Okay, am I the only one who got “the hangover” vibes from this book? I can’t explain why it reminded me of that movie so much, maybe it’s the “everything is a mess and all over the place” element in it! What happens when you mix 1 (accidental) murder with 2 thousand wedding guests, and then toss in a possible curse on 3 generations of an immigrant Chinese-Indonesian family? I hate that the documenting of my family’s hard work—Big Aunt’s towering cakes, Second Aunt’s complicated hairstyles and flawless makeup artistry, Ma’s gorgeous flower arrangements, and Fourth Aunt’s dynamic performances—all falls on my shoulders. Every wedding, I try to capture everything, and every wedding, I miss something. Last wedding, I forgot to take pictures of Fourth Aunt from her “good side, the one that makes me look twenty again,” and the wedding before that, I failed to capture the centerpiece at table 17, which was apparently significantly different from all the other centerpieces.

Since the men in the family, and all her cousins, have left, Meddy is the sole focus of Ma's and the Aunties' attention. Meddy’s Ma and her aunties all got on my nerves the way they were supposed to, but I also loved the sibling chemistry between them. Their distinct personalities and jobs were so in-character and I laughed so hard and rolled my eyes so much at their drama and antics. As the Lunar New Year celebrations arrive, Asians marking the festivities will be expecting to receive money in red envelopes, feast on delicious food and attend reunions with relatives and family friends (where Covid-19 social distancing restrictions permit). Many thanks to Shelf Awareness, NetGalley, Berkley, and Jesse Q. Sutanto for an ARC of this book! Now available as of 3.29!**

READERS GUIDE

Meddy Chan and the aunties have a wedding to plan. Although Meddy and Nathan were looking forward to interviewing and selecting their wedding vendors themselves, a Chinese-Indonesian photographer named Staphanie comes with a family that does the full range of wedding services so by hiring Staphanie, their wedding vendor search is over. Meddy's aunts could have done the entire wedding themselves but she wants them to get to enjoy the wedding without working at it. She hardly glances at me as she goes into a deep lunge. “Snake Creeps Through the Grass,” she mutters. Before corpse disposal, there’s a wedding to get through. Guess who owns the resort? When Meddy hears a “smooth, rich voice that can only be described as molten chocolate,” she knows it’s “the one that got away,” Nathan Chan. When their eyes meet, it’s clear that there are still major sparks.

Meddy’s well-meaning aunties, their surprising resources in a crisis (Fourth Auntie’s absinthe comes in a little too handy…), and the general high-drama of a massive wedding result in a ridiculous dark comedy with family loyalty at the heart. Now she has to get rid of the body before the eyes of entire wedding guests but the hotel’s charming manager is her ex: Nathan: her 3 years long boyfriend she couldn’t forget for years, watches her every move and appears out of nowhere when she secretly tries to carry the body in a freezer. Sutanto brilliantly infuses comedy and culture into the unpredictable rom-com/murder mystery mashup as Meddy navigates familial duty, possible arrest and a groomzilla. I laughed out loud and you will too.” ( USA Today, four-star review) One of PopSugar’s “42 Books Everyone Will Be Talking About in 2021” and “Best New Books of April 2021”! If you don’t want to have to wait to see Meddy’s family again, the sequel ‘ Four Aunties and A Wedding‘!We have Meddy, a photographer for her family’s wedding planning business. Her mother creates an online dating profile for her, sets her up with a guy who turns out to be a creep and Meddy accidentally kills him. The book then follows Meddy and her 4 Aunties as they try to cover it up and get rid of the body all while putting on a wedding. I immediately warmed to the characters. They're just so real, so easy to see as you read. They're vivid and true and I would love to know them.

Firstly, this book is not my usual genre, so I've taken that into account review and rating wise. I wanted to give contemporary fiction a try and the plot to this one sounded so fun. It really didn't dissapoint. Whip-smart, original and so funny. I found it impossible to put down and lost count of the number of times I laughed out loud’ Beth O’Leary, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Road Trip It turns out the wedding venue just happens to be managed by Meddy’s ex, aka the one who got away. It’s the worst time to see him again, or…is it? Can Meddy finally find love and make her overbearing family happy? Where the book truly shines is the portrayal of Indo-Chinese culture. However the aunties all feel like one note caricatures. Four Aunties and a Wedding is the follow up to Jesse Q. Sutanto's hilariously over-the-top 2021-release, Dial A for Aunties.

Well, That Was Unexpected': A novel filled with charm, wit and growing pains". The Jakarta Post . Retrieved 6 February 2023.

On murderous blind dates and aiming low as a writer: Jesse Q. Sutanto's literary voice". The Jakarta Post . Retrieved 6 February 2023. No doubt the next wave of writers will say the same of Sutanto herself; charming, refreshing and delightfully subversive, Dial A for Aunties proves that generational learning, like language, is a two-way street. A tantalizing blend of romantic mishaps, quirky relatives, and a behind-the-scenes look at the wedding industry, Dial A for Aunties is proof of a promising new writer.”—Mystery Scene Magazine In the meantime there is also a thief trying to rob the bride’s gifts. And an army of drunk groomsmen who already started at 9 a.m in the morning! Let’s not forget never ending fights between big aunt and second aunt and snarky banters between her mother and forth aunt! Asked why she wasn’t interested in portraying her uncles for her novel, she said aunties were “more interesting” as they played an important role in Asian cultures and families and life without them would be less lively.The repetitive thing of "the curse"... which it practically is all men leave women at some point. Meddy's uncles, cousins and even her own father, so she didn't that that happen to her and Nathan. Like, hun, I know of it because all men in my family had abandoned us too. My grandfather, my ex brother-in-law, my own father (but my mom is happily married to my stepdad, so it's ok now). And the fact that Meddy basically made the decision of breaking up with Nathan (there are more reasons, I know) for it left me... ?!?!?!?!