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We’ve all seen it before: You accidentally kill your blind date in self-defense and ask your aunts for help hiding the body, all because your mother pretended she was you on a dating site, and thought the eggplant emoji was an innocent offer to cook you dinner.
Okay, maybe we haven’t all been there yet, but that’s what happens in Dial A for Aunties, the hilarious and fast-paced mystery caper and rom-com by Jesse Q. Sutanto that kept readers in suspense this spring. Now the aunts are back in a sequel that is billed as Crazy Rich Asians meets The Godfather (jasss). We are very excited to present you the cover unveiling for Four Aunts and a Wedding!
Check out the cover by designer Vikki Chu and a summary below, then scroll down to read a few words from the Jesse Q. Sutanto and read an exclusive excerpt from the book. Look for this one in March 2022.
Meddy Chan has been to countless weddings, but she never imagined how her own would turn out. Now the day has come and she can’t wait to marry her college sweetheart Nathan. Instead of arranging for Ma and the aunts to get married, Meddy wants them to enjoy the day as guests. As a compromise, you will find the perfect wedding provider: a Chinese-Indonesian family business like yours. Meddy hesitates at first, but she gets along with the wedding photographer Staphanie right away, who remembers Meddy of herself except for the name that is unfortunately misspelled.
However, Meddy realizes that this is where their similarities end when she overhears Staphany talking about taking out a target. It turns out that Staphanie and her family are The Family – a real Mafia, and they use Meddy’s wedding as a chance to take out a target. Her aunts and mother are not turning Meddy’s wedding ceremony into a crime scene – because of their corpses – and will do anything to save their special day, even if it means taking on the Mafia.
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A few words from Jesse Q. Sutanto:
CR Michael Hart
After the whirlwind of the release of my first adult novel, Dial A For Aunties, I am so happy, grateful, and kind of scared to present the sequel, Four Aunties and a Wedding. So many readers came up to tell me how much they mean to Dial A and reading their messages was an amazing experience. They also reminded me of the heart of those stories: family love. In Four Aunts and One Wedding, despite the many deceptions in the book, I continued to focus on the love between Meddy and her family.
Four Aunties and a Wedding is set in Oxford, England, where I met my husband. Although I loved Oxford, I also remember how surprised I was at how different experiences with immigrants were in England and the United States.
From the bottom of my heart I thank my readers for following Meddy and the Aunts on their travels, and I hope you enjoy Four Aunts and a Wedding as much as you enjoy Dial A for Aunties.
And now an excerpt from Four Aunts and a Wedding:
“Nathan, over here, Nathan! Nathan! “Ma screams, gets up and waves like crazy as we meander through the dim sum crowd. Nathan waves at her, but she keeps waving and calling his name.
“How come she’s never excited to see me?” I grumble.
“Because, in her words, I am the perfect specimen of a man.”
I roll my eyes. I mean, I agree with Ma, of course, but Nathan doesn’t need to know that. Over the past year my family has fallen in love with him as if he were their long-awaited prodigal son, and instead of being scared off as I feared, Nathan happily accepted all of the attention.
As we approach them, I see that there are neither one nor two nor three new faces at the table, but –
“Five salespeople?” I hiss.
Nathan squeezes my hand. “It will be fine. We eat with them, look at their portfolio and then politely but definitely say no.”
I take a deep breath. I can do this. I’m an adult, damn it. I can stand up to my family, especially for my wedding. And for all his jokes, I know Nathan would support me if I wanted to.
Everyone smiles and waves when we get to the table, and Nathan and I go around greeting them – first great aunt, then second aunt, and so on. Even though I got here with Big Aunt and the others, I have to say hi to them again. After I say hello to my family, I stick with the sellers. They are not quite what I expected. There is an older woman who looks about the age of my great-aunt, three men who could be between thirty and fifty-five, and a young woman who looks about my age.
The young woman stands up and comes around to shake hands with Nathan and me with a big, friendly smile. “Meddy, it’s so nice to finally meet you. I’ve heard so much from you and I’m so much looking forward to your wedding. “
Her smile is infectious and I find myself beaming at her before I catch myself. I don’t want to appear like I agree. I press my mouth into a thin line. But then the woman hands me her business card and I know that she and I are meant to be friends. Because on their card it says:
Staphanie Weiting Tanuwijaya
photographer
Stop walking around, we are here for all of your wedding needs!
I chew on my lower lip to keep from laughing.
“By the way, that’s not a typo. It is really written with an a, ”says Staphanie.
I meet her gaze. “I have a lot to do with it.”
“I knew you would, Meddelin,” she says somberly. “When your mother sent me your name, I thought, ‘Okay, I have to meet her. She will understand what it is like to grow up with a unfortunately spelled name. ‘”
“I do!” I laugh. “I really, really do. Oh god, you poor thing. I guess you get a lot of jokes about staph infections? “
“Mhmm. And paired it with my Chinese name Weiting? Forget it. “I’m waiting for my staph infection to clear up.” I hear that at least five times a day. “
I still laugh when we sit down next to each other.
Big aunt clears her throat and Staphanie and I become silent. When all the attention is on her, Big Aunt gestures at me. “This Meddy, the bride, and this Nathan, the groom.”
The older woman nods and gives us a very grandmotherly smile. “Wah, Cakep Sekali ya? Will give you such cute babies, ”she says to Ma. Ma smiles, and the older woman continues, “You have to have babies right away, okay, not be like these modern people nowadays, wait and wait, later your uterus will dry out.”
“Ama!” Staphany scolds. She turns to us. “I’m sorry. This is my grandmother, she is just, uh, she is -“
The sight of Staphanie’s humiliation towards her family warms my heart. Finally someone who really understands what it’s like to grow up with my family. “It’s okay, I see,” I tell her.
“Oh, you’re so right,” Ma says to Staphanie’s grandmother. “Yeah, I don’t know why all these young people want to wait, wait until they’re too old to have the baby!”
Nathan puts a comforting hand on my back. I can tell that he is struggling to suppress his laughter. I’m glad he at least thinks Ma is funny.
“Please, eat,” says Staphanie and puts a Hargow on my plate. I quickly return the favor by skewering a Char Siu Bao and placing it on your plate. At the table, our families do the same, quickly picking up dumplings and placing them on each other’s plates – a fight to show which family has the better manners. Nathan is used to it by now and jumps in with enthusiasm to give Big Aunt the greatest Siu Mai and Staphanie’s grandmother the greatest Cheung fun. Shouts like “Aduh, don’t mind, you eat, you eat” and “Wah, you so good boy” fill the air and soon every plate is full and the fight ends in a draw. Now we can finally start eating.
Staphanie takes a small bite of her bao. “So to give you an overview of our company. . . ”She points to her family. “Ours, like yours, is a family business. My ama is the wedding organizer … “
“Oh wow.” I don’t even have to fake the amazement in my voice. “This is really amazing, aunt.” I say using the formal Indonesian term for aunt. “Organizing weddings is so complicated, especially when it comes to Sino-Indonesian weddings.”
Staphanies grandmother nods with barely reticent pride. “You can call me Ama.”
Calling someone “grandmother” feels like betraying my late mother, but there is something grandmother about Staphanie’s grandma. I really want to call her Ama, even though we have only just met.
“Okay, Ama.” Nathan gives her his boyish smile. She beams back and then I know that we have found our wedding organizer.
From four aunts and a wedding by Jesse Q. Sutanto. Used with permission from publisher Berkley. Copyright © 2022 by Jesse Q. Sutanto.
