It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She’s immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years—she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe’s plan—which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.

This book contains scenes that depict miscarriage and attempted suicide and includes mentions of infertility.

Stories that find hope in life’s cracks and imperfect places are some of my favorites, and Alison Espach’s The Wedding People demonstrates every reason why.

After years of wanting to go to the grand Cornwall Inn, Phoebe finally decides to book a stay for herself. She arrives at the expensive seaside hotel on a beautiful day, luggage-less. Divorced, depressed, and grieving her cat’s death, Phoebe has booked the hotel room to end her life, but her plan is derailed by a bubbly (and delusionally out-of-touch) bride-to-be, Lila, who talks her out of suicide and into being her maid of honor.

As Phoebe becomes increasingly involved with Lila’s friends, family, and groom-to-be, she reflects on the trajectory her own life has taken. This unlikely and wonderfully ridiculous weekend might just remind her of all the good, amidst the disappointing and the painful, life has to offer.

Alison Espach has written a deeply relatable, painfully honest, and ultimately hopeful story of self-realization and personhood—and I cannot recommend it enough. The Wedding People and its cast of flawed and lovable characters took me on an emotional journey I did not anticipate, but am happy I experienced. Earnest, moving, and hilarious, this book and its surprising bits of wisdom will stick with me for a long time.