Books for Christian Girls: "Wedding at Sea" by Melissa Tagg

About this book:

  “Lilian doesn’t remember anything about her life before the day Maggie Muir found her on her front porch—a toddler, abandoned and alone. And maybe that’s okay. She has a beautiful life at Muir Farm, including an adopted family she adores and a successful career as a lawyer. But she also has a secret . . . one that raises just as many questions about her future as it does her unknown past.
    And, of course, it would be private investigator Wilder Monroe, her brother’s best friend and the bane of her existence, who sniffs out her secret before anyone else.
   Wilder has spent the past three years trying to close the one case his father couldn’t—the mystery of Maggie Muir’s long-lost granddaughter. But the decades-long search has become more tangled than ever. It’s become more personal, too. Not only are the Muirs the closest thing to family he has left, but if he can solve this mystery, maybe he'll keep himself from drowning in the one he can’t . . . the truth about his father’s death.
    In the midst of secrets and swirling questions, Maggie asks a favor of both Lilian and put aside their bickering and work together to plan her summer wedding. It’s a big ask, made all the more difficult when danger comes calling at Muir Farm. But if the two enemies can stand each other long enough to pull off the event of the year, they just might solve a mystery in the process.
    And the biggest discovery of all? That sometimes the one your heart longs for is the last person you ever would've expected.”

Series: Book #3 in the “Muir Harbor” series. Reviews of Book #1 Here! and Book #2 Here!

Spiritual Content- Prayers; Talks about God, trusting Him, & living your calling; 'H's are capital when referring to God; Wilder hasn’t prayed much since his father passed away & struggles with trusting God since He could have prevented his father’s death; Wilder is mad at God for different loved ones’ deaths and when he says that he doesn’t know how he can trust God, Neil tells him to keep asking questions and that God isn’t going anywhere (*Spoiler* Shortly after that conversation, Wilder feels calmer and holds on to his Heavenly Father  *End of Spoiler*); Mentions of God, Jesus, trusting Him; Mentions of prayers & praying; Mentions of churches, chapels, church going, pastors, sermons/lessons, & a Sunday school class; A few mentions of a cross at churches/chapels; A mention of miracles; A mention of Christian goodwill;
             *Note: The phrase “Lord” and “Oh Lord” is said at the beginning at a handful of sentences (could be taken as talking to the Lord or in vain); The phrase “for the love of all that was good and holy” is said; A mention of young boys breaking into a church to go hot tubbing in the baptistry; A mention of hell breaking loose; A mention of Mother Nature.

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘crap’, a ‘heck’, a ‘holy blazes’, an ‘oh my gosh’, a ‘suck’, a ‘ticked’, an uunfinished ‘what the—‘, two ‘blasted’s, two ‘darn it’s, two ‘what the heck’s, three ‘gosh’s, three ‘sheesh’s, three ‘shoot’s, four ‘darn’s, four ‘dumb’s, five ‘oh my word’s, ten forms of ‘idiot’, twelve forms of ‘stupid’; The phrase “no chance in—” is cut off; Sarcasm & Eye rolling; Being held at gunpoint, being shot, pain, passing out, injuries, & blood/bleeding (up to semi-detailed); Falling into the water (up to semi-detailed); Recalling an almost murder & seeing someone throw themselves off of a cliff (up to semi-detailed); Wilder drinks a bit of spiked punch (on purpose) & Lilian has a sip of champagne; Many mentions of the deaths of loved ones & grief (for a father, a lover, a daughter, for a wife); Many mentions of a car accident & deaths (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of deaths, gunshots, being held at gunpoint, passing out, injuries, & blood/bleeding; Mentions of an attempted murder (Book #2), someone throwing themself off a cliff, & that person being in a coma; Mentions of crimes, criminals, thieves, stealing, stolen items, break-ins, arrets, & prison; Mentions of a stalker; Mentions of a seventeen-year-old running away from home; Mentions of when Wilder got drunk and hungover after his father passed away, going to the liquor store for the first and only time, drinking, & alcohol; Mentions of spiked punch & Wilder drinking a bit (on purpose) before dumping it (to avoid the anniversary of a hard day); Mentions of divorces & husbands leaving their wives; A few mentions of a place crash & death; A few mentions of kidnappings; A few mentions of almost drowning; A few mentions of vandalism; A few mentions of lies, lying, & liars; A few mentions of hatred; A few mentions of jealousy; A few mentions of an alcoholic; A couple mentions of gossip; A mention of a war; A mention of gambling; A mention of cigarettes; A mention of the death of an athlete’s dream;
             *Note: Wilder was the one who found his father after he passed (border-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed); Wilder has a hard time walking into the church his father’s funeral was at (comes across almost like PTSD) & recalls his father’s funeral and open coffin (up to semi-detailed); Lilian was left on Maggie’s porch as a toddler and has always wondered about her biological family, but has tried not to think about it; *Spoiler* Wilder feels guilt from his mother choosing to carry him instead of getting cancer treatments (she passed when his was a newborn); Wilder wonders if his father mixed up his medicine on purpose, which caused to his death and feels guilt for not being there (His father left him a letter which Wilder originally read as a goodbye letter, *Another Spoiler* but later rereads it and realizes that his father was just tired, not suicidal) *End of Spoiler*; Mentions of breast cancer, leukemia (including deaths from both), MS, symptoms, & MRIs; Mentions of car brands; Mentions of brand names (Nike, Levi’s, Tupperware, Mead Five Star notebooks, Slim Jims, Bagel Bites, Pepto-Bismol, & Coca-Cola); Mentions of social media & websites (Google, WebMD, Airbnb, & Facebook); Mentions of TV shows, movies, & celebrities (Matlock, I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched, Alfred Hitchcock, Marilyn Monroe, Edith Head, Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn, & Elizabeth Taylor); A few mentions of fictional characters; A mention of acting like a zombie;

