I really enjoyed Dial A For Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto for its over-the-top zany characters involved in wacky capers. So I was excited for the second book in the series, Four Aunties and A Wedding. Unfortunately, it was all farce and very little heart.
In this installment of the Aunties series, Meddelin is marrying Nathan in an elaborate Chinese-Indonesian family wedding, hosted by his prim-and-proper parents in England. Of course Meddy's mother and her sisters are very involved in the wedding planning, and their taste is over-the-top in every way - gowns, hats, flowers, etc. When crazy things begin happening with the wedding vendors, everything goes off the rails and all kinds of shenanigans occur.
I'm glad I read this to know the next part of Meddy and Nathan's story. However, the craziness with the aunties was so absurd, it was just silly and overshadowed the wedding. I listened to the audiobook with Risa Mei continuing her spot-on narration with Chinese/Indonesian accents and slang; I probably would have DNFd if reading in print. If there's a third book in the series, which seems inevitable, I think I'll pass.
Thanks to Berkley Books and NetGalley for the review copy of this novel and to Omaha Library for having the digital audiobook in its catalog.
In this installment of the Aunties series, Meddelin is marrying Nathan in an elaborate Chinese-Indonesian family wedding, hosted by his prim-and-proper parents in England. Of course Meddy's mother and her sisters are very involved in the wedding planning, and their taste is over-the-top in every way - gowns, hats, flowers, etc. When crazy things begin happening with the wedding vendors, everything goes off the rails and all kinds of shenanigans occur.
I'm glad I read this to know the next part of Meddy and Nathan's story. However, the craziness with the aunties was so absurd, it was just silly and overshadowed the wedding. I listened to the audiobook with Risa Mei continuing her spot-on narration with Chinese/Indonesian accents and slang; I probably would have DNFd if reading in print. If there's a third book in the series, which seems inevitable, I think I'll pass.
Thanks to Berkley Books and NetGalley for the review copy of this novel and to Omaha Library for having the digital audiobook in its catalog.