The Bachelorette Party

Book excerpt: After being left at the altar by her soap star fiancé, Los Angeles high school teacher Zadie Roberts wants nothing more to do with love and romance. With the help of her best buddy Grey and several bottles of wine, she just might survive the trauma of the wedding that wasn't. Unexpectedly, Grey gets engaged to Zadie's prim and proper cousin Helen, and suddenly Zadie is dragged back into wedding festivity hell. The coup de grace is Helen's bachelorette party, thrown by her clique of prissy friends and certain to be a day of torture. But when the Pinot Grigiot goes down and the sweater sets come off, things get out of control. Helen turns into a girl gone wild and manages to get herself into a situation that just might sink the happy couple for good. Zadie faces a major debacle: should she tell Grey about Helen's night of indiscretion, or forever hold her peace? The Bachelorette Party is a remarkable, assured debut. Lutz's terrific characters and sharp insights put this delightful novel a step above the rest.