Book Review: For the Bride by Becca Grischow

Official Synopsis: On the surface, Alice has her life together. She’s got a job in music she loves; she’s firmly sober; and she’s grateful to be back in the good graces of her ex-girlfriend-once-best-friend-now-literal-only-friend Gin. Just in time, too, because Gin’s getting married this summer! And Alice gets to be a bridesmaid.

If only the maid-of-honor wasn’t Renee Roberts: Type-A, the opposite of her in every way, and a long-time Alice-hater who’s clung to her animosity like a leech. Every second Alice spends around Renee makes her feel like who she used to be, rather than the person she’s spent years trying to make herself into—and she doesn’t want to be reminded of her younger self any more than she wants to be thinking, more constantly than she wants to admit, about Renee: her hair, her lips, her wit…. No, Alice has her own stuff to figure out. She still loves music, but her career feels directionless. She’s grieving the loss of her father just a year ago, to alcohol. And then she finds out that her mother’s started to date her father’s ex-bandmate, which sends her reeling…and with the wedding just around the corner, she doesn’t want to bother Gin about any of it.

It’s pure chance that Renee runs into Alice, just when she needs someone the most—and suddenly, everything shifts. Neither of them are what they assumed the other to be. Over the days and nights they’re spending helping Gin throw a DIY summer wedding of epic proportions, Alice and Renee discover that though they have nothing in common—that might be precisely what each of them need. Heartfelt and hopeful, For the Bride is a banter-filled sapphic romance with deep emotional resonance about found family, second chances, and finding love in the unexpected.

Alice Pierce has worked hard to change into the person she is today, being three years sober, having an unpaid job at a record label, and working her way through the world without her dad. When she is invited to her best friend's engagement party, she is shocked to see that everyone thinks she is the same person she was three years ago. Going from being black out drunk to sober and trying to be more responsible overall, Alice is shocked when she is asked to be a bridesmaid. Splitting the main duties with Gin's other two best friends, the girls are meant to work together to make Gin's wedding the best day of her life. But one of the other bridesmaids, Renee, is not the biggest fan of Alice, remembering her as her old self instead of the new person she worked to be. Renee is a planner, ready to take charge with organized lists and spreadsheets, while Alice has barely ever been to a wedding.

As they continue to move through planning Gin's big day, along with a bridal shower and bachelorette party, Alice and Renee are forced to hang out more and more, even having to share one bed during the bachelorette trip. When Renee starts to trust Alice with more of the duties, along with some of her own secrets. Renee and Alice start spending more time together, even when its not for bridesmaid duties, and Alice realizes her feelings for Renee might be more than just friendship. But as the stress of the wedding looms, so does the stress of the one-year-anniversary of her dad's passing and the memorial concert that is planned at the bands house in Galena.

This book does a lot with weaving in Alice's issues with her dad's passing with the planning of the wedding, and using those two plot points to show how much this place means to her. I really liked how we got to see how places and people can change, but it can be for the best. Alice has worked hard to make sure she isn't the disaster, a bad friend/girlfriend, that she was before, but her own fears about how people perceive her keeps her from connecting fully to Renee. Renee has a lot of her own things to go through, having lost her job and basically throwing herself fully into the planning of Gin's wedding, but as she starts to trust Alice with more, she starts to realize she doesn't have to do everything herself either.

One part of the book I really liked was being able to see Alice's point of view throughout, meaning we could see how she was examining how others perceived her, and her fears at always being the 'crazy' friend. We also get to see the moments where Alice is close to relapse, and how Renee and others help her move through that. I think there are a lot of powerful moments in this book when it comes to addiction and how to move through that. You can see the care that was put into those parts of the story, along with all the ins and outs of wedding planning and helping your friends.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and how it portrayed some heavier topics while also maintaining a sense of humor. Becca is a great writer and I'm excited to see where the rest of her career goes.

I rated this book 3 out of 5 stars!

For the Bride comes out June 2, 2026!

StoryGraph