Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

☆ best man x maid of honor
☆ destination wedding
☆ grumpy/grumpy

Sadly, I found Andi quite annoying. I get that her wedding was ruined but you can’t be happy for your friends??
She’s very negative and it just bothered me and wasn’t fun to read about.
Owen was okay. He was sweet and nice enough.

I just didn’t feel their chemistry or anything. More detail was put into the descriptions of the food and location than the love story.

I don't think I've been happier to finish a book, but not for the reasons you think.

Our main character, Andi, is, I think, one of the least liked characters I've ever read. She's cynical and selfish for pretty much the entirety of the book, with little growth. I understand she has her reasons for disliking love and weddings, but for the entire first half, she's in utter disbelief that her best friend wants to share the excitement of being engaged and getting married with the people she loves most, and she has the gall to act betrayed because she was asked to be the maid of honor. She's consistently putting her feelings first and doesn't seem to care if others get hurt until the damage has been done and reality sets in. Owen was the saving grace in their romance, but I also feel like we got to know very little about him besides the basics. It's partial insta-love, but it's also slow-burnish because they decide to take time and just be together without pushing their (mainly Andi's) boundaries.

Another thing I wasn't a big fan of was the overt amount of description given to everything and the weird comparisons that constantly threw me out of the story. It seems so wild that in some parts of the book we get these amazing descriptions of Italy and the delicious foods they enjoyed, but in other parts we get what felt like juvenile comparisons, such as jelly-like and algebra-like difficulties. I also cannot count the number of times Owen's blue-grey eyes were described, but I was over them by the end of the book. 

Take out the subpar romance between Andi and Owen, and you're left with a beautiful love story about Italy and the mountain sides, basking in its beauty while also falling in love with the exquisite, mouth-watering descriptions of cuisine and pastries, all while being surrounded by your beloved friends and family.

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳, 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯 𝘦-𝘈𝘙𝘊 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺.

I honestly don't know why Alex would even want Andie to be in her wedding to Charlie, Andie is a toxic selfish woman who is not supporting her friend but instead focused on herself, Until Owen turns up and then she focuses on him. I liked the Italian atmospherics (and the food) but the plot, as slightly tilted trope as it is, left me unsatisfied because of Andie. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Over to others.

I really enjoyed this story. I loved the setting of Italy and watching the relationship blossom.

My only annoyance was how vile Andi was to Alex about her wedding. She was really self centred and only thought about herself to then completely change her opinions because of a man. I would’ve loved to see Alex and Charlie swaying her opinion more!

Lovely Italian setting but I was not enamoured with the main character or the story. Outside of romance I love supportive female friendships and thing Andie could have done a lot better which would have gone some way in me rooting for her.

– Frustratingly Adorable and Sweet!

I have to admit that the cover reeled me to read this book--it is so lovely, right? I love how the writer depicts the Italia landscape, food, and culture in this book. It made Italy my top list of travel destinations!

Character-wise, I am not fond of Andi's personality. I find her so stubborn and toxic as a friend (since she gave such a bad vibe at her best friend’s wedding on top of it!). Well, even if in the end she got her (slow) character development, she’s still annoying to me.

A hard read for me as I don’t like the pace, but I think I stay for the warm vibe of Italy, Andi’s mom, and friends for this one.

Okay, I'm sorry, but this was just bad.

Even if you ignore the fact that it's littered with glaring grammatical errors (like, I get this is an ARC, but it shouldn't be that hard to distinguish between singular and plural verbs,) the writing is atrocious. Lucy Knott has a weird obsession with the passive voice, dependent clauses, and the word "as" that makes her writing clunky and awkward. Trying to wad through 320 pages of it is t o r t u r o u s. There's just something unwieldy and unnatural about way "Andi" narrates. She sounds like someone who's just been introduced to the idea of complex sentences but hasn't quite gotten the hang of it yet. Like an overzealous student, Knott overcomplicates her writing in what I guess is an attempt to sound sophisticated, but this is really one of the cases where less is more. The way she structures her sentences is incredibly tedious and makes her sound like she doesn't know how to write. I'm not usually one the grammar police or English schoolmarm-type, but really, there are some basic principles of the English language that you should have a grasp on before you set out to write an entire book. I could go on, but I don't want to belabor the point.

