Raquel Saves the Wedding Plot And Review (With Spoilers)

Last night, I read Raquel Saves The Wedding - here's the quick plot summary and review!

The first seven chapters, the first half of the book, are an expanded version of Raquel's journal, which I covered in detail on my review of her journal. The second half tells the story of Raquel visiting Mount Bedford and staying in Samantha's old mansion. Raquel's cousins Sloan and Liam enter a pickleball contest to raise prize money for dolphin rescue, despite the fact that two other competitive girls, Coral and Iris, are set on winning the prize. Raquel isn't sure how to help - she isn't that good at pickleball - but then decides to DJ the event, with the proceeds for paid song requests going to help the dolphins. Coral and Iris win the tournament, and Raquel is happy with her cousins's second place prize, as well as what she was able to contribute, but then her tip jar goes missing - only for her to find out that it went away because Coral and Iris's dad was taking contributions for it from his friends. Coral and Iris also donate their prize money, and it looks like cousin Harper's wedding is going to go well - until her veil is missing. Raquel finds Aunt Cornelia's old veil, gives it to Harper, and is able to DJ the afterparty, marking a sweet end to her trip to New York.

I really enjoyed this book and how it gave us more insight to Raquel as a character! My biggest gripe with the journal, as you all were aware, was how Raquel wasn't driving most of the plot - it was her cousin Sloan who dealt with the heavy themes, such as being adopted. But once the obligatory "we aren't selling the journal without the doll" part of the novel was out of the way, Raquel was able to shine, and in a good way. Her love for her family, her inspiration from Samantha to do things right, her determination to help the dolphins she encountered on her trip. Raquel is for sure one of my favorite Girls of the Year of this decade so far (Joss is still my favorite Girl of the Year from the 2020s, but American Girl has 3 more years to maybe top that...), and I'm glad that this book gave me that insight into her that the journal kind of lacked.