I thought

This came up as a Read for Free Prime book and based on the description blurb, I thought it would be a lot more funny than it is. It's really pretty angsty, and a bit tedious. There are some good, quotable lines, and the writing was good enough for me to want to finish it, sans the bedroom scene, but really not the type of book I enjoy reading.

Would I read it again? No. Would I recommend it? No. For those who ask: skip it. The sex is throughout the book and the bedroom scene is very graphic. I skipped the majority of a whole chapter.

[Tara Bohner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Downhill fast

What started out as a clever, interesting concept quickly descends into an overly smutty will they or won’t they trope, where everyone really needs therapy and communication skills. But don’t worry, all the pieces will suddenly come together as if the author got halfway through writing it, got bored, and decided to finish it off quickly. Once the fun sexy tension is over it’s like “okay, everyone, time to wrap this up”. The sex scenes are more than a little weird and almost feel as if they’ve been written by a man, a male fantasy come to life not a woman’s. Seriously, how wet does this chick get? Does she have some sort of medical condition? She should probably get that looked at. This was recommended to me by Amazon and I’m wondering how much the publisher paid them.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quirky, funny, and romantic. I loved this story. Not much makes me laugh but certain parts did. Not my usually genre but I like something light occasionally. I recommend this book highly.
Thank you first reads!

[Kim Coughlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so glad that I came across this book on First Reads! From the second I read that first sentence, I knew this was going to be good….and I was soooo right! I loved it from start to finish-it was a combination of comedy, romance, sisterly love, self love anddddd a little spice. It was such an amazing & FUN read!

[Anvita (anvitascorner)]

i wish i could erase this book from my mind so i could binge read it all over again

[vlm · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this story! The concept of Lucy being a professional wedding saboteur was refreshing, and I had a great time seeing how the plot unfolded after she accidentally crashed the wrong wedding.

The fake dating aspect with Anders was probably my favorite part. They had amazing chemistry, and I loved watching their relationship evolve while they attempted to sabotage a wedding. There was plenty of family drama, humorous moments, and wedding chaos to keep the story engaging. Overall, this was an entertaining romance that I thoroughly enjoyed.

[Lindsay · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am way too type A for this book to work for me. The author apparently has no clue that a non-profit is a thing, let alone different from a small business, that owning a share of a company is not the same thing as owning a stock, and that while eviction can absolutely be an unfair process it is not a surprise in NYC (which is one of the most tenant-friendly cities in the country). The FMC Lucy is a walking red flag - alcoholic, obnoxiously rude, and abysmal communication and introspection skills, even by romance book standards. This reads like it was written by a 13 year old who has yet to take a financial literacy course but has spent a bunch of time watching/reading smut with the tag "feisty latina."

It's romance, and I enjoy a good spicy read but the FMC came across as a caricature and an asshole. Valerie, the character whose wedding Lucy is trying to ruin, is so obnoxious and makes decisions so terrible that Lucy almost looks reasonable by comparison. Olive, the MMC'S cousin is a complete brat that we're meant to find sassy (it doesn't work). The only decent character is the MMC Anders and Lucy treats him like trash.

Finally, the idea this book presents that if you love someone you shouldn't care whether they are emotionally, mentally, or financially stable is the WORST take. Do people suffer from money and life problems that weren't their fault or within their control? Of course, and I'm absolutely not saying that someone isn't worthy of love because they have money problems/have a mental illness/are unhoused/etc. But saying love is all that is needed for a relationship to be healthy and successful is absolute BS. Chemistry is not the same thing as compatibility, and not a single couple in this book was actually compatible. Lucy is headed for her 3rd divorce and I hope Anders gets a prenup.

[Karly · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Rating 4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I really liked this one even though there were some cringe moments

Everyone is going to have to excuse my less than exciting reviews, I have been unwell and am very far behind so I will do my best.

I really enjoyed this one although it did have a rather open door sex scene I wasn’t expecting. The premise is good, Lucy is a professional wedding crasher and when a crash goes wrong the brother of the would be bride hire Lucy to immerse herself into the wedding and get to the bottom of what is wrong with their upcoming nuptials. As you can imagine lots of crazy stuff carries on, people fall for people who they shouldn’t mix ups happen.

The third act break up/cringe fest was a bit long, but I think it redeemed itself nicely and the ending was happy as it’s supposed to be with these kinds of books. It is why I read them. I do not read a rom com to be disappointed by the ending.

