A wedding to die for

Don’t you just hate destination weddings?  I mean, not only do you have to spend a lot of money to (basically) go on someone else’s vacation, but you have to bring along expensive clothes, deal with drunken guests, potentially get murdered . . . well, those are some of the things the wedding party has to deal with in TheGuest List.

Will and Julia are the “it” couple of the day.  Both successful in their careers (he as a reality TV star, she as the owner of a successful blog/online lifestyle magazine), they invite guests to an isolated Irish island for their lavish wedding.  The chapters are narrated by various people on the island:  Aoife (the wedding planner who owns the venue), Hannah (whose husband is the bride’s best friend), Johnno (the best man), Olivia (the bride’s younger, damaged sister), Jules (the bride herself), etc.  Each person seems to have a deep, dark secret that they are trying to overcome.

The story moves back and forth in time, so that we soon find out that someone has been found murdered just after the wedding ceremony.  It takes a while for it to come out as to who the victim is and why the murder happened.  Then, with all the secrets, it seems there is no shortage of motives, so we are left to find out which secret was worth killing for.

The premise of the story is interesting:  people are ferried to the island and then are basically cut off from the rest of the world with a killer in their midst.  It was hard to feel much sympathy for anyone as they were all pretty unlikeable (the bride and groom were very pleased with themselves and everyone else was basically had chips on their shoulders).  Still, the action moved along at a fast pace and you were left wondering who the victim and murderer were.  It felt like it took an overly long time to get to that point, however and while there was a need to have plenty of suspects, it was hard to root for anyone.

I received a free copy of the Guest List from Netgalley in exchange for this review