In a wild combination of “Desperate Housewives,” “Sex and the City,” and “Gilmore Girl”s --- with all of the drama but none of the taboo --- beloved author Melody Carlson offers readers her final installment in the 86 Bloomberg Place series, THREE WEDDINGS AND A BAR MITZVAH. Written in her well-known conversational, colloquial style, Carlson’s latest novel continues to follow four diverse young women, with varying levels of faith, differing interests and unique personal issues, through the high dramas of their romantic lives.

The four-book 86 Bloomberg Place series offers an emotionally engaging look at the individual dilemmas of four unlikely female friends --- Kendall, Lelani, Anna and Megan --- who share a small bungalow while launching their careers and maturing through difficult family situations and romantic relationships. Carlson’s unique ability to capture young women’s attitudes, voices and heartfelt desires with meaningful storytelling keeps pace with the lives of her readers as she weaves varying perspectives and voices together with both humorous and poignant threads.

In THREE WEDDINGS AND A BAR MITZVAH, Lelani has returned from Maui to Bloomberg Place with her toddler Emma and is trying to book her wedding date. Unfortunately, there are scheduling conflicts for that same weekend. For starters, Megan and Marcus have a family wedding commitment. Anna and Edmond have promised to attend his stepbrother’s Bar Mitzvah and, to everyone’s surprise, Kendall has just accepted her “Maui Man’s” proposal of marriage and also wants to be wed on that same weekend in June. Let the games begin!

To complicate matters, Lelani wants to keep her wedding simple, but Gil (the groom) has a Latina mama with other ideas. Meanwhile Kendall (the pregnant bride) wants to pull out all the stops on her wedding --- and suddenly her absentee parents are on the scene. A crazed competition for bridesmaids, wedding locations, showers, attention and a little peace and quiet takes over 86 Bloomberg Place. Yet at the same time, friendships are being forged that will last a lifetime.

With only two months to pull off both weddings (on the same day), the pressure is on, and the stress just might kill all promise of happily ever after. Are their friendships strong enough to weather the hassles and heartaches?

THREE WEDDINGS AND A BAR MITZVAH © Copyright 2011 by Melody Carlson. Reprinted with permission by David C. Cook. All rights reserved.