Everything but a Groom

Jacobs's latest is a lighter-than-air meringue with little conflict and anemic drama that manages to charm the reader anyway. Vancy Salo is stricken by her Hungarian grandmother's wedding curse, or so she believes after her fiancé leaves her at the last second for a waitress. Soon, Vancy's hounded by the local press, who think the wedding curse story could have the same legs as a recent, popular runaway bride story. At the same time, Matt Wilde, the landscape contractor for Vancy's family's construction business, has just had dumped on him two nephews he didn't know existed. He takes care of them, but the stress of looking after them while both working and searching for their father has him at wit's end. So when he desperately suggests Vancy stay with him until the media attention dies down, she shocks herself and him by agreeing. The rest of the story is predictable in the extreme: without so much as a disagreement or misunderstanding, the burgeoning lovebirds decide to keep their ready-made family. Charming but thin, this book is for those who like their romance light and sweet. (Dec.)