Dial A For Aunties by Jesse Q Sutanto – a Review

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Description:
1 (accidental) murder
2 thousand wedding guests
3 (maybe) cursed generations
4 meddling Asian aunties to the rescue!

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 accidentally 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 their 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 cake 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?

Review:

Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto is humorous standalone novel.  We meet our heroine, Meddelyn (Meddy) Chan, who is a wedding photographer for her family’s wedding business.  Meddy lives with her mother, and is also constantly surrounded by her three aunts, none having husbands.  Meddy does get frustrated when they are always trying to fix her up with a potential husband, and is shocked to learn her mother set her up for a date, using an online site, pretending to be her.   Of course, the ladies all have a number of language barriers (Chinese, Mandarian, Taiwanese, etc), which does cause confusion at times, especially for Meddy, who knows some but is more Americanized.

When Meddy agrees to go on the date, she meets Jake, who was nice at first, but when he started making advance suggestions, she tries to leave, and he insists to take her home.  While in the car, he starts getting very hands on and forcing himself on her, and to her defense, Meddy uses a taser that she always carries with her on Jake; the car crashes, and Jake ends up dead. Meddy runs home and tells her mother, who in turn calls the aunts to come and help them hide the body.

What follows is a wild insane and crazy adventure with the ladies trying to move the body, and at the same time make sure the big expensive wedding they are planning for the next day goes as planned. Unfortunately, every step along the way to hide the body, is a disaster (trunk, cooler, frozen body, etc.).  At this point, the story gets even weirder, absurd, and humorous, though I did find it a bit over the top, as well as a little repetitive.  While this is going on, Meddy meets her old college flame, who she stills loves, but she left to help her family with their business; now he is a part owner of the hotel where the wedding is.  This is a difficult review to write, as everything was constantly going back and forth.

Dial A for Aunties was a wild and funny story, with the aunts and Meddy’s mother playing a major part in their humor.  Meddy also a very good character, as she was in the middle of this all.  Jesse Q. Sutanto did write a hysterical story, even if I thought it was a bit much.  If you enjoy wild antics, crazy aunts & mother, hiding bodies, and an overall wedding romp, you need to read this book. 

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher