Review: "Confetti Confidential: They Do, I Don't" by Susan Murphy

After finding out that her husband Peter has been cheating, marriage celebrant Viv is devastated and she decides that she no longer believes in love or in happily ever after. The problem is that she has committed to officiating at ten upcoming weddings and there is no going back on her commitment to these couples without ruining their special days. She has no choice but to soldier on through them but the fact that once she gets through these weddings she will no longer have to perform them is a comfort to her.

Complicating her already complicated life is the fact that her ex-husband is trying to make amends to her and to their three children. Is Viv ready to take her husband back or will a surprise confession from a mystery suitor change her mind about her ex-husband and about love? Viv's unique and loving sisters help her navigate the waters of being single and perhaps finding love again in this often funny and definitely thought-provoking book from new author Susan Murphy.

I have mixed feelings about Confetti Confidential: They Do, I Don't. Let me start with the parts that I enjoyed. I really loved the plot. Who doesn't love a book about crazy weddings? Susan Murphy is a marriage celebrant in her real life and she definitely brought the best of those weddings to life in this story. I enjoyed reading about the weddings- from the one that takes place in a couple's paved driveway to the one that almost resulted in a fist fight- and these parts of the book were a lot of fun to read. I also enjoyed reading about Viv and her sisters. They were all unique and far from perfect but the fact that they loved each other was evident and I appreciated the fact that they were always there for one another through thick and thin.

There were a few things that I didn't like about Confetti Confidential and one of those things was that I was often confused as to where the book was taking place. I believe that the author decided not to clarify the setting so as to make the book universally relatable, but for me that just resulted in confusion. There were a few references to things that were decidedly Australian yet I thought that the book was taking place elsewhere. It was unnecessarily confusing and I would have preferred to have known where the story was taking place.

I also had a problem with the ending of the book. *Spoiler* Throughout the book Viv is trying to decide between several men, one of whom has been her best friend forever. She is mainly worried about losing her friendship with him if things don't work out but when he leaves her for several months in order to lose weight, and returns thinner than he used to be, Viv falls for him immediately, although the day before she had doubts. That potion of the book bothered me simply because it made Viv seem shallow and I felt like it took away from the book as a whole.

There were some things that I liked about Confetti Confidential and there were some things that I did not. As a whole it was well-written and entertaining and I would be interested in giving a different book by this author a try. My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a review copy of this book.