Cotton candy is quite insubstantial, but that doesn’t make it any less sweet. First Comes Love is just about as substantial as cotton candy and every bit as sweet. I was charmed and delighted as could be as I read this book. The plot is a delightful farce, the characters are darling, and I was smiling when I finally turned the last page.

Marigold, Indiana is a small town where everyone knows everyone and they all just love to gossip. Tess Monahan normally would not give anyone any reason to gossip about her. She is as good as can be – an Irish Catholic girl from a big family (lots of older brothers) and an outstanding teacher at Our Lady of Lourdes school. The only unusual thing about Tess is that she never gets sick. If everyone at a picnic gets food poisoning from tainted potato salad, Tess is immune. She has had no colds, no flu, no childhood illnesses at all. So when poor Tess finally gets the stomach flu on the day she is to receive a teaching award, her catty fellow teacher Susan Gibbs loudly proclaims to all that since Tess (who we all know is never sick) is throwing up, she must be pregnant.

The gossip begins in earnest and pretty soon Tess is inundated with maternity clothes, baby clothes, and is the recipent of much advice from everyone in town. Does she protest that she’s not pregnant? Yes. Do the townspeople believe her? No. Is this logical? Of course not. But Bevarly handles this totally improbable situation so lightly and deftly that I accepted every word of it.

One citizen of Marigold is more shocked than the others. Will Darrow is Tess’s brother’s best friend and the man on whom Tess has had a crush for the longest time. When Will finds out Tess’s supposed plight, his feelings are tangled up worse than last year’s Christmas lights. He thinks he loves Tess and has been having some pretty racy fantasies about her, but she’s like a kid sister. Yes, but she is so sweet and so pretty and so….

Will dubs himself Tess’s designated Knight in Shining Armor. After all, the father is out of the picture entirely (he’s in the Witness Protection Program, you know) and she needs someone to take care of her. With closeness, comes sizzling sexual tension and when all that tension reaches its logical conclusion, Tess and Will are both suffering from tangled feelings.

First Comes Love is a sweetly funny friends-become-lovers story. The picky reader might wonder why Tess and Will haven’t talked to each other more, but Bevarly sets them up as both being shy, diffident and not all that comfortable with sharing feelings. The entire town knows them better than they know each other, and when they do finally acknowledge their feelings (to the accompaniment of fireworks no less) it is a moment that calls for a big smile and a happy tear.

I guess I can describe First Comes Love as a gentle farce. It didn’t have any belly laughs, but I hardly ever stopped smiling all through the book. I adored Tess and Will, and I was especially happy that Will is an automobile mechanic – such a welcome change from the cops/SEALS/ranchers/business tycoons. The small-town atmosphere was very well done as well. If anyone ever asks me to define “charm” I’ll have to give them this book; it’s as charming as can be.