[jordana ᯓ✿ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an Amazon First Reads 📖

I had very high hopes, mostly because I went into this envisioning “Wedding Crashers” but a female lead.

Unfortunately, for me the characters chemistry just wasn’t believable. It felt rather forced, and I think that’s where the book lost me..

I also felt like the MMC and FMC were quite flat. The characters were indeed kind of forgettable 🤦🏽‍♀️

The premise was enticing, but sadly didn’t execute well for me.

It did have some witty moments that would pull me back in, and that’s possibly the reason I ended up finishing.

[Cassie Ellis]

I thought this would be cute and fun. It was just awkward and pathetic and the fmc was a mess. I could not finish it. Unfortunately. Other reviewers seemed to enjoy it though so maybe it was just a timing issue for me.

[Gosia · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5⭐️

Quick and fun listen
I highly recommend the audio format!

Audio duration: 10h
Narrated by: Mandy Figueroa
Listening speed: 2.0x (my usual!)
I liked the narration a lot! Despite just one narrator, I had no problem following the dialogues and I didn’t have to follow the written form much. I grabbed the ebook as “read now” on NetGalley and used it mostly for highlights.

This was not my first wedding crasher romance but it was definitely unique. While I would still consider it a romcom, it had rather sad and deep parts as well, it was not all just funsies and laughs.

We get to know Lucy when her current gig goes wrong. She’s jobless (besides wedding crashing) and gets evicted and is forced to move in with her younger sister and her husband. (The husband - instant red flag 😬)
She has a good reason not to accept help from her sister and when Anders (a man she met when her last job went horribly wrong) wants to hire her to ruin his sisters wedding, she’s fighting it a bit but at the end she doesn’t have much choice and accepts the gig.

I felt like while Anders did not want her sister getting married, he was instantly interested in Lucy and simply wanted to hire her as a ruse to get to know her and for it to lead to something more between them.

There are quite a lot of side plots and little twists (let’s call it that) but it all worked well. The pacing through the whole story was well handled, keeping me interested the whole time. The length of the whole book (and the audio) was just perfect to make it a quick read.

While it was mostly a fun read, the characters have some sadness in their backstory and there were scenes that made me rather sad or simply feeling deeply. There is a HEA and while there were funny moments, it was not a type of LOL romance.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Basic beach read! Quick and uncomplicated.

I enjoyed and empathized with Lucy. Even though she's pretty unrealistic, she's definitely likable. And you'll probably guess the ending :)

[Jennifer McLean · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an absolutely wonderful read! Not only was this a great palette cleanser but the characters had real depth, the story flowed like cool water and it was a HEA too. Thank you so much to First Reads for including this book, I may not have found it on my own. Lucy was so relatable, I've felt so many of her complex feelings lately that this book felt heaven sent.

So well worth the time to read.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

So cute and chaotic! Wedding wrecking, fake dating, real feelings, and a smitten man? Count me in.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was hilarious from start to finish. When your opening sentence starts with “face down ass up,” you just know you’re about to laugh your way through a book and have a banger of a song stuck in your head whilst reading the book. Lucinda “Lucy” Delgado is the definition of “hot mess express” but she is so endearing and relatable that you don’t care. Life has really kicked her in the lady balls and has left her in a position where she is scraping her way through life as a “wedding wrecker” - but only when there’s good cause - she’s not doing it maliciously or just for funsies…she’s poor, not a monster. Lucy meets our mysterious cinnamon roll MMC, Anders as she’s ’face down ass up’ under a bench while gathering proof for one of her jobs…spoiler alert: this job goes massively sideways (understatement) but that’s how the ballad of Lucy and Anders begins…

I’ve already mentioned how funny this book is (because it is), but it’s also very heartfelt, the sexual tension between Lucy and Anders was crazy, the banter was fantastic between Lucy and everyone, the side characters were all super entertaining and actually interesting. You actually get to know them and care about them and their feelings, Lucy is a dog person so that makes me love her even more - especially since my dream is to have my own animal shelter, there are some heavy emotional parts that caused me to tear up too. Lucy is a really relatable character and I think anyone will be able to identify with some part of her. This was a fantastic read and I highly recommend it. Shout out to Amazon for offering it as a July First Read pick!

[Cym & Her Books 🍉 · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

This book was sweet, funny, and heartwarming- all the ingredients of a good rom-com! I can’t ever imagine having the bravado to be a wedding crasher/wedding ruiner, but Lucy does it with style, humility, and a long-term plan that is honestly really respectable. Animal welfare FTW!

