Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q Sutanto

Dial A for Aunties (Aunties, #1)

by Jesse Q Sutanto

"Sutanto brilliantly infuses comedy and culture into the unpredictable rom-com/murder mystery mashup as Meddy navigates familial duty, possible arrest and a groomzilla. I laughed out loud and you will too.”—USA Today (four-star review)

“A hilarious, heartfelt romp of a novel about—what else?—accidental murder and the bond of family. This book had me laughing aloud within its first five pages… Utterly clever, deeply funny, and altogether charming, this book is sure to be one of the best of the year!”—Emily Henry, New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read

One of NPR's Best Books of 2021!

One of PopSugar’s "42 Books Everyone Will Be Talking About in 2021"!


What happens when you mix 1 (accidental) murder with 2 thousand wedding guests, and then toss in a possible curse on 3 generations of an immigrant Chinese-Indonesian family? 


You get 4 meddling Asian aunties coming to the rescue! 


When Meddelin Chan ends up accidentally killing her blind date, her meddlesome mother calls for her even more meddlesome aunties to help get rid of the body. Unfortunately, a dead body proves to be a lot more challenging to dispose of than one might anticipate, especially when it is inadvertently shipped in a cake cooler to the over-the-top billionaire wedding Meddy, her Ma, and aunties are working at an island resort on the California coastline. It's the biggest job yet for the family wedding business—"Don't leave your big day to chance, leave it to the Chans!"—and nothing, not even an unsavory corpse, will get in the way of her auntie's perfect buttercream flowers.

But things go from inconvenient to downright torturous when Meddy's great college love—and biggest heartbreak—makes a surprise appearance amid the wedding chaos. Is it possible to escape murder charges, charm her ex back into her life, and pull off a stunning wedding all in one weekend?

Reviewed by Martha G on

3 of 5 stars

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I liked this but didn't love it. Parts of it made me laugh but parts of it were too over the top for me and I can suspend belief in my books quite a bit. It was one comedy of error after another, and it became repetitive after a while. Every other page had a new "problem" which turned into another problem. I wish there was a little bit more character development and a little less of the back and forth of errors that the characters were continuously trying to fix. It's a mixed review from me. It had funny moments, but I also rolled my eyes especially at the end. I do like that it was a quick read, it was entertaining but I was expecting a bit more.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 13 September, 2021: Finished reading
  • 13 September, 2021: Reviewed