The Christmas Wedding Guest by Susan Mallery

The Christmas Wedding Guest by Susan Mallery

Published by Harlequin  ISBN 9781335522450

Trade paperback, $16.99, 432 pages

Last Christmas, I was enchanted by Susan Mallery's Happily This Christmas, a holiday story in her Happily Inc. series, so I was excited to see that she has a new Christmas book in a new series. The Christmas Wedding Guest is the second book set in Wishing Tree, Washington, a town that celebrates Christmas year-round.

Sisters Reggie and Dena are helping their mother plan a Christmas vow renewal. Their parents didn't get the big wedding 35 years ago, and now Mom wants all the bells and whistles.

Dena is a schoolteacher who also owns the town's B&B, left to her by her aunt. She is also pregnant, ready to be a single mother after she feels that love has passed her by. Last year on Thanksgiving weekend, Reggie's boyfriend proposed on Friday, hosted a big engagement party on Saturday, and broke up with her on Sunday.

Reggie moved to Seattle for her job, and is not excited to see everyone again after last year. Her high school boyfriend Toby moved back to town with his eight year-old son to live with his grandmother. He is a hugely successful businessman, and his son is in Dena's class.

Micah is a rock star who lost his wife and unborn baby in a car accident last year. He came to Wishing Tree to work with a friend and get away from it all, and ends up staying in Dena's B&B. Dena, like every other woman, is attracted to the handsome man, and Micah seems to like Dena as well.

The characters in The Christmas Wedding Guest don't necessarily have secrets, it's more that they have complications in their life. Dena is a pregnant soon-to-be single mom with horrible all-day sickness, Micah is trying to move on from his tragic accident, and while Reggie is thrown together with Toby who left town abruptly at age eighteen without a word to Reggie, Toby is determined not to get romantically involved with anyone.

No one creates these charming towns populated with characters that you feel like you know as friends as well as Susan Mallery. On her website susanmallery.com, you can see maps of the towns like Happily, Inc. and Wishing Tree, with all of the charming small businesses highlighted. Looking at them makes you feel like you are walking through the town you just read about. Her books are Hallmark Christmas movies waiting to happen.

I adored The Christmas Wedding Guest as much as Happily This Christmas, and like last year, I will be giving this book to someone I know who loves Christmas. I can't wait to read more books in the series so I can get to know the people of Wishing Tree better.

My review of Happily This Christmas is here.

Thanks to Harlequin Books for putting me on their Holiday Romance Book Tour.

Friday 5ive- November 12, 2021

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly blog post featuring five things that caught my attention this week.

1)  When you get up at 6am to do laundry, sometimes you are greeted by this gorgeous red sky over the East River. It almost makes it worth getting up so early. Almost.

2)  Living in New York, surrounded by concrete and highrise buildings, it's a treat to see pretty landscaping. I saw this in front of the Bristol apartment building while I was running errands.

3)  Also while running errands, I listened to a fascinating podcast. On Next Question with Katie Couric, journalist Margaret Sullivan talked with Katie about her book, Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy. Sullivan (now with The Washington Post and formerly with The New York Times) spoke about her work as the editor at The Buffalo News and how important local newspapers are to a community and our democracy. Local newspapers attend city, town council, and school board meetings, report on local arts scenes, and highlight community members. So much of today's media are now in the hands of politically motivated monopolies (Sinclair Broadcasting TV stations) and hedge funds that only care about profits (Alden Global Capital which now owns such prestigious newspapers as Chicago Tribune, Denver Post, Baltimore Sun), it's dangerous to our democracy. Young reporters from Report for America also shared their work in local communities underserved by media. As someone who grew up in a small community with a very strong local newspaper that still exists, I really appreciated this podcast and I will be buying Margaret's book. 

4)  On Veterans' Day, MeTV ran the series finale of MASH, which is something that is rarely seen on TV. I've been on a MASH kick, as TV Land runs two hours of episodes in the morning from 9am-11am and I like to watch it while I'm doing my morning chores. I vividly recall watching the last episode in my college dorm, with dozens of us crowded around the television in the common room, and I'm not sure I have seen it since then in 1983. The MeTV broadcast also had interviews with cast members, writers, and producers during the three hour event. It was a powerful ending to a classic television show that artfully combined drama and comedy. You can see the interviews here. 

5) I read three books this week. The first is a super suspense thriller, All Her Little Secrets, a debut novel by Wanda M. Morris. When lawyer Ellice Littlejohn walks into her boss's office early one morning and finds him dead from a gunshot wound, she runs away to her office and tells no one. Why? Ellice, the only Black lawyer at Houghton Transportation Corporation, was having an affair with her now-dead white boss. She finds herself caught in a dangerous tangled web that includes her younger brother, along with the CFO of Houghton who clearly dislikes Ellice, the female head of HR, and the CEO who appears to be suffering from dementia. It's a twisty novel that combines the movie Get Out with the legal thrillers of John Grisham. It's a real page-turner.   

Now that Mariah Carey has declared it's time for Christmas, I read two holiday-themed books. Jean Meltzer's The Matzah Ball serves up a Hanukkah story. Rachel, the daughter of an esteemed rabbi, has a secret- she is also Margot Cross, the bestselling author of twenty popular Christmas romances. When her publisher tells her they want a Hanukkah-themed book this year, Rachel must get herself invited to the Matzah Ball, an NYC event that is organized by a man who broke her heart as young teen at summer camp. It's a delightful holiday story, full of heart and humor, and I so enjoyed learning about Jewish foods and traditions. My full review posts on November 21st. 

The second holiday-themed book is Susan Mallery's The Christmas Wedding Guest. The story takes place in the town of Wishing Tree, near Seattle. This town is all about Christmas, with Christmas-themed stores and restaurants surrounding a town square called The Wreath. Sisters Dena and Reggie's parents are renewing their wedding vows at a huge traditional wedding they didn't have when they eloped 35 years ago. Dena is a schoolteacher who also owns the town B&B, and is pregnant having decided to become a single mom when love has eluded her. Reggie left town last year after her boyfriend proposed to her on the Friday after Thanksgiving, hosted a huge engagement party on Saturday, and then dumped Reggie on Sunday. When Reggie's high school boyfriend returns to town with his young son, and rock star Micah is a guest at Dena's B&B, sparks fly and the road to true love is rocky indeed. It's the first book in a new series, and no one gets readers more invested in these charming towns and the people living there better than Susan Mallery. My full review posts November 22nd. 

Stay safe and healthy all.