Wedding Invitation, A [Paperback]

Alice Jay Wisler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2011

Charming Southern Fiction to Delight Contemporary Readers

After returning home from teaching English at a refugee camp in the Philippines, Samantha Bravencourt enjoys her quiet life working at her mother's clothing boutique in Falls Church, Virginia. When she receives an invitation to a wedding in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, she looks forward to reconnecting with her college friend. Instead her life collides with Carson, a fellow teacher and the man who broke her heart, and a young Amerasian refugee named Lien who needs Samantha and Carson's help to find her mother before Lien's own wedding. When the search for Lien's mother reveals surprising secrets from the past, Samantha must reevaluate her own memories and decide whether to continue to play it safe or take a risk that could change her life.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Romance and drama meet in this latest by Wisler (Hatteras Girl), who does a wonderful job conveying Southern charm. Readers who enjoy the works of Susan May Warren and Tamara Leigh will also appreciate this. --Library Journal, September 15, 2011

When Samantha Bravencourt accidentally attends the wedding of a stranger, her whole life begins to change. She meets a handsome man, Taylor, who takes an interest in her. She runs into one of the Vietnamese refugees she had taught eight years earlier, in the mid 1980s, in the Philippines. Samantha splits her time between the D.C. area, where she lives and works at the boutique her mother owns, and Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she often visits her Aunt Dovie. Carson, fellow teacher and former love interest, also lives in North Carolina. He and Samantha reconnect, forcing her to reevaluate their past and examine her heart. With Taylor in D.C. and Carson in Winston-Salem, Samantha wavers between the promise of the future and the hope of repairing the past. Wisler grants her characters the chance to fix their mistakes, and as each succeeds, readers will enjoy a story of hope, love, and grace. --Booklist

From the Back Cover

It's hard to concentrate when the past keeps shoving its way into your thoughts...

After returning home from teaching in a refugee camp in the Philippines, Samantha Bravencourt enjoys her quiet life working at her mother's clothing boutique near Washington, D.C. When she receives an invitation to her friend's wedding in Winston-Salem, NC, she's excited to reconnect with her college pals.

But the wedding turns out quite differently than Sam expects. A chance encounter leads to a reunion with Carson Brylie, a fellow teacher and the man who once broke her heart, and Lien, a young Amerasian girl who desperately needs Sam and Carson's help.

But working with Carson might put Sam's tender heart at risk once again. Is she willing to forgive the past and take another chance on love?

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Bethany House Publishers (October 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764207334
• ISBN-13: 978-0764207334
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.9 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #880,430 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born and raised in Japan, I love sushi! I also enjoyed walks to the stationer's store to purchase notebooks, scented erasers and pencils when I was in elementary school. With each purchase, I was sure I was going to write a bestseller!

Now I write, blog, and enjoy crafting fun characters in Durham, NC. All of my novels are set in some part of my state. Rain Song (Christy Finalist 2009) takes place in the little town of Mount Olive, home to Mount Olive Pickles and strong family ties. How Sweet It Is, also a Christy Finalist in 2010, takes places in the Smoky Mountains. Hatteras Girl made her debut October 2010. Of course, it is set in the lovely Outer Banks. A Wedding Invitation, has flashbacks of settings in a refugee camp in the Philippines and also has scenes in Winston-Salem, NC. It arrived in October 2011. For me, this novel represents the need we all have to belong and be accepted, just like my Amerasian character feels. Still Life in Shadows, my fifth novel, takes place in a small mountain town I created called Twin Branches. This is also a story of belonging as Gideon Miller helps dissatisfied Amish youth relocate and find their places in modern society.

