From
Publishers Weekly
The Wedding Machine is an “……engrossing novel with
weddings as the centerpiece ….Hart's writing is lovely, her characters
endearing, and humor leavens the darker moments. Midlife women will
find plenty to relate to, and the wedding plot line is an invitation
to myriad details on food, decorations and points of Southern etiquette."
From
The Charlotte Observer
“An Engaging Slice of Southern Life” by Lee Rhodes –
special to The Observer
In
Jasper, S.C., no bride worth her salt gets hitched without the assistance
of the Wedding Guild, a group of four fearsome women who have been friends
ever since they conspired to steal a watermelon in high school. Beth
Webb Hart, author of "Grace at Low Tide," brings us their
story, told in alternating points of view.
Ray
Montgomery sits at the guild's helm. She's known as the First Lady of
Jasper, despite recent battles with menopause, fibroid tumors and fretfulness
over changes sweeping across her town. Her friend Kitty B. recognizes
that if anything ever happens to Ray "the gals ... just might implode
like an undercooked soufflé or a pound cake short of an egg."
Kitty
B. herself, still reeling from her daughter's death decades before and
from dealing with her "old paranoid curmudgeon" of a husband,
needs Ray. So does Hilda, the beauty queen of the bunch. Abandoned by
her husband, Hilda sequesters herself at home for months on end, as
the other gals drop off food and notes, acting as her lifeline to the
outside world.
Sis
is the only one of their set who has never married. She spends most
of her time with Ina, the 40-stop organ she plays at church.
The
foursome represents -- or strives to -- all that is refined and dignified
in the world. Yet as a new round of weddings begins, problems threaten
the unity of the group. In a prescient moment, Ray hits a 12-point buck
with her Volvo while on the way to Little Hilda's wedding, leaving broken
gifts, china, cake and lemon squares in her wake.
With
humor and warmth, "The Wedding Machine" serves up an endearing
slice of life. Old South eccentricities mesh nicely with the spirit
of the New South, and it's clear that the author, an S.C. native, is
in comfortable territory. Her charismatic cast of characters resonates
long after the last page is turned.
From
Cassandra King, best selling author of The Same
Sweet Girls
“The Wedding Machine is one of the most charming books I've read
in a long, long time. The local belles of Jasper, South Carolina comprise
the wedding guild, a group of unforgettable women who made me laugh,
cry, and cheer---as all good weddings do."
From
Mary Alice Monroe, best selling author of Swimming
Lessons
“Beth Webb Hart writes a beautiful story with compassion and an
unerring eye to detail as she peeks behind the white lace, the polished
silver, and the artfully arranged flowers of traditional southern weddings
to reveal the hidden flaws and secrets of four women friends. Reading
it, you’ll feel like a member of the wedding.”