Let's talk about content. Honestly, there's not much there. There's a whole lot of fluff and not enough substance. The worst part is that we don't even get fun, rom-com-type fluff. Instead, we get weird, uncomfy, TMI kind of fluff. Like if we took out all the detailed descriptions of how sweaty everyone is, the book would easily be under 300 pages. I get it. The UK is hot. Italy is hot. Working by a deep fryer with no air conditioning in the middle of summer is hot. But does anyone really need multiple instances of things like "pools of sweat are forming under my breasts" or "sweat tickling my inner thighs"? This woman talks about breasts and thighs so much, I had to double check to make sure I was reading an actual book and not a KFC menu.

The actual story is as lackluster and, if I'm frank, awful as the writing. I'm all for cynics in love and putting a sarcastic spin on stereotypical, saccharine rom-coms, but The (Anti) Wedding Party is not it. Andi as a protagonist is, quite simply, awful. I've read books with "unlikeable" protagonists--I've liked books like "unlikeable" protagonists--but Andi isn't just a pricky, unlikeable protagonist; she's downright obnoxious. She's been hurt before and doesn't believe in love, but she literally makes that her whole personality. There are a lot of things that could be believable and compelling about Andi. I can even see a version of her that's relatable or at least sympathetic, but she would need a whole lot of work to get there. The biggest issue with Andi is that she's flat. She so underdeveloped she feels more like a stick figure than an actual character, and her "arc" is virtually nonexistent bump in a straight line.

With a character so lacking in development, it should come as no surprise that the romance isn't anything exciting. After all, it's hard to be invested in a love story when 50% of it is about as attractive as a cockroach, but more than that, the romance isn't convincing in the slightest because there's zero development. The (Anti) Wedding Party is supposed to be the story of two cynics, who don't believe in love, who are thrown together to attend a fairytale-worthy destination wedding. It is, in actuality, a very lukewarm story (with no little plot and atrocious pacing, I might add,) about a very vanilla love interest and a protagonist that I have a hard time believing anyone will care about. Other than one-line delivery early on that "forever doesn't exist and everyone dies," Owen transforms into your basic love interest but with way less personality. Andi is apparently the "gorgeous girl next door with a heart of gold," but after spending 320 pages with her, I still don't see it, so I can say is love really must be blind.

I'm getting kind of tired of reliving this disaster of a book, so all I'll say about the story is that it's a hot mess like everything else in the book. The story is all over the place: the plot is weak, there's no real tension, and the wedding "disasters" are dumb and uncompelling. I probably should have DNF'd this one, but I tried to make it work. Unfortunately, I came to the end very much anti-The (Anti) Wedding Party.

I enjoyed this but the cover is misleading and in some ways this was more enjoyable as a look at Italy and food. The book does have some spice and it felt like it was multiple parts of a book put together. I still enjoyed it though.

This was a lovely book to read and it was a lot of fun. There was nothing to dislike and everything to like about this story. Recommend this with 5 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley, author and publisher for this ARC

I was immediately drawn in by the cover and synopsis, but unfortunately the main character Andi was giving "not like other girls" from page one. True, she is facing some trauma after having been cheated on on her own wedding day, I'm willing to cut her some slack for that. But when her best friend is getting married and she is not supportive, that's just not the main character energy I like to see when I'm supposed to root for her own romance.

I liked the aspect of two anti-love, anti-wedding, burned-in-the-past characters getting together but I didn't like them as characters themselves.

Thank you Aria and Aries for providing the e-arc in exchange of an honest review.

I received a DIGITAL Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was fine but I felt like the story and the writing didn't really pull me in. I didn't hate the main character as much as some of the other reviews I've seen. Was she very negative? Yes, but while she was negative she also knew that she was wrong at the same time. She still needed to grow from it but she knew she was in the wrong during ALL the situations.

The romance felt a little flat to me. There just didn't feel like much going on there for me. But I was a fan of them not being in instant love.

The main thing that I enjoyed about this book was all the descriptions about the food. This book made me so hungry and made me have such a craving for some burrata.

