Wedding Bell Blues »

Linda Windsor, a native of Maryland's Eastern Shore, is the author of eighteen historical novels and nine contemporary romances for both the secular and Christian market. A Christy Award finalist, Linda has received numerous awards in both the ABA and CBA including the Romantic Writers of America's Beacon Award. She lives in Salisbury, MD.

Wedding Bell Blues tells the delightful story of four best friends who have returned to their small hometown on the eastern shore of Maryland, Piper Cove.

Alex Butler is a successful home decorator who hopes she has finally gotten her life together. But when Josh Turner, the man who ran away and broke her heart sixteen years ago, returns to Piper Cove to be the best man in her sister's wedding, Alex can't escape the butterflies in her stomach. But Alex has no time for distractions, her family has enlisted her to make this the wedding of the century. To pull the event off, she pools the talents of her three best friends - Jan, who creates desserts to-die-for will help with the cake and catering, tomboy Ellen, who works at a landscaping business will handle the flowers and decorations, and Sue Anne, who can . . . well, Suzie Q can give Alex a much-needed reality check in the course of the wedding planning chaos.

But fate won't be stopped in this small town as Alex and Josh keep running into each other at every turn. When sparks fly, Alex soon finds herself caught in a paralyzing battle of the heart between her old-fashioned Southern father, who fiercely resents Josh for breaking his little girl's heart, and her feelings for the one man she ever truly loved.

As the wedding approaches, the Butler family faces a threat to their reputation that will shake this Chesapeake clan to their very core. In the midst of it all, can Alex and Josh resist the many forces that seem to be drawing them together?

Publishers Weekly

Billed as inspirational women's fiction, the first offering in Avon's inspirational line is pure, chaste romantic diversion. Alexandra "Alex" Butler was jilted years ago when her hunky husband, Josh Turner, left soon after their marriage to become a rock star. When Josh returns to Piper Cove on the Atlantic Ocean as best man in Alex's sister's wedding, the professional decorator and divorcée finds to her dismay that her passion for him still simmers under her businesslike exterior. Alex's three "bosom buddies" provide interest throughout, especially the mechanically minded Ellen Brittingham, one of the most promising characters in the novel. A few unfortunate sentences are over the top, even for this genre: "She was as indelibly etched under his skin as his tattoos" and "the sight of Alex... was enough to send the wooden totem pole at the Ocean City inlet jumping in the water before it self-ignited." Some plot elements are insensitive enough as to be unbelievable, such as Alex's father giving away Alex's beloved first home to her sister as a wedding gift, and then asking Alex to decorate it. But Windsor, an RWA Beacon Award-winning author and Christy Award finalist, is a competent writer, and the Piper Cove Chronicles should hold their own in inspirational romance. (July)