Love on a Whim

Fisher’s sweet third entry in the Cape Cod Creamery series (after The Secret to Happiness) mixes matrimonial misadventures and relationship quandaries with double-vanilla extract ice cream. It’s summertime in small-town Cape Cod when Dawn Dixon Collins, co-owner of an ice cream shop, receives a frantic text that her usually straitlaced friend Brynn Haywood has married a virtual stranger and bolted after the shotgun wedding. Dawn invites Brynn to stay in town to help her sort things out, though the timing isn’t ideal: Dawn and her mother, shop co-owner Marnie, are prepping for the arrival of tourists celebrating July 4, and of Marnie’s boyfriend, Linc, whose daughter is getting married in town. When the wedding caterer cancels at the last minute, everyone pitches in to help, including Brynn, who rediscovers her passion for baking, though as the date approaches, she’s still ruminating over whether to divorce her new husband or learn to love him. Fisher expertly intertwines plot threads that probe the value of unexpected blessings, friendship, and trust in God without losing the lively, gently humorous tone that gives the book its spark (Brynn reflects on the aftermath of her whirlwind wedding: “One impulsive, irrational decision. Then another. Before you knew it, you were heavily medicated and watching Bonanza reruns all day long”). Fisher’s enjoyable latest will whet readers’ appetites for the follow-up. (May)