The Shocking Secret of a Guest at the Wedding (A Milworth Manor Book) by Victoria Alexander is a charming and magical love story. Even more intriguing is when the wedding planner has a few secrets of her own! There are so many twists and turns that you will be asking questions right up until the very end.

Jackson “Jack” Quincy Graham Channing is a banker from New York City and suddenly discovers that his biological father is alive. Even more shocking is that his parents are still married and that his mother never bothered to tell anyone.  Everyone is surprised by the turn of these events and that’s where the book takes off, with twists and turns and excitement galore! Will this new found discovery change everything? Will Jack be able to trust his mother? Will he be receptive to his newly discovered “father?”

As fate would have it, Jack is now the Channing Heir, and in England that is everything! The only request his father asks of Jack is to travel with him to England for a few weeks to meet the family. Rather the family he just discovered he had. Poor Jack has so many questions for his mother, himself and the man he thought was lost to him forever. Will a few weeks be enough time to sort out this new revelation?

Committed and with an open mind, Jack is amiable to traveling and meeting his new family. Consequently, Jack leaves everything behind including one unanswered question. Is he ready for marriage? Once in London, he meets an attractive woman Lady Theodosia “Teddy” Winslow, a wedding planner and friend of the Channing family in England.  It seems Jack isn’t the only one who’s facing family issues and decisions. For Teddy, marriage can’t be for love, in her mind it’s all about survival.

Unfortunately for Teddy, she must build a new life out of need rather than fulfill her childhood dreams.  Exhausted from her Mother’s constant nagging to marry, Teddy dodges it anytime it’s brought up for discussion. As a wedding planner she’s content and for now, it provides enough money to support them both.

Perhaps it’s all about timing and taking a chance on the unknown. What Teddy and Jack need is an adventure together. Is it possible that they can finally discover themselves and who they were meant to be? Suddenly, things aren’t quite as they’d thought. It all comes down to just one kiss. This one kiss will push these two heartwarming characters on a different path than they’d envisioned and will surprise everyone, including themselves!

I received this ARC for an honest review and hope that you will purchase your copy now.  Once again, Victoria Alexander delivers a fantastic story with adventure, family, friendships, self discovery and a wedding!  A perfect book to get wrapped up in this holiday season!

BIO:

New York Times bestselling author Victoria Alexander was an award winning television reporter until she discovered fiction was much more fun than real life. She turned to writing full time and is still shocked it worked out.

Since the publication of her first book in 1995, she has written thirty-two full length novels and six novellas. The Perfect Wife—originally published in 1996 and reissued in March 2008—hit #1 on the New York Times list.  The best selling, award winning author has books translated into more than a dozen different languages  and readers around the world. Victoria credits much of her writing success to her experiences as a reporter.

Her years as a broadcast journalist were spent in two radically different areas of the country: Nebraska and West Virginia. In West Virginia, she covered both natural and manmade disasters. She was on the scene when a power plant construction accident in a small town left 52 men dead. She once spent the night on a mountain waiting to learn of the fate of coal miners trapped in a mine collapse. Victoria was producing a newscast when her husband (who worked at the same television station) and several other journalists were held hostage by a disturbed Vietnam veteran. In Nebraska, she reported on the farm crisis and watched people lose land that had been in their families for generations. She covered the story that was the basis of the movie BOYS DON’T CRY and once acted as the link between police and a gunman who had barricaded himself in his home. Her investigative work exposed the trucking of New York City garbage to a small town dump in rural Nebraska.

During her journalism career, Victoria covered every president from Ford to Clinton. She knows firsthand what it feels like to be surrounded by rising floodwaters and inside a burning building. She’s interviewed movie stars including Kevin Costner, ridden an elephant and flown in a governor’s helicopter. She’s covered a national political convention and Pope John Paul II’s historic visit to Denver as well as small town festivals celebrating everything from walnuts to Glen Miller. Her work was honored by numerous organizations including the Associated Press who called a feature about a firefighter’s school “story telling genius”. It was the encouragement she needed to turn from news to fiction. She’s never looked back.

Victoria claims her love of romance and journalism is to due to the influence of her favorite comic book character: Lois Lane, a terrific reporter and a great heroine who pursued Superman with an unwavering determination. And why not? He was extremely well drawn.

Victoria grew up traveling the world as an Air Force brat. Today, she lives in Omaha, Nebraska with her husband and two bearded collies—Louie and Reggie. They all live happily ever after in a house under constant renovation and the accompanying parade of men in tool belts. And never ending chaos. Victoria laughs a great deal—she has to.