Cancel the Wedding: A Novel by Carolyn Dingman

Standalone
416p.
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Published: 8/5/14
Source: From publisher for review

On the surface, Olivia has it all: a high-powered career, a loving family, and a handsome fiancé. She even seems to be coming to terms with her mother Jane’s premature death from cancer. But when Jane’s final wish is revealed, Olivia and her elder sister Georgia are mystified. Their mother rarely spoke of her rural Southern hometown, and never went back to visit—so why does she want them to return to Huntley, Georgia, to scatter her ashes? 

Jane’s request offers Olivia a temporary escape from the reality she’s long been denying: she hates her “dream” job, and she’s not really sure she wants to marry her groom-to-be. With her 14-year-old niece, Logan, riding shotgun, she heads South on a summer road trip looking for answers about her mother. 

As Olivia gets to know the town’s inhabitants, she begins to peel back the secrets of her mother’s early life—truths that force her to finally question her own future. But when Olivia is confronted with a tragedy and finds an opportunity to right a terrible wrong, will it give her the courage to accept her mother’s past—and say yes to her own desire to start over?

My thoughts:
This is a mystery book that does not solve a murder but solves the questions they always had of their mother's childhood and life before she met their father. When upon her death she asks them to scatter her ashes on a lake near her hometown and on a burial plot of an unknown person questions of Jane's life (the mother) arise. Olivia is escaping her life of marrying a person she is no longer in love and decides on the spot to investigate her mother's life. Her onery but lovable niece decides to also go along for a ride. While there she discovers more about her mother than she thought possible and also starts to find herself.

I don't want to give too much away but there is also romance within the pages. One that seems to be quick, but also makes sense. The mystery is engaging and you want to know as much as all the players. You enjoy peeling back layers of this woman's life.

I give this book 4 stars. It is a book of self-discovery through another woman's past. It is a great summer read and I recommend it to those that enjoy a different kind of mystery (with no murder), romance, and personal growth.