By Kathleen Gilles SeidelRated 3 1/2 Stars
From Library
I have been a KGS fan for a long, long time. She wrote great, insightful, character driven romance novels. I own her entire romance back list and they have a permanent place on my keeper shelves.
However, she has moved on from the romance genre and started writing more main stream novels. I think they call it women's literature or some such thing. Her first one, An Uncommon Degree of Popularity was not much to get excited over. Readable, but only just. This one is a little better. Maybe by the next one she will have a handle on this new direction she wants to go in. Me, I just wish she would go back to romance where she really stood out.
Being the mother of the groom isn't quite a snap for divorced nurse Darcy Van Aiken in this gently humorous look at how an upcoming wedding upsets the delicate balance of family relationships. Darcy, a busy mother of three, gets along with ex-husband Mike, likes her oldest son Jeremy's bride-to-be and discovers an unexpected affinity for the bride's wealthy but down-to-earth mother. There's just one flaw in the ointment: Mike's new girlfriend, clothing designer Claudia Postlewaite, is determined use the wedding as a means to boost her professional and social standing. From the moment Claudia begins her campaign and cold-shoulders Darcy, there's trouble afoot, but instead of letting the book turn into a comic tug-of-war, Seidel (A Most Uncommon Degree of Popularity) reveals the traps people-and especially parents-set for themselves in their marriages and lives. The good (Darcy) vs. evil (Claudia) battle here is light, digestible and full of chuckle-inducing moments.
