Two women arrive at a beautiful hotel in Newport, Rhode Island for wildly different reasons: Lila is about to have the wedding of her dreams and Phoebe is treating herself to one final night of splendor after her life fell apart. Phoebe is immediately mistaken for a wedding guest and gets roped into the lives of a memorable cast of characters for the six-day event. I want to share that this story touches on themes of suicide, infertility, infidelity, depression, and grief, however, Espach strikes the perfect balance between the darkness of the protagonist’s mental health with laugh-out-loud humor and joyful moments. The Wedding People is a deeply relatable novel that explores how freeing interactions with complete strangers can be, how they can improve our well-being, and help us live each day with intention. A beautiful story about human connection and second-chances that is poignant, funny, and insightful. Highly recommend.