She meets her love interest, Anders, in a total meet-cute, and his focus continues to be on her for the rest of the book. His dedication and support of Lucy throughout the story is so refreshing in a male character. I really appreciated how the author portrayed their relationship as it blossomed. Their connection felt genuine, and I loved how supportive Anders was of Lucy and her goals.

Despite the hardships she faces, I really respect how dedicated Lucy is to her long-term goal of owning a dog rescue/shelter. She works incredibly hard to make that dream a reality. From wedding ruining to other small gigs, she puts in the time and effort to make money that she can save toward her future.

I also really admire how good of a sister Lucy is. She is incredibly supportive and caring, even when her brother-in-law is a jealous POS. 😂

Overall, this was such a fun, feel-good rom-com with a lovable heroine, a supportive love interest, and a genuinely heartwarming story. I really enjoyed it!

[Angelica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first book by Elba Luz - the cover of the book really captured the essence of the story. It follows Lucinda (Lucy), a professional wedding ruiner. She is having financial troubles and found this quirky niche to uncover cheating grooms. She meets Anders during one of her jobs and he helps her with her cover. They create a bond in this first meet-cute and he shares that the wedding he's at is his first love ... marrying his best friend. They part ways after their short time together and Anders reaches out to ask Lucy to take a job to suss out his sister's fiance - Lucy, whose dream is to buy into a pet rescue is desperate for money and agrees to take the job.

Anders is absolutely a cinnamon roll - a lovely person who is smitten with Lucy from the start. He is very caring and always puts people he loves first; he is wealthy and almost too good to be true. Lucy, who sees herself as a wreck, feels she's not good enough for Anders, but fake dating him to get to know his sister (and her fiance) makes it hard for Lucy to resist her feelings. She struggles with the fact that her job to try to ruin the wedding makes it hard as she is getting to know Anders' family more intimately than her other jobs. Lucy's attempt to ruin the wedding backfires in a spectacular way and her secret comes out. Ashamed, she leaves Anders and flees.

During the same time, we find that Lucy also has a strained relationship with her sister Taina's husband, who has called Lucy a wreck who relies on Taina to rescue her all the time. He gives her an ultimatum to stop bothering Taina, which causes an additional level of self-loathing for Lucy. Lucy, who had to give up her dreams to raise Taina when she was younger, feels she is never enough. It's an additional dark layer on this rom-com and something Lucy needs to overcome. I loved that Taina, when finding out the machinations of her husband, defends her sister and puts a stop to his aggressive behavior.

Overall, the book is a fun rom-com, but does have some more difficult emotional ups and downs. Lucy doesn't have it all together when we first meet her, but meeting Anders and being more transparent with her sister, Taina, allows her to grow and gives her what she needs to open a new chapter of her life and find her HEA.

Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

[Jade Devorak · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with this arc💗

Respectfully, Anders was the only somewhat-decent & good part of the whole book.

Everything else was a train-wreck, the plot was a mess, the writing was overly ambitious and I felt my brain was being fried while reading it.

I am so sorry, I wanted to like this but this was just plain torture😭😭😭 however, the author can write some damm good chemistry, and those are the only good parts from the whole book.

I felt like I was being trampled in info dumps throughout the book, the ‘funny bits’ were hurried and not even funny, the pacing was weird, like she was trying to stuff everything into a single book while having a page limit.

I wanted to Dnf multiple times so I literally had to skim through the entire book. I wish the author had more guidance coz she does have potential and all she needs is practice🫶🏼

(I hope the author continues to write coz she needs that practice before publishing something- start on wattpad or Ao3 maybe, many amazing authors have gotten their practice from there before becoming bestsellers.)

All in all, the author isn’t completely terrible and can definitely write, she would be great with some practice (write a few books on online forums) but this shouldn’t have been published. I’m sorry.

[Mia Cobell · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25⭐️

Format: Immersive 🎧📖

"How to Ruin a Wedding" had its amusing moments, but overall it didn’t quite work for me. A lot of the characters were pretty unlikable, which made it hard to stay invested. Anders is an absolute dream—minus the whole “trying to ruin his sister’s wedding” thing. His intentions were good, but wow did he need to communicate better. His sister was something (not good) and Lucy… she was a walking red flag with the single redeeming trait of loving dogs and helping shelter pets. And Lucy’s brother‑in‑law? Truly grotesque.

One part I really struggled with was the idea that Lucy was trying to “buy” a shelter. I think the author meant a rescue, but I’m still not sure how you “own” or “sell” something that’s typically a nonprofit organization.

