Jennifer Close

Girls in white dresses

Queena Li

I reject the premise that this is "chick lit" just because it's about a bunch of girls in their twenties. There is something so comforting and sincere in these stories, all interconnected and familiar, about the girls you go out with on Friday night and have brunch with on Saturday morning. Close conveys the kind of quiet urgency that marks your twenties, all full of extremities. These girls brush up against disappointment with the same brash inexperience as they do joy. Everything feels a little more ridiculous that way.

There's a part early on in the collection when one of the girls, Mary, an ambitious go-getter type, comes to the insidious realization that the man she is infatuated with at work has the potential to be something very, very cruel. And no matter how smart she is or how hard she works at her job, she will still be, at some point, the girl who likes the guy who hates her. I get that. I like that we all come to this conclusion for the first time some time in our lives.

Amy Maddess

This reminds me a lot of “Sex and the City”. I thought there was going to be a plot, and there were a lot of really good ‘almost’ plots, but I got all the way to the end of the book and nothing happened. I so badly wanted this to be good!

Emily Ruth Carter

This books was fine. Oddly enough, throughout the whole book I thought I would have preferred watching it as a movie or a series.

Wickedly hilarious and utterly recognizable, Girls in White Dresses tells the story of three women grappling with heartbreak and career change, family pressure and new love—all while suffering through an endless round of weddings and bridal showers. Isabella, Mary, and Lauren feel like everyone they know is getting married. On Sunday after Sunday, at bridal shower after bridal shower, they coo over toasters, collect ribbons and wrapping paper, eat minuscule sandwiches and doll-sized cakes. They wear pastel dresses and drink champagne by the case, but amid the celebration these women have their own lives to contend with: Isabella is working at a mailing-list company, dizzy with the mixed signals of a boss who claims she’s on a diet but has Isabella file all morning if she forgets to bring her a chocolate muffin. Mary thinks she might cry with happiness when she finally meets a nice guy who loves his mother, only to realize he’ll never love Mary quite as much. And Lauren, a waitress at a Midtown bar, swears up and down she won’t fall for the sleazy bartender—a promise that his dirty blond curls and perfect vodka sodas make hard to keep. With a wry sense of humor, Jennifer Close brings us through those thrilling, bewildering, what-on-earth-am-I-going-to-do-with-my-life years of early adulthood. These are the years when everyone else seems to have a plan, a great job, and an appropriate boyfriend, while Isabella has a blind date with a gay man, Mary has a crush on her boss, and Lauren has a goldfish named Willard. Through boozy family holidays and disastrous ski vacations, relationships lost to politics and relationships found in pet stores, Girls in White Dresses pulls us deep inside the circle of these friends, perfectly capturing the wild frustrations and soaring joys of modern life. BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from Jennifer Close's The Smart One.

Girls in White Dresses

Allyson Marrs

You know, this book is surprisingly charming. The voice takes some time to get used to-it's flat and abrupt. But there are some really great, funny moments throughout this book that are so honest and relatable they kind of work well with the detached writing. Although I was completely unsure during the first few chapters, I actually like this book. I'll be turning my library loan into a purchase.

Kaylee 

Attending bridal showers for their friend, three bridesmaids struggle with private challenges, including Isabella's unhappiness at a job, Mary's relationship with a man who prioritizes his mother, and Lauren's attraction to a man she hates.

Girls in white dresses

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