The Cairo Bridal Shop

Illuminating, compelling and affecting. These women stole my heart and kept me guessing until the last page. I loved it!

Sally Hepworth

Tess Woods just keeps getting better—sharper, braver, and more deliciously unputdownable with every novel. In her hands, the ties that bind us become a tangle of culture, politics, longing, and the eternal question of where we truly belong.

Melina Marchetta

I laughed, I cried, I whooped in triumph ... It’s a beautifully structured, fascinating read with such palpable passion for the Egyptian people and culture. It blends myth and history and an inherent message about the importance of storytelling with such real, lovable and funny characters. And I love reading about sisters.

Meg Bignell

The Cairo Bridal Shop by Tess Woods is the best novel i have read this year and I'm not sure if in the next four months one will be released capable of knocking it off the top of my list. Five stars and a must read.

Karrensreadingnook

This novel is everything you want in commercial fiction. It’s EXCELLENT (like my book of the year excellent) I LOVE IT!!!!!!!

reada_book

Tess Woods has written something truly beautiful here. The Cairo Bridal Shop isn’t simply my favourite Tess Woods novel…it is my favourite book of 2026!

good reads

My top read of 2026. Without question. I’ve been waiting to lose myself in The Cairo Bridal Shop from the moment I found out Tess Woods was writing it. After falling completely in love with The Venice Hotel, my expectations were already high. I knew I would enjoy this book. What I wasn’t prepared for was just how deeply I would love it or that somehow, Tess would manage to write something I loved even more. By the final page, I felt as though I hadn’t simply read a story. I had gained three sisters, an entire Egyptian family and, somehow, their ancestors too. I became so emotionally invested in these women, their relationships, their histories, their heartbreak and their love for one another that leaving them behind genuinely felt like saying goodbye to people I knew. There is so much heart within these pages. Generations of women, family, culture, sacrifice, resilience and the complicated ways love and expectation can become intertwined. Tess beautifully immerses us in Egyptian life while also confronting the very real and current struggles surrounding women’s rights throughout the Middle East. These heavier realities are woven through the story with such humanity that they never feel distant or abstract, they belong to women we have come to know, understand and care deeply about. And I think that is what made this book so special to me. The Cairo Bridal Shop made me feel connected to women whose lives may look completely different from mine, while constantly reminding me of all the things that bind women together across cultures, countries and generations. I laughed with these women. I hurt for them. I wanted to protect them, shake them, sit at their table and be folded into their family. I finished the book feeling incredibly full and also a little heartbroken that I had to leave them behind. Tess Woods has written something truly beautiful here. The Cairo Bridal Shop isn’t simply my favourite Tess Woods novel…it is my favourite book of 2026!

good reads

Is this the most anticipated book of 2026 from the most loved author?

Gillian O'Shaughnessy