Melody Carlson On This Day

On This Day

Melody Carlson

WaterBrook, Feb 2006, $12.99, 352 pp.

ISBN 1578568412

The five women are at the Lakeside Inn to attend the wedding of Jennifer to Michael. Each has differing feelings about marriage and relationships with men in general. All feel they are in some form of a personal crisis.

The bride's Aunt, Elizabeth Anderson, plans to confront her seemingly indifferent husband Phil after the ceremony, as she sees nothing positive with their quarter of a century together, especially since she assumes he loves his jogging partner Delia. The wife of Michael's boss Suzette Burke thinks her spouse Jim is cheating on her. Jennifer's widowed paternal grandmother Margaret Simpson misses her Calvin, who died almost a year ago. The groom's sister-in-law Laura Fairbanks suffers from postpartum depression, but her husband David, their family and her friends refuse to see her mental troubles as their two month old daughter Amy is perfect. Finally Ingrid Campbell suffers from doubts about tying the knot to Jason; she fears she agreed to his proposal as a knee jerk reaction to her best friend's wedding.

This character driven tale contains a female ensemble effortlessly rotating chapter leads. The shifting view point is easy to follow, as each of the five-some differs in relation to the bride and that brings some depth to the troubled quintet. Though readers will empathize with each of the lead players, what initially seems like anguish built up over varying time periods, resolves relatively too easily, though not all remain as couples by the end of the day; expediting the issues make the quintet seem somewhat shallow. Still this is a fine relationship drama starring likable people in trouble.