I Take You

by Eliza Kennedy

Overview

Brilliantly executed and endlessly funny, this page-turning debut showcases one of the most winning, irrepressible voices since Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones.
 
I’m getting married.
He’s perfect!
It’s a disaster.

      Meet Lily Wilder—New Yorker, lawyer and bride-to-be. She has a dream job, great friends, a family full of charismatic and loving women, and a total catch of a fiancé.
     Also? She has no business getting married.
     Lily’s fiancé Will is a brilliant, handsome archaeologist. Lily is sassy, impulsive, fond of a good drink (or five) and completely incapable of being faithful to just one man. Lily likes Will, but does she love him? Will loves Lily, but does he really know her? As the wedding approaches, Lily’s nights—and mornings, and afternoons—of booze, laughter and questionable decisions become a growing reminder that the happiest day of her life might turn out to be her worst mistake yet.
     Bridget Jones’s Diary meets Where’d You Go, Bernadette in this joyous and ribald debut, introducing a self-assured protagonist whose choices raise fresh questions about gender politics, monogamy and the true meaning of fidelity.

Customer Reviews

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780553417838
Publisher:	Crown/Archetype
Publication date:	05/05/2015
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

ELIZA KENNEDY attended the University of Iowa and Harvard Law School, where she was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. After graduation she served as a law clerk for a federal judge, then practiced litigation for several years at a prestigious Manhattan law firm. She lives in New York with her husband and son. This is her first novel.

Reading Group Guide

Guide written by Amy Clements

Editorial Reviews

03/02/2015
Kennedy’s debut novel sparkles with candor and wit as one woman counts down the week before her wedding. Lily Wilder is working at a Manhattan law firm and planning her Key West wedding and a deposition there. Her fiance, Will, is an archaeologist, whom she truly loves. There’s just one problem—Lily believes that she is incapable of being faithful. She has repeatedly cheated on him during the time they have been together and continues to cheat while in the Keys in the days leading up to her wedding. She sees the relationships of her father with his ex-wives as foretelling her own issues with fidelity. Yet Lily doesn’t regret anything about her past behavior until her future mother-in-law threatens to reveal skeletons from Lily’s closet that could possibly destroy her relationship with Will and end her law career. Kennedy’s ribald story is both engaging and atypical, the perfect combination for a new voice in women’s fiction. (May)

Publishers Weekly

Kennedy’s debut novel sparkles with candor and wit…[her] ribald story is both engaging and atypical, the perfect combination for a new voice in women’s fiction.”
—Publisher’s Weekly

“I have not laughed this hard or this much at a book since Bridget Jones's Diary. I Take You is wickedly smart, hilariously funny, sexy, clever, and stupidly accomplished for a first novel. In short, the most enjoyable read I have had in YEARS. I completely loved it.”
—JANE GREEN, New York Times bestselling author of Tempting Fate
 
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I Take You is the funniest book I've read all year. I drank four bottles of chardonnay by myself because I couldn't get to a book club fast enough. Eliza Kennedy makes infidelity sexy again!”
—GARY SHTEYNGART, New York Times bestselling author of Super Sad True Love Story
 
“I Take You is sexy and smart in equal measure—Eliza Kennedy’s heroine Lily Wilder is great fun to be around, even if she’s not always sure who she’s taking to bed. Kennedy’s witty and brash voice will win you over by the end of the first page.”
—EMMA STRAUB, New York Times bestselling author of The Vacationers
 
“This fun, warmhearted novel is the rare great read about love and marriage that doesn’t tacitly promote a set of dated ideas about how women should feel, think and behave. Instead, it romps along merrily while being subtly revolutionary about sexual politics—no small feat, as anyone who’s tried to romp merrily while revolting can attest.”
—EMILY GOULD, author of Friendship: A Novel 

"In this whirlwind story, which reads not unlike a quickie engagement, the ultimate question is whether one can be both promiscuous and in love. Lily, basking in the glow of Key West's free-love attitude, is guided toward yes. This book has the effect of three Bloody Marys at brunch: it'll leave you flushed, giddy, and prepared to embrace your wild side." 
—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

12/01/2014
Pitched as a debut to equal Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones, this racy title stars New York lawyer Lily Wilder, who's getting married in six days to one very hot guy but still cannot resist the lure of other men. Is she really ready for the altar? The 12 countries that rushed to buy it after it buzzed about the Frankfurt Book Fair can't all be wrong.

Library Journal

2015-03-05
Lily Wilder is getting married in six days to a man who really lights her fire, but she still has one big decision to make: does she actually want to get married? Lily is a lawyer who loves her job, enough to be excited about working a huge environmental case the week of her wedding in Key West. But prepping a witness is only one of many distractions keeping Lily from figuring out her true feelings: "Do I want to call this off?...Do I love Will?" Is she capable of being faithful, and does she even want to be? Will is a sexy nerd who speaks multiple languages and works as a curator at the Met in New York. He's essentially perfect. But as Lily's mom reminds her, "You're such a…a free spirit!" That's putting it mildly. Lily's comfortable downing vodka for breakfast. She gives her wedding planner—who is a special kind of kooky—hell just for her own amusement. And she'll find a hot stranger to make out with within five minutes of being left alone. But, despite a difficult past and the judgment of her peers, she likes who she is. There are plenty of examples—say, The Good Wife or Susan Rieger's The Divorce Papers—of female lawyers forging their own paths, but in Kennedy's debut, career takes a back seat to exploring the benefits of an unconventional love life. At times, Lily's carefree attitude goes from endearing to preachy: "there's not always some ulterior motive....Sometimes, we just want sex." In this whirlwind story, which reads not unlike a quickie engagement, the ultimate question is whether one can be both promiscuous and in love. Lily, basking in the glow of Key West's free-love attitude, is guided toward yes. This book has the effect of three Bloody Marys at brunch: it'll leave you flushed, giddy, and prepared to embrace your wild side.

Kirkus Reviews