I did an immersive read, and the narration was solid—it definitely helped the experience. But overall not my favorite.

[Ava G-L · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high expectations for this book… But it felt like it lacked a plot 😖

[Bob & Mary Emerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Will the Wedding Wrecker succeed?

I am a 72 year old man and this is not what I normally read but Amazon recommends it and I really enjoyed it. I like about any kind of comedy but the romance was fun also. My wife and I have been married 51 years and we still have that kind of passion. Maybe not as strong due to our age but it is still there. Approved by the cat on my lap.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lucy was a walking red flag and I don’t understand what Anders saw in her. Ruining people’s weddings is ick, making money off of it is ick, and becoming friends with someone while continuing to try to ruin their wedding because you are getting paid is really ick not to mention you are a terrible person.

I just didn’t buy into this story.

[Bree]

This was just bad.

[Becky · Rating 1 out of 5]

Chapter 2 and the main characters, who are complete strangers, are already divulging everything about themselves and getting intimate. No build up, no tension, no romance. Had a suspicion this book would be more smut than romance, and based on the other reviews, I guess I was right. Glad I didn’t pay for this book.

[LunafloritaReads · Rating 5 out of 5]

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This was my first novel by Elba Luz, and I absolutely loved it! The audiobook narration was fantastic, and the story flowed so well from beginning to end. One thing that really stood out to me was how naturally the romance developed. Sometimes when characters fall in love quickly, it can feel forced or unrealistic, but the author did a great job making their connection feel genuine.

Lucy has just lost her job and now works as a professional wedding ruiner. The opening immediately hooked me with Lucy hiding in a bush trying to catch a groom cheating. That's when she meets Anders, who saves her from getting caught. After an already chaotic day, Lucy gets evicted, decides to drown her sorrows, and ends up spending time with Anders. They quickly bond, and Anders shares that he's attending the wedding of his first love...who just happens to be marrying his best friend. Talk about awkward!

Not long after, Anders asks Lucy to be his fake girlfriend for his sister's wedding. His goal? Stop the wedding before it happens. As they spend more time together—and even end up living together—they slowly get to know each other beyond the fake relationship. Anders is incredibly caring and always puts the people he loves first. Lucy is passionate about helping dogs and dreams of buying an animal shelter so she can continue rescuing and caring for them. Anders offers Lucy a job and promises to give her the rest of the money she needs to make that dream a reality.

Lucy struggles with feeling like she's not good enough for Anders, so there's plenty of emotional push and pull as she fights her growing feelings for him. When Anders finally confesses how he feels, she can't deny her own feelings any longer. One of my favorite moments was when Lucy discovers that Anders adopted Sora—it was such a sweet surprise! Of course, things don't go according to plan. Lucy's attempt to ruin the wedding backfires, her secret comes out, and she leaves Anders. Even after everything, Anders proves what a wonderful person he is by still giving Lucy the money she needs to buy the animal shelter, which made me love him even more.

Overall, this was such a fun, quirky rom-com with lovable characters, great chemistry, and plenty of heartfelt moments. I really enjoyed both the story and the audiobook, and I'll definitely be reading more from Elba Luz.

[Marilyn Coombs · Rating 5 out of 5]

How to Ruin a Wedding was such a fun, feel-good read! 💒💕 It had the perfect mix of humor, romance, and chaos, with characters that were easy to root for. I found myself smiling through so much of it, and it was exactly the kind of lighthearted palate cleanser I needed.

If you’re looking for a cute romantic comedy with wedding drama, entertaining moments, and plenty of heart, I’d definitely recommend giving this one a try! 🩷✨

[Amber Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have never heard of anyone who has the job to wreck weddings. Lucy's job is crazy. She is such an awesome character. She is funny if not a little broken. Anders and his family are just the people she needs to help put her back together.

[Liz Caz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rounding up to 5 stars. There were some things that were left unanswered and I’m gutted there was no epilogue, BUT everything else was great! Really cared about all these characters, except fuck ass Matthew. Fuck that guy.

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I want to live in Lucy's world and be friends with everyone there--especially with Lucy and her sister. The characters were funny, whipsmart and incredibly likeable. This was the rom com I've been waiting to read. 🌶 5 in one scene only. (Don't let it deter you C) Currently on Kindle Unlimited in both book and audio format.

[Nora · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. However, with a broke as Lucy was, I would have thought she would have pursued a more lucrative career.