A Small-Town Bride

Ramsey (A Christmas Bride) charms in her second Chapel of Love contemporary, set in tiny Shenandoah Falls, Va. Wealthy Amy Lyndon spends her days shopping until her overbearing father kicks her out of the house for refusing to marry Grady, the rich hedge-fund manager he’s picked out as her groom. Rather than wed a man she doesn’t love, Amy opts to leave home and takes the only job she can find: joining the landscaping crew at a local wedding venue. Her new boss, Dusty McNeil, is the proverbial kid from the wrong side of the tracks made good, and he can’t see why a pampered rich woman would try or could succeed at a job so seemingly beneath her. As their mutual attraction grows, Dusty realizes that the woman he’s written off has a backbone of steel and a generous heart, but her father’s machinations may doom their romance before it’s even begun. Some of the story is a bit contrived (particularly Amy’s exile from the family mansion), but Ramsey wins readers’ hearts with likable characters, an engaging plot (and a hilarious subplot), and a well-deserved happy ending. Agent: Elaine P. English. (Apr.)