2.5 stars rounded up

Thanks to the Publisher and Netgalley for an early review copy.

I enjoyed this romantic story.

After her own wedding day didn’t go as expected, Andi doesn’t like weddings.

She’s asked to be maid of honour by her friend Alex, she’s getting married in Italy. Andi informs her that she’s not going to do it, but she’s taped round and goes to Italy.

Owen, who is the best man, Andi meets in Italy and she feels they have something in common and begin to get to know each other.

I recommend this book.

I found this book and the characters to be slightly infuriating. Andi particularly I found to be very selfish and not very good of a friend; I know that her whole thing was that she didn't like weddings and love because of her parents and her ex-fiancee cheating on her on her wedding day, but it was so incredibly selfish of her to try to refuse to go to her best friend's wedding because of that. Like, girl, this isn't about you.

I also felt like while Andi and Owen fit well together, their relationship fell into the category of instalove for me -- like it was kind of crazy to me that they hooked up twice in like a weekend and then immediately were like wow I guess we're in love. I feel like it moved too fast and I was told a lot of their feelings rather than was shown, if that makes sense.

The redeeming factors of this book was the descriptions of Italy and the food. Those seemed so rich and well done that I found myself constantly wishing that this was just a travel and/or wedding location guide for Italy instead of the romance book that it was.

I liked the writing style. I like the characters but their relationships not so much. I feel like it was a bit forced and cliché. I don't see chemistry for me. But the plot is nice and it's overall an agreable story.

The premise of this book sounded like a charming and flirtatious read that I hoped would be the perfect palate cleanser. Aaaaaand boy oh boy was I wrong and in for a ride.

In the spirit of honesty, I was sooooo tempted to abandon this book multiple times.

The protagonist was, without a doubt, the most selfish character I have ever had the displeasure of reading. Her incapacity to show even a shred of respect for her loved ones her was staggering. She treated her mother and her best friend as if they were her personal doormats. The respect she showed to food (literal food) was leaps and bounds above the consideration she showed to any real person in her life.

I understand the narrative direction the author intended to explore—how a seemingly unchangeable heart could undergo transformation. However, the execution fell short. Crafting a character so thoroughly unlikable did a disservice to the narrative, undermining the story's potential impact and enjoyment.

I love the cute rom com cover on this book, but it’s not a rom com. In fact, the tone is pretty dark. I don’t like the main character—it feels like she’s sabotaging her friends’ happiness because of her own bitterness over her broken engagement. DNF.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC.

Can't get past the vivid description of sweaty butt cheeks. Cover promises a food themed couple falling in love but not even a chapter in and I'm too disgusted to continue.

This was an easy read. I thought the side characters were so much fun. I loved Owen as the love interest in this story. The romance plot was really cute too. I just had a hard time connecting with the FMC. She was extremely selfish and it made the story painful to read at times.

This is a great contemporary romance novel about love, self-discovery, and friendship.

Andrea and Owen's banter is the best thing in this book. They are so fun while trashing everything during their best friends' wedding. Both Andre and Owen had bad experiences while in a relatioship, so they have sworn off everything that's connected to love and marriages.

Andrea was not one hundred percent on board with being her best friend's maid of honor, with everything that the title entails, but she tried her best to help her friends, even ewhen things did not turn out the best.

And maybe I'm a bit biased being Italian, but the way Lucy describes Italy and the Italian food is perfect!

Thank you to @netgalley and the Aria & Aries team for an ARC for an honest reivew.

#arc #arcreader #arcreviewer #theantiweddingparty #lucyknott #netgalley #ariaandaries #andrea #owen #wedding #positano #italy #food #romcom #closeproximity

6% in and I don't feel like this is the book for me.

I feel deceived by the description and cover photo of this book, showing a man and a woman and describing a man and a woman who are book-destined to be together ... when every couple so far is lesbian.

It's also very confusing to read at points. All the women have men's names, then she/her pronouns, and are coupled up. Which "she" are we talking about when "she" puts "her" hand on "her" shoulder? Who's shoulder? Etc.

Obviously, this is a personal preference. But I think we all could've been spared a bad review and an unsatisfied reader had the back cover hinted a little more strongly at the lesbian vibes.