Cancel The Wedding

Publisher Harper Collins, August 8, 2014

A heartfelt tale of one woman’s journey to discover the secrets of her mother’s hidden past—and confront her own uncertain future—for fans of Emily Giffin’s Southern charm and Jennifer Weiner’s compelling, emotionally resonant novels about the frustrations of blood ties.

On the surface, Olivia has it all: a high-powered career, a loving family, and a handsome fiancé. She even seems to be coming to terms with her mother Jane’s premature death from cancer. But when Jane’s final wish is revealed, Olivia and her elder sister Georgia are mystified. Their mother rarely spoke of her rural Southern hometown, and never went back to visit—so why does she want them to return to Huntley, Georgia, to scatter her ashes?

Jane’s request offers Olivia a temporary escape from the reality she’s long been denying: she hates her “dream” job, and she’s not really sure she wants to marry her groom-to-be. With her fourteen-year-old niece, Logan, riding shotgun, she heads south on a summer road trip looking for answers about her mother.

As Olivia gets to know the town’s inhabitants, she begins to peel back the secrets of her mother’s early life—truths that force her to question her own future. But when Olivia is confronted with a tragedy and finds an opportunity to right a terrible wrong, will it give her the courage to accept her mother’s past—and say yes to her own desire to start over?

“Part mystery, part soul-searching, Dingman’s Cancel the Wedding leads you on a path of discovery that is well worth the ride.”
— Laura Lane McNeal, author of Dollbaby

“A buried town, a misplaced casket, long-hidden secrets, more than one canceled wedding–Cancel the Wedding by Carolyn Dingman is a delightful tour de force that had me laughing out loud one minute and wiping away tears the next. This is a book you can’t wait to share with your friends!”
— Cassandra King, New York Times Bestselling author of The Same Sweet Girls and Moonrise