Here’s a premise for a novel that I think is irresistible.

A woman checks into a beautiful, luxurious hotel in Newport, Rhode Island. She’s wearing a lovely green dress and gold heels. She’s alone. She has no luggage.

And everybody assumes she’s there for the wedding.

Because the hotel has been taken over by an enormous, extravagant wedding celebration.

There’s just one problem.

Phoebe Stone isn’t a wedding guest.

In fact, Phoebe has come to this hotel because her life has fallen apart. Her marriage is over. Her career has stalled. She’s suffered some devastating personal losses.

And she’s planning to end her life.

Now, you might be thinking, Jenny, this doesn’t sound like a particularly funny book.

But trust me. Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is often very funny.

Because Phoebe encounters Lila, the bride, a woman who has spent months planning every detail of her perfect wedding.

Every flower. Every meal. Every guest.

What she has not planned for is a deeply unhappy stranger who has arrived at her hotel.

And somehow, these two women—who seemingly have absolutely nothing in common—begin talking.

Really talking.

And the conversations are funny, awkward, occasionally outrageous, and unexpectedly revealing.

What I loved about this book is the way Espach explores the strange intimacy that can develop between people who don’t know each other.

Sometimes it’s easier to tell a stranger the truth than someone you’ve known for years.

And sometimes the person who changes your life isn’t the person you expected.

It’s somebody you meet by accident, at exactly the wrong—or perhaps exactly the right—moment.

The Wedding People is about grief and disappointment, yes. But it’s also about friendship, second chances, and the extraordinary possibility that life can still surprise us.

Even when we’ve stopped expecting it to.