If you’re looking for a great end-of-summer read, I’ve got one for you. Mary Kay Andrews’ novel Save the Date is light, fun and downright infectious. (I LOVED this book!)

Florist Cara Kryzik is trying to keep her business afloat while recovering from a painful divorce and helping nervous brides have the most beautiful big day possible. She doesn’t believe in love anymore, but that doesn’t mean her clients shouldn’t have their happily ever after. While the bills and IOUs (especially to the bank of daddy) pile up, she finds out she’s got celebrity-grade competition for a wedding that could make or break her, on top of a complicated blooming romance with Jack Finnerty, a guy she met in soap-opera like circumstances. But when both of their exs return and the bride of the golden wedding goes missing, Kara realizes she may have to sacrifice everything she holds dear to pull things together.

Save the Date is definitely going on my Best Books of 2014 list. It doesn’t take long for the characters to feel like friends, or to become addicted to finding out what happens next. While some of the conflict is a bit contrived (but show me a love story that doesn’t have some of that), the relationship between the characters and the spot on southern wit make even those pages a pleasure to read. Plus, Andrews’ lush detail actually had me wishing I could open up my own little floral shop, and I don’t know the first thing about horticulture! It’s a fun world to get lost in, and that’s all I require of light women’s fiction.

I’m usually a historical fiction or fantasy reader, but I picked up this one (on audio) because I thought I’d read about it somewhere and my library had it available. I’m so glad I gave it a chance. In tone, it reminds me a lot of my own book, He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not. Neither book will change the world, but they are both happy, funny and charming. And sometimes, especially amid life’s craziness, that’s exactly what we need.

Does anyone have any recommendations similar to this book? I’ll definitely be reading the rest of the author’s books, but I’d love to find more authors like her. Please let me know your favorite light women’s fiction, chick-lit or romance (not too graphic, please) books below.