Marrying Daisy Bellamy is the latest installment in Susan Wiggs’ popular Lakeshore Chronicles series.  It was released last week along with the book Ms. Wiggs wrote with her daughter Elizabeth Wiggs Maas:  How I Planned Your Wedding: The All-True Story of a Mother and Daughter Surviving the Happiest Day of Their Lives.

I was amused to see Susan weave a shout-out to Elizabeth’s popular blog IamtheBeholder and their beloved dog Barkis into the plot lines.  I think the plot was also enriched by Ms. Wiggs’ mother-of-the-bride experiences while she was writing the book.  I am intrigued by the notion of the only daughter of a best-selling romance novelist getting married ~ fantasy and reality butting heads on an epic level.

In Marrying Daisy Bellamy, Ms. Wiggs is continuing her shift from romance novel to fiction.  The men in your life will enjoy the special-ops plot lines.  Passionate hunk Julian Gastineaux is sent on a mission to do battle with Columbian drug lords.  The mission goes south, and Julian is cursed with paralysis and PTSD:

His recovery [from falling out of a plane] had been so swift, and he looked like the picture of health.  But inside, he was still bleeding somewhere from secret wounds.  She’d been an idiot to assume he’d simply pick up his life where he’d left off.  There were some things, she thought, that even love couldn’t fix.

I loved watching spoiled brats Daisy Bellamy and Logan O’Donnell mature as they struggled to meet the best interests of their son Charlie.  Their challenges and choices are more realistic than typical romance novel pap. . .especially after Julian returns to Avalon.

I have an extensive library of romance novels, but Susan Wiggs is the only author I still read.  Her books are a brilliant blend of sizzle, wicked humor, and audacious attitude.  She has an infectious zest for life.  I lifted this from her blog: