Elaine Viets - Novels / Reading Guide for Book Discussions Groups

What to serve: Wedding cake, with lots of white icing and sugar roses. Or the cake you really wanted for your wedding.

What to wear: Since this is a wedding novel, formal attire is requested. Florida formal, that is. You can wear anything from long pants to long skirts -- or shorts and high heels.

(2) Weddings for wealthy young women such as Desiree may be about money, as well as love. How did Desiree's mother use her money for this wedding? What about Desiree's father? What did Desiree's money mean for her groom, Luke?

(3) Kiki and her hunky young chauffeurs are a scandal. Is Millicent right? Would people overlook her young lovers if Kiki were a man? Was Kiki born too soon, as Millicent states, or do you think she could have broken out of the tight constraints of her society and led a more productive life?

(4) Margery has a romance with the handsome Warren. She says young people have one thing on their minds -- marriage. "I'm past the marrying stage. Men Warren's age don't want wives. They want a nurse with a purse. I'm not that desperate. He's strictly recreation."

Do you agree with Margery? Does she really believe this, or is it bravado? Do you think Margery was in love with Warren?

(5) What about the romance between Helen and Phil and the intrusion of Kendra? Should Phil have let his almost-ex stay at his apartment? Was Helen right to be angry at him? In the end, did Helen make the right decision about Phil?

(6) What did you think of Helen's reaction to her mother's marriage to Lawn Boy Larry? Did she behave in a mature manner?

(7) Millicent tells Helen, "People always get what they want. They just don't realize it." Do you think this statement is true? If so, did Millicent, Helen and Desiree all get what they wanted? What about Kiki, Brendan, and Rod the chauffeur?

(8) What do you think of Helen's observations about Floridians and their winter clothes? She says Floridians laugh at the tourists for their garish vacation togs, but look just as silly in winter dress. Helen also believes you could tell when Floridians first arrived in the state by the cut of their winter coats.

(9) This is also a novel about change and transformation. Millicent says that her young customer, Becky, may become a hard, controlling woman like her mother. Becky may also change for the better, but it could be difficult for her. In the end, Desiree turns into her hated mother. What do you make of these changes? Is it possible to escape your upbringing?

(10) At Millicent's salon, a husband chastises his wife because she doesn't spend enough money on her mother-of-the-bride dress. Have you ever seen an argument like that? Why would he tell his wife to spend more on her clothes?

(11) Although Helen sees unhappy mothers at the bridal shop, she also encounters great maternal love. What do you think of the relationships between mothers and daughters in this book? Do the happy ones have anything in common? What about the unhappy ones?

(12) When Helen has her problems with the police and Phil, Margery intervenes. What is Margery's role in Helen's life? What about Peggy? What do the Coronado and its residents represent for Helen?

(13) Working in the bridal shop brings up painful memories of Helen's failed marriage, her wedding and her unhappy relationship with her mother. Do you think Helen heals some of these old wounds by the end of the book?

(14) Millicent, who has seen hundreds of family fights in her shop, tell Helen, "There's a reason for all that wedding craziness. It's nature's way of getting the bride out of her parents' house and into her own." Do you agree with that statement?