Book: Bridezilla by Kathy Bailey and Kurt Pankau
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Sailheart Books
Publication date: 2023

Source: e-book purchased for Kindle

Summary: Claire Mulholland was the first woman in Appleville, but not the last, to turn into a real monster. She continues her day job as a chemist, but her real mission is to stop brides from becoming monsters before they repeat her embarrassing mistake — destroying a florist shop.

In their Bridezilla moments, the women don’t recognize what Claire has come to understand:

Everyone’s heard of Bridezillas. If you ask me, it’s a nasty way to refer to someone who has a ton of pressure on her: the patriarchy, the fashion industry, and a family that’s been telling us all since we were old enough to carry a pretend-bouquet that this is going to be the most important day of our lives.

Stopping one bride at a time from becoming a literal Bridezilla proves stressful and ineffective. Claire wants to figure out the cause and a cure, and she is just the scientist to do that.

Thoughts: I got an email from my friend Kathy that she had a new novel published on Amazon. Such an email will not necessarily get me to read a book, but I was curious enough to read the available sample of Bridezilla.

I was hooked in just a couple of pages. This was clearly going to be delightful and funny, just what I wanted this week.

The characters are wonderfully relatable, especially if you have ever been a bride or known one.

The setting amused me, too. The fictional town of Appleville, California is positioned between the ocean and mountains, with parks and subdivisions and an economy dominated by the chemical company where Claire works. Just the sort of place where we think monstrous things don’t occur, when we’re naive.

Appeal: Bridezilla is a great choice for Halloween and the Readers Imbibing Peril challenge, especially if you prefer monsters that are more humorous than scary. If you have Kindle Unlimited, the ebook is currently free. I rarely use Kindle and even I had some credits lurking in there, so I bought it for two bucks — and got more than my money’s worth!

Have you read this book? What did you think?