Soon-to-be-wedded Maxine Henley arrives at her hometown ready to face the Summer Solstice Bizarre and sure enough, she’s given a ratty “love charm” by Iona the fairy, who tells Maxine to “Wear this close to your heart and when the moon smiles, the right man will find you, guaranteed.” O-kay, Maxine thinks. She’s already engaged, so why would she need a love charm? Actually, she better hold on to it, because soon after, her scummy fiancé, Peter, calls her to break off the engagement!

As a devastated Maxine struggles to keep a cheerful façade in front of her mother and other well meaning townspeople, she finds support and comfort in her childhood friend, Sam O’Neal, who’s suddenly looking much more attractive and sexy than she remembers.

Incredibly enough, Max keeps making excuses for Peter. She tells Sam that Peter only has “cool feet” and that soon enough they shall be married. Sam, however, wants to win Max but he has a double whammy working against him. Not only does Max stubbornly cling to her plans to marry Peter, but there’s also the fact that city-girl Max would never, in a million years, move back to little Schomberg, Virginia, to keep bar with him.

And that is pretty much the extent of the plot. Max refuses to accept Peter is not quite her Prince Charming, although she is incredibly attracted to Sam, and Sam pines for Max, although he knows he doesn’t fit in her plans. Not much else happens in the way of conflict and I grew tired of reading yet another scene where Maxine almost gave in to her desire for Sam while pulling away at the last minute, because of Peter.

It’s sad when a heroine doesn’t deserve her happy ending, but in this case, I was too bored to care when Maxine reached the very predictable ending. Would she see the light and realize Peter wasn’t for her? Would she accept her love for Sam? Would she move to Schomberg and be happy there? Sam, on the other hand, was incredibly persistent with this woman who kept pushing him away, over and over, because of some guy who barely knows her, even though he’s going to marry her.

I kept thinking that this book could have worked better in a shorter format, without so many repetitive scenes, but since it’s already a series romance, I can only surmise that the general lack of plot that didn’t work for me. The secondary characters were blurry as well. All in all this was a pretty forgettable read for me and one I cannot recommend.