The Wedding Shop

June 13, 2016
Cora Scott runs the popular Wedding Shop in 1930s Heart’s Bend, Tenn., attracting brides-to-be from all over the South. She waits anxiously for her lover, riverboat captain Rufus St. Claire, to return and fulfill his promise to marry her, but as the months slip away with no sign of him, a local farmer patiently proves his dedication and worth. In the present day, former Air Force Capitan Haley Morgan returns home to Heart’s Bend from her California base, after a childhood friend’s sudden death from brain cancer sends her reeling. When they were young, the two made a pact to one day reopen the abandoned wedding shop that they would sneak into and imagine what it would be like to be married. To overcome her grief and move forward with her career, Haley decides she will fulfill the pact and reopen Cora’s charming store. Hauck (The Wedding Dress) seamlessly switches back and forth in this redeeming tale of a shop with healing powers for the soul. As Cora and Haley search for solace and love, they find peace in the community of the charming shop. Hauck succeeds at blending similar themes across the time periods, grounding the plot twists in the main characters’ search for redemption and a reinvigoration of their wavering faith. In the third of her winsome wedding-themed standalone novels, Hauck focuses on the power of community to heal a broken heart.

Starred review from July 1, 2016
In her third wedding romance, directly following The Wedding Chapel (2015), best-selling Hauck returns to Heart's Bend, Tennessee, where the Wedding Shop occupies a palatial structure built in the late 1800s. When the owner dies, she leaves the store to her niece, Cora Scott, who continues to successfully run the business. But when she dies in 1979, the landmark building falls into disrepair. Haley Morgan and her best friend, Tammy Eason, use it as a hideaway, vowing that someday they'll fix it up. Haley leaves home to be a model, joins the air force, and serves six years as a captain. After Tammy dies, Hayley returns to Heart's Bend and discovers that a developer plans to level the wedding shop. Remembering her pinky swear with Tammy, Hayley decides to thwart the deep-pocketed corporation and restore the wedding shop to its former glory. Tammy's former fiance, Cole Danner, has been offered a six-figure salary to oversee the demolition, but Hayley poses a dilemma. Shouldn't he be part of her team instead? Hauck tells this spellbinding tale of love and independence in chapters that alternate between Cora and Haley, each a strong and fascinating character.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)