Captivating Characters of March link-up opportunity! Please join the link party or share your most captivating character in the comments.

Carol’s Captivating Characters of March Link-Up

On the last Friday of the month, I will write a post about my most captivating character of the month and create a Link Party (see link below my review)! In addition to hearing about the memorable characters that have captivated you, I also want this new project to facilitate new bookish friendships, help you find your book twin, and promote blog engagement. This link party will stay active for 30 days. In exchange for linking your post back to me, I promise to visit every blog post that links up, leave a comment, and share your post once on #bookx or #booksky.

Captivating Character Link Up Details:

1. You can use fictional or real characters/persons.
2. Link up a review that specifically highlights a captivating character or person, or write a post dedicated to your most captivating character or person of the month.
3. Please include a link back to my link-up post in your post.
4. Be kind: visit one other post in the link-up and leave a comment.
5. #CaptivatingCharacters25

No blog? No problem! Share your most captivating character of the month in the comments.

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Abigail and Alexa

Name: Abigail and Alexa
Reason(s): If you’ve ever been the Mother of the Bride or Mother of the Groom, you might find these women relatable!
Book and Author: Abigail and Alexa Save the Wedding by Lian Dolan (Pub Date: *5/20/2025) *I read an advanced copy
Genre/Categories/Setting: Women’s Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Weddings, Family Drama, Parents and Children, Uplit, California and Connecticut
Mood: Light-hearted, humorous, poignant

Wedding planning from the mothers’ points of view? Yes, please!

Penelope is from California, a competent professional, and a workaholic. She works on the East Coast where she meets Chase, a smart and charming young man with political aspirations. They agree to to marry on the West Coast. Alexa, the MOB (mother of the bride), is Greek, lives in upscale Monticito, California, owns a successful travel agency, and is a single parent (by choice). She doesn’t truly understand why women need to get married but is 100% supportive of her daughter. Abigail, the MOG (mother of the groom), lives in Connecticut and is involved with her Garden Club and Daughters of the American Revolution. She thinks it would be easier to have the wedding in their Country Club, which would also serve her son’s political aspirations. As tensions escalate, will these two different women find a way to work together and save the wedding?

What do you envision when you dream of your own or your child’s wedding? Alexa (MOB) dreams of her daughter’s wedding as a casually extravagant party with beach vibes and Greek traditions. Abigail (MOG) envisions planning the country club social event of the season, becoming featured on the society pages, and helping her son’s political career. Meanwhile, the bride and groom are independent adults who have specific ideas for the wedding of their dreams. Tricky maneuvering ahead!

Finally, concessions are made, everyone stretches their flexibility muscles, and the plans come together. Everyone breathes a sigh of relief just in time for the bride and groom to have a huge fight and call off the wedding. Oops!

Alexa and Abigail to the rescue! How will they save the wedding? Will their newly established relationship survive this test? Can the MOB and MOG work together for the happiness of their children? They call a strategic meeting with the “Merry Widows” and lean into their creativity and take a few risks.

In addition to the dual POVs, we are treated to a third point of view from a wedding etiquette columnist who often reminds us of proper wedding etiquette. Delightfully entertaining!

I’m highly recommending Alexa and Abigail Save the Wedding for fans of relatable characters, for those who appreciate snappy dialogue and humor, and for readers looking for their next beach/pool read. Book clubs will find a great deal to discuss within the pages of this light-hearted story!

Thanks #NetGalley @WmMorrowBooks for a complimentary eARC of #AbigailAndAlexaSaveTheWedding upon my request. All opinions are my own.

Star Rating: 4.5 Stars

More Information Here.

Meet the Author of Abigail and Alexa Save the Wedding, Lian Dolan

Lian Dolan is a writer and talker. She’s the USA Today Bestselling author of The Marriage Sabbatical. Her other books are Lost and Found in Paris, The Sweeney Sisters, Helen of Pasadena, Elizabeth the First Wife, and Abigail and Alexa Save the Wedding. She’s written regular columns for O, The Oprah Magazine, Pasadena Magazine and Working Mother Magazine. She’s also written for TV, radio and websites.

Lian is the producer and host of Satellite Sisters, the award-winning talk show she created with her four real sisters. 

Lian graduated from Pomona College with a degree in Classics. She lives in Pasadena, California with her husband Berick Treidler and two adult sons who live nearby but don’t come over as often as they should.

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“Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading.”
~Rainer Maria Rilke
“I love the world of words where life and literature connect.”
~Denise J Hughes
“Reading good books ruins you for reading bad ones.”
~Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
“I read because books are a form of transportation, teaching, and connection. Books take us to places we’ve never been, teach us about our world, and help us understand human experience.”
~Madeleine Riley

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