For the Bride

Alice looks like she has everything sorted. She has a music job she enjoys, she is firmly sober, and she has patched things up with Gin, her ex-girlfriend and once-best-friend, who is now simply a friend. Better timing is hard to imagine, because Gin is getting married this summer and Alice is going to be a bridesmaid.

The trouble is the maid of honor, Renee Roberts. She is a Type-A planner, Alice's opposite in nearly every way, and she has held a grudge against Alice for years. Being near Renee drags Alice back toward the person she used to be, the one she has worked so hard to leave behind. It also makes her think about Renee's hair, her lips and her sharp tongue far more often than she would like to admit. Besides, Alice has plenty to untangle already. She still loves music, but her career has no clear direction. Her father died of alcohol-related causes only a year ago, and she is still grieving. Now her mother is dating her father's former bandmate, which has knocked her sideways. With the wedding close, she does not want to burden Gin with any of it.

Then Renee happens to cross her path at the moment Alice needs someone most, and things start to shift. Each woman turns out to be different from what the other assumed. As they spend days and nights helping Gin put together an ambitious DIY summer wedding, they find that having nothing in common may be exactly what they both need.

For the Bride is a sapphic romance full of banter, with real emotional depth. It deals with found family, second chances and love turning up where you least expect it. It is by Becca Grischow, who also wrote I'll Get Back To You.