In addition to speaking at conferences and retreats across the country, I teach online grief-writing classes---Writing the Heartache---and design and sell remembrance cards. Since my four-year-old son Daniel's death in 1997, I've written articles on coping with grief. Many of these can be read at the Open to Hope website at http://www.opentohope.com. Be sure to visit my website at http://www.alicewisler.com and my blogs: http://www.alicewisler.blogspot.com/ and http://www.writingtheheartache.blogspot.com/

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wedding Invitation by Alice Wisler October 3, 2011

By C. Kendall VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

It was just a few days ago that I let out a delighted squeal when this book arrived in my mailbox. Now today I let out a contented sigh as I finished it, followed by a touch of sadness that it was over. Now I probably have to wait another whole year before I read another Alice Wisler novel. That truly makes me sad.

I have made no secret of the fact that Alice is hands down, my absolute favorite author. She has been since I read her debut novel, Rain Song. That book has been my all-time favorite book for a long time, but I'm thinking now it has some serious competition. I can't decide if I like A Wedding Invitation better. If not better, it's a definite tie. I guess I don't need to decide, I just need to love the fact that I loved this book. I have loved all of Alice's books. She has a writing style that is so tender, so sentimental, without an ounce of sappiness. I have yet to find another author who evokes the kinds of feelings in me that Alice's books evoke. And, I read A LOT of books, as you may know.

So, what was it exactly that delighted me to my core? Hmmm, where to begin. Well, Samantha was one of the loveliest and most endearing characters I have ever had the pleasure of spending time with. I could just feel her loneliness and her sadness about the love she lost, but deep inside she always had a hopeful spirit and a desire to love.

And of course, an Alice Wisler novel wouldn't be an Alice Wisler novel without a cast of supporting characters like Aunt Dovie and Beanie. Anyone who has lived in the South for any length of time knows people like this and we are better off because of them.

This book had a deeply personal feel to it as well. There is a lot of Alice on these pages, not just her words, but her heart as well. Her son Daniel was there, soaring high in the sky. Alice's personal experiences, her losses and her triumphs gave this book the heart that I have come to look forward to in her books.

I was very comforted by the mother/daughter relationship between Samantha and her mother. It made me think a lot about my mother, which is always welcome. In fact, I would be willing to bet that if my mother was still alive, she and I would likely own a dress shop very much like Have A Fit. And it would be fun. There were other things that I felt personally drawn to as well. For instance, the tribute to the Vietnam veteran. That made me cry, because my dad served in Vietnam and he is my hero. It is those little things that made this book so very special to me. Those things have made this an unforgettable book.

That is what readers can expect from this book - to have a deeply personal experience, no matter what life has handed you. That is the brilliance of Alice's writing. There is pain, sadness, grace, forgiveness, hope and tons of love in A Wedding Invitation. The sentimental feeling is so strong in this book. It was hard to get to the end of this book. I did not want it to end.

Read this book, absorb it, savor it, and fall in love all over again. Fall in love with second chances and with Alice's lovely words. You'll see what I mean.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An Invitation to Belong November 14, 2011

By Katy Lee, Author

Format:Paperback

Every now and then we pick up a book that catches us by surprise and alters our jam-packed schedules into an impromptu pajama day. Well, this past week, A WEDDING INVITATION invited me to do just that.

Although, I have to be honest, when I received Alice J. Wisler's latest release from Bethany House, I took one look at the cover and thought fluff. Just another wedding romance cliché. Even so, I started the book thinking I would get through a few chapters before bed. Next thing I knew it was 3AM.

I was hooked on this genre-breaking piece. I kept flipping back to the cover, wondering if I was reading a romance or women's fiction or mystery or something else entirely. It didn't fit any mold I had ever read, and I wondered why I found it so enthralling.

Obviously the deep POV (point of view) was what hooked me to keep reading into the wee hours of the morning. Wisler's prose makes you feel as though you are right there in the story. But it was the actual story itself that had me filled with an emotion and concern for a people and topics I had never given a second thought to.

Now before I tell you what I thought about the story, let me tell you a bit about what influenced the author to write it. According to the Author Page in A Wedding Invitation, Alice J. Wisler had once received an ornate wedding invitation in the mail. Only it wasn't for her. It was addressed to the previous homeowners. But ever since she received that invitation, she wondered what going to the wrong wedding would be like.

