Stephanie Blackmoore

Actress Dakota Craig has decided that she's going to tie the knot in her hometown and arranges for the wedding to be part of a Reality TV series. However, in the week racing up to the nuptials, the Maid of Honor is murdered but the show's producer says that the show must go on. Can Mallory conquer a snowstorm of clues and save the bride from disastrous publicity for an uncertain marriage?

I love this setting and the characters are growing a long with their B&B/wedding planning business. I show more like how Mallory wants the wedding to be what the bride wants rather than what everyone else thinks it should be. show less

In the fifth Wedding Planner Mystery, we find Mallory and her sister Rachel with so much business that they have a waiting list. With a cancellation and after their failed elopement, Keith Pierce and Becca Cunningham jump at the chance to have Mallory and her sister, Rachel plan their wedding. It doesn't matter what Mallory plans or how secret she tries to keep those plans, Keith's mother, Helene, a thorn in Mallory’s side, takes over and informs the bride and groom-to-be of her plans for show more the wedding. In this story we meet Becca's family: her twin sister Samantha, her parents Rhett and Jacqueline and her grandmother Alma. When Alma is injured in an attack on her life and some of her valuable Gone With the Wind memorabilia is stolen, she makes a quick decision. She is leaving all her collection to Becca. When Becca finds a Gone With the Wind Gown, the theme for the wedding changes again. Before Becca can change her clothes another bride-to-be, Felicity Fournier sees the dress and wants it. The funniest scene in the book ensues. When Felicity is found dead in Becca's and Keith's pool, they are immediately suspects. There are bodies or attempts at murder taking place all over this book. If this were my business, I think I would sell it and move on, but Mallory is a wonderful sleuth and does not give up easily.

This story is well written and developed. There are a lot of characters in this one, but it is easy to follow. All the varied threads are pulled together and the ending is quite satisfactory. I enjoyed the quirkiness of some of the characters in this story to offset the acidic personality of Helene. It is nice to see Keith finally stand up to her. With the wedding on, then off, then on, then off and so on, it will keep the reader on their toes. Like in all Stephanie Blackmoore's books, there are a lot of clues sprinkled along the way, several suspects and red herrings to that this reader did not guess the culprit or the motive until the final reveal. I read this book in one sitting as I enjoyed it so much. The publisher, Kensington Publishing, generously provided me with a copy of this book upon my request. The rating, opinions and ideas shared are my own. show less

Mallory Shepard inherited a mansion from her ex-fiancé's grandmother, and turned it into a B&B. She left her law practice and decided to become an event planner. Now she's exited to plan the wedding of her friend Olivia, who is getting married in the spring...or was, anyway. Olivia wants her to move the wedding up to December 23rd, and while Mallory is busy with other commitments, she wants to help her friend, so agrees.

But things aren't going the way she planned. Olivia's family are in show more real estate, and they've decided to build in Port Quincy, where Mallory lives. Not many people are happy about it, but the Marches don't care. They run roughshod over everyone, and now Mallory has to deal with them, too. As if that isn't bad enough, her mother Carole and stepfather Doug have decided to move back, too, and are staying with Mallory at her B&B.

What's even worse is the fact that Carole wants a staging job with the Marches -- one that is currently held by Lacey Adams. So it's a surprise when Mallory goes to check on her decorations for Paws and Poinsettias that she and Lacey designed, and discover her mother has redone everything to her own design instead. When Lacey calls Carole out on it, she feels terrible, and when Lacey is later found poisoned by a drink that Carole handed her, she's the main suspect in the murder.

Now Mallory is planning a wedding and trying to keep her mother out of jail, which isn't easy since her mother keeps doing things that might put her in there. With problems on the home front, and her boyfriend Garrett considering a move to a different job, she's heartsick, but hoping the wedding will keep her mind off it. It might work since she's also trying to solve the origin of Olivia's birth, but someone doesn't want her to, and it might be deadly if she tries...

This is the fifth book in the series and I've read every one. What I think about Mallory isn't that she's weak; it's just that she's used to her sister and mother being the way they are and she's given up trying to do anything about it. I have said in previous posts that I didn't like Rachel because she's selfish and self-centered and doesn't help much around the B&B other than baking. Well, now I see where she gets it from. Carole is worse than Rachel. She totally destroys Mallory's work, saying she 'didn't think she'd care.' Excuse me? You just go in and ruin what your daughter has worked hard to do and think it's alright? What kind of mother is this? Also, she says when Mallory and Garrett get married (and he hasn't proposed yet) that they can move out of the B&B and leave the apartment for Rachel. Say what? The B&B belongs to Mallory. It's her home. Why should she move? Rachel should move instead. She doesn't own the place. Nothing like figuring out who the favorite child is. Certainly not the one who works her fingers to the bone, but the one who's centered on her looks. How shallow is this woman that she can't see Mallory's worth? Tell Rachel to move her butt out. That irritated me no end and made me dislike Carole even more. (Also, I don't care for her tropical designs, but oh, well).

Anyway, with what I've said above, I just wanted Carole to go back to Florida but I suppose that won't happen. So, while Carole won't keep her mouth shut Mallory is on the hunt to find a killer. But she never thought it would trace all the way back to Olivia's birth. It's an interesting story line, and I did enjoy reading about it. I liked the way it all came together, and I will read the next in the series. I did have to take away one star because of the other two Shepard women, who distract from the mystery. show less

Mallory Shepard and her fiance, Keith Pierce, are lawyers who work at different law firms in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Mallory's trying to keep her cool as Keith's mother, Helene Pierce takes over the wedding planning and suddenly it’s no longer the wedding that Mallory wanted or even wants. When Mallory receives an envelope with compromising photographs of Keith and co-worker, Becca Cunningham she dumps Keith and packs an overnight bag. She is devastated and angry, she hides out in a show more hotel and calls off the wedding with her sister Rachel's help they call the guests and anyone hired for wedding to let them know the wedding is canceled, and dodges phone calls from Keith and Helene. Mallory learns that Keith’s grandmother, Sylvia, whom she adored, had recently changed her will, and had deeded her home, Thistle Park, in Port Quincy, Pennsylvania to her with the request that she never allow fracking anywhere on the property. Even though the house has been vacant since Sylvia was put in the nursing home and the property and mansion are in disrepair, Mallory and Rachel decide to move in. On the first day there, Shane Hartley, a representative for Lonestar Energy, approaches Mallory about letting Lonestar lease some of her land for fracking, an argument ensues between the two of them, and Mallory pushes Shane. The following morning, Rachel finds Shane's dead body laying in the front yard. At first, the sisters plan on cleaning up the mansion and selling it, but soon they start to fantasize about fixing the mansion up, opening a B&B, and hosting special events and weddings, the only problem is they don’t have the funds to make that happen. Helene and Keith are angry that they didn’t inherit the house as they had planned on, since Helene had already agreed to let Lonestar lease the property from her for the purpose of fracking. Believing that the police aren’t moving fast enough to find out who killed Shane, Mallory starts investigating on her own. Someone is tries to scare Mallory and Rachel away from the house, by leaving threatening messages on their walls, sabotaging their car, and the senior partners at the law firm Mallory works at try to intimate her.

The mystery has several twists and turns with a few interesting red herrings thrown in to keep you guessing about who the killer is until the surprising reveal at the end of the book. The characters are well developed and well rounded which makes them seem lifelike. The subplots of the story were woven nicely together so that they were all tied up at the end of the book. The way the author described the town and people made it possible to picture them in your head. I did like the relationship between Mallory and Rachel the way they interacted with each other. I did like that Mallory decided to give a relationship with Garret )who was Sylvia's lawyer, Mallory's new neighbor, and Summer's dad) a chance since there were some sparks between the two of them. I really didn't like Keith or Helene and how they treated Mallory, so I was glad that the plans for Thistle Park didn't go as planned. show less