Save the date by Mary Kay Andrews
St Martin's Press, 2018. ISBN 9781250190291
(Age: Older adolescents - Adult) Plunging us into the frenetic life
of the young woman who has chosen to be a wedding florist, whose
work begins with flowers and catapults into the full thing - the
flowers in the church (and often for the reception too), the flowers
carried by the bridal party, the decoration of the reception venue,
flowers for the bride and often advice for the bride, or sometimes
for the mother-of-the-bride, or even the groom, Mary Kay Andrews
sets up a protagonist who keeps up a pace that seems impossible to
imagine. This novel would be suitable for older adolescents and
indeed for adults intrigued by this particular world in the southern
states of the USA.
Cara Kryzik is on the rebound from an unsuccessful relationship, and
has started up her own shop to supply the luxurious floral
decorations expected for weddings, both commonly at the church and
in the wedding venue as decreed by the mores of society in the
southern US states. Her brief goes beyond the flowers that might be
carried by the bridal party, as she begins to create the
decorations, responding to the brides, for the whole ceremony and
reception, also advising on many other aspects of the wedding. The
costs are high, and not just in monetary terms, as so much is
expected by the brides, the mothers of the brides, the attendants
and indeed the family, and Kara is under enormous pressure for
almost every wedding, pre-wedding and post-wedding celebrations for
which she caters. However, the complexity of her life is extended
further as she deals with a broken marriage, a new lover, unhelpful
workers and a father who wants to run her life.
Fast-paced, like Kara's life, this novel takes us on a journey to
the southern United States, exploring the pressures exerted by the
families on the brides as well as the weight of the expectation of
perfection in every single aspect of the whole ceremony and
celebrations on that very special day. However, the underlying story
of Kara dominates, and we are drawn deeply into her family troubles,
her attempts to leave her old life behind to forge her way into a
new life, the dominating father and the element of trust that
concerns her deeply in her relationships.
Captivating and fast-paced, this delightful novel depicts southern
life so vibrantly, exploring both its expectations of family members
in their daily lives, and especially on such occasions as a wedding,
Andrews constructs a world, moreover, into which she draws us
deeply, exploring this world's complex pressures on young people to
meet and marry the right person, to display the family's success in
suitable fashion, and to impress the world around them with their
events. Its richly evocative atmosphere is the heart of this novel,
and is the core of its strength.
This novel would be suitable for adolescent readers, but would also
be a captivating story for all ages, particularly those who are
interested in the world of the southern United States, or those who
have not experienced the particular way of life that is depicted so
richly in this novel.
Elizabeth Bondar