As cute as that plot line sounds, I don't think the actual wedding was what this book was about. But rather, I think it was about the invitation itself. Because of her role as a former teacher of the unwanted half American/ half Vietnamese children (Amerasians) at a Philippine Refugee Processing Center in the mid-1980's, Wisler seems to understand how people have a need to be accepted; a desire to be a part of something. The feeling of being specifically sought out and invited to something is huge. And I think she understands this well because she witnessed it from the front of the class in those dusty school rooms filled with children waiting for their invitation to belong.

A Wedding Invitation is a work of fiction, but Wisler has taken what she knows from those refugee classrooms and interwoven a heartfelt romance between two people who also share, along with many other quirky characters, that desire to belong. The heroine and hero, Samantha Bravencourt and Carson Brylie are like real everyday people, filled with strengths and weaknesses, successes and faults. I enjoyed watching their story unfold little by little, getting a clearer picture of the type of people they really were...and feeling their pain along the way. When it comes to tugging at the heart strings, Wisler has a gift for making the reader feel the same emotions the characters are. The emotions and the characters hop off the page right into your heart.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Some of her best writing November 15, 2011

By Deena Peterson

Format:Paperback

I have adored Alice J. Wisler and her fictional stories from the first book, but I have to say her newest release is by far her best yet. Maybe it's because I have two single daughters who long for that special love to come along, but this one grabbed me by the heart from page one and just would not let go.

Samantha Bravencourt is a woman after my own heart...she could easily be a kindred soul-sister. She's lost her father, spent her college years teaching in a Vietnamese refugee camp in the Philippines, and gave her heart away far too quickly, getting it back in pieces.

But Samantha isn't one to quit, so when Momma needs her home, she returns to help operate her mother's clothing boutique and to watch over her mom, a cancer survivor. In this stage of life, "A Wedding Invitation" is not always a welcome thing, but Samantha is excited to reconnect with old friends and to spend time with her beloved Aunt Dovie.

Did I mention how much I loved Sam? She does what I've always feared doing (No, I'm not spilling the beans...you'll have to read it for yourself) and that one event changes the course of her well planned life. What seems like chance or fate is truly the hand of God...you'll see His fingerprints all over this story.

Quite possibly, you'll be able to see His fingerprints more clearly in your own life after reading about Samantha's. But how will her chance encounter with Carson Brylie turn out? Can her past meet her present and not explode in fresh hurts and deeper wounds? And can Sam open her heart to Lien and set aside her own dreams in order to help Lien with her dream.

Oh, how I wish I had an Aunt Dovie! And a Beanie! And a Pearl...and even a Little...some delightful Southern women you'll meet after you accept "A Wedding Invitation". I can't think of one character I didn't fall in love with and didn't wish was a real person I could have in my own life.

I think that's the key ingredient in Alice's stories...I always want to live in her books, meeting the people she creates and having the experiences that make me laugh...and a few of the ones that make me cry. Truthfully, I probably have plenty within my own story, but Alice makes it sound like more fun!

I'm giving "A Wedding Invitation" five out of five bookmarks and voting it "Best Southern Contemporary Fiction of 2011"...I think she's tied with Denise Hildreth Jones as my favorite Southern author...and that's saying something!

As if that isn't enough, she includes RECIPES in this book!! Gotta love her for that...I Love, Love, LOVE when my authors share delightful dishes from their fiction with me. It's almost like a snippet of life within the story...or a taste of their fiction for real!

My thanks to Alice and to Bethany House for my copy. Don't miss "A Wedding Invitation"...and check out all of the great fiction by Alice J. Wisler! You'll be glad you did! Oh, and maybe it's an accident, but I don't think so...that Samantha's last name is BRAVEncourt...'cause she sure has to be brave in this story!!