Beautiful Day by Elin Hilderbrand

Summer Read #5

I liked the idea behind this book.  A mother, dying of ovarian cancer, leaves a written notebook for helping plan her youngest daughter's wedding day.  She knows she won't be there to help her, so she writes the notebook before the bride has even met the groom. Seven years after her death, her daughter uses the guide to plan her "beautiful day."

Hilderbrand writes the book so that you have a chance to see what the main players in the wedding are thinking. You see the mother's notebook, and you get to know the typical dysfunctional families involved in this merger of two families. 

This was an enjoyable read.  Is it great literature?  No.  But I like the fact that it makes me think about what it is I am leaving behind to the people that are most important to me.