Sexual Content- A fingers-to-lips touch, a palm kiss, five cheek kisses, two chin/jaw kisses, a hair kiss, an almost (semi-detailed) kiss, three not-detailed kisses, a barely-above-not-detailed kiss, two semi-detailed kisses, and two detailed kisses; Wanting to kiss/be kissed (up to semi-detailed); Recalling kisses, almost kisses, touches, & embraces (up to semi-detailed); Touches, Embraces, Hand holding, Warmth, Shivers, Smelling, & Nearness (up to semi-detailed); Flirting, Blushes, & Winks; Noticing & Staring (up to semi-detailed); Lilian wakes up in Wilder’s bed with him (accidentally, all they do is cuddle while asleep, he’s shirtless and she checks to make sure she’s wearing clothes, Wilder teases her about doing things out of order and getting into bed with him, up to semi-detailed); Wilder pulls Lilian into his lap (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of a married man having an under-age mistress & him leaving his wife for her (he says he loved the mistress and was obsessed and possessive towards her (not letting her leave his house and she felt trapped); Both the wife and mistress were pregnant around the same time); Mentions of children born out of wedlock or affairs & a mother keeping the father of her child a secret; Mentions of Lilian & Wilder being alone together on his houseboat & how people would talk if they saw; Mentions of kisses, kissing, & almost kisses (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of boyfriends/girlfriends, dating, & dates; A few mentions of flirting & blushes; A couple mentions of Wilder’s desire & yearning for Lilian; A mention of a newly married couple sleeping in and Wilder not wanting to continue that conversation about what they were doing (it’s corrected that they had breakfast in bed); A mention of a secret lover; Love, falling in love, & the emotions;
             *Note: A few mentions of teasing mentions of a wedding night & the husband going to have a time with the button’s on his bride’s dress; A few mentions of a shirtless guy & his abs (barely-above-not-detailed); A few mentions of curves & figures (barely-above-not-detailed); A couple mentions of a knocked-up cat; A couple mentions of a guy manhandling a girl; A couple teasing mentions that a couple would have cute babies; A mention of a figuring out a couple is having a honeymoon baby; A mention of hoping a guy is not wearing just a towel.

-Lilian Muir, age 30
-Wilder Monroe
                                P.O.V. switches between them
                                           Set in 2019 (Epilogue in 2023)
                                                        396 pages

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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

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My personal Rating-

I’ve been so excited to read Lil and Wilder’s story since they first appeared in “Autumn by the Sea”. I’ve been eagerly anticipating this book for months and I’ve read it now. I’m honestly quite sad that this series is over now. I’ll still hope that Mariana (Lilian’s assistant) will get her own story because I feel like she deserves her own story (just please not a second chance romance!), but for now, this series is done.

Here’s the thing about this trilogy: it’s not just all roses and sunshine and cute romance—I mean, it has those squee-worthy parts, yes, but there’s also a depth within the books because of what the characters have gone through that make them feel so real and also the mystery that’s carried on through all three books which adds in some suspenseful moments at times.

I think that’s the thing that’s made this series stand out to me: the almost life-like characters with their struggles. If you told me there was a Muir family in Maine with Maggie, Neil, Liliana, and Indie that this series is based on, I wouldn’t doubt it—that’s how realistic it felt. I felt like I was reading about real people and that even though this book ended (with that perfect epilogue, by the way), it feels like they’re still around just living their own lives, Sydney and Neil being adorable, Indie and Philip being literally the cutest, Lil and Wilder driving the other crazy, and Maggie sharing wisdom. I love that feeling. It makes my heart happy—and yes, partially because that means the author could revisit those characters again at any time (hint hint 😉).

The one thing I didn’t like in this story was that past events and secrets were kept by the main characters, teasing and taunting the reader with hints about them, but not giving us all the details about everything until the very end. Which I know this trilogy technically has a mystery, but I don’t like being left out of the loop, so those parts kind of bothered me a lot with our main couple and their secrets. Sure, sure, keep secrets from the other, I don’t really care since you’re not a couple yet, but tell me—the reader! I want to know! (Me? Nosy? Yes.)

Oh, I’m sad this