by Ann B. Ross
Part of Miss Julia, book 6
First published 2006
Miss Julia Murdoch returns home from her spontaneous wedding to Sam, expecting to settle into married life. Instead, she gets pulled into Hazel Marie's fundraising plan for a local beauty pageant. The whole affair strikes Julia as rather unseemly, but she has bigger problems brewing. Word spreads that Pigeon Forge, the quick wedding chapel where she and Sam tied the knot, may not have the legal authority to perform marriages. Julia faces a mortifying possibility: she and Sam might be living together unmarried in the eyes of both the law and her gossipy Southern town. As rumors swirl and the beauty pageant chaos unfolds around her, Julia scrambles to maintain her reputation while figuring out whether her marriage is real. The situation tests her poise and forces her to confront what matters most when appearances clash with reality.
Genres: fiction, romance, contemporary-romance, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, fish-out-of-water
Setting: Pigeon Forge, Southern
Period: Contemporary
320 pages · Paperback · Penguin Publishing Group