Four Aunties and a Wedding by Jesse Q. Sutanto – a Review

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Description:
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.

Review:

Four Aunties and a Wedding by Jesse Q Sutanto is the sequel to her previous book, Dial A for Aunties.  Meddy Chan is set to marry her sweetheart, Nathan, and she wants her family (her crazy aunts) to all relax and enjoy the upcoming wedding.  They decide to hire a Chinese-Indonesian company, who are perfect for the job.  Staphanie is the contact and wedding photographer, who Meddy becomes friends with, until she overhears her talking on the phone about plans to take out a target on her wedding day.  Once she tells her aunts and mother, they make plans to make sure the wedding is safe, and now the chaos begins.

What follows is a wild chaotic wedding, which the aunts/mother constantly are over the top with their antics, especially taking one by one the wedding planners’ people, in order to protect Meddy and the wedding itself. Meddy was a very good heroine, though her unconventional crazy family members continued to wreak havoc during the wedding, with Meddy trying to keep things in order, as well as not tell Nathan what was going on.  This is a difficult review, as the story is somewhat humorous, it is weird, insane and way over the top.  It does not help with the aunts/mother/wedding planners all constantly talking in different languages (Chinese, Mandarian, Taiwanese, Indonesian), which did make it somewhat confusing, with Meddy, Nathan the ones who spoke english.

I did enjoy Four Aunties and a Wedding, but not sure why, I found this book not as much fun, or as humorous, especially as it seems to make me more nervous, rather than laughing. Jesse Q. Sutanto did write a fun story, even if I thought it was a bit too much. 

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher