Girls in White Dresses by Emily Close

I'm having trouble deciding if I liked this book or not. It was about three best friends Isabella, Mary and Lauren. Yet it took me about half the book to figure this out. The book is laid out with each chapter focusing on a different person. It opened with Isabella and Mary and I was sure I was going to love the book. Then it switched characters and I was introduced to Lauren, Ellen, and Shannon. Their story was also good and at this point I was still impressed with the book. The next chapter went back to Isabella, but this time focused on her relationship with her boyfriend. (Lauren made guest appearances) This is how the book continued, each chapter switching to a different character focusing on their love lives and careers. Since I neither loved nor hated this book I decided to split this review into two parts: the good and the bad.

The Good:

The good thing about multiple characters in a book is that the book is able to cover many different circumstances, and the reactions of different personalities. I like how none of the characters in this book had perfect lives. They dealt with situations that everyday people face, like hating your friends boyfriend, not being satisfied in your career, and having friends you don't really like. The most refreshing part of this book was that their relationships weren't perfect. They fought with their boyfriends. They broke up with them. They dated people that were bad for them. They had questions about their relationships, they didn't love their partners unconditionally and think they were the most perfect person ever. Their partners had faults, and it annoyed them. I think this book reflected real life more then most books do, and I liked it for that.

The bad:

Too many characters! Every time I started a new chapter I had to go back to remember what happened to that character last. I kept flipping back to remind myself which boyfriend she had before, was hers the political guy or the one who went skiing? A couple times they jumped years ahead and suddenly had new boyfriends or different jobs. I would be confused for a moment trying to realize if this was the first time it was mentioned or if I missed something. I think it would have been better if the story was only told from the perspective of the three main characters only. The others characters could still be in the story just not have chapters dedicated to them. Saying that, I think the chapters on Abby and Cate were unnecessary and perhaps the one on Shannon too.

I think this is a book you have to read twice. Read it again after you are familiar with all the characters, and I think it would be a much easier read. I think then I could appreciate it more.
I think the author should have made this a series of three books. She had so many good stories to tell and I would have enjoyed getting deeper into some of the characters. Although I was often annoyed with the changes I still found the book easy to read and the chapters individually were well written and kept my interest. If you have a good memory and can keep track of all the characters, I would recommend this book to you. If not just read it twice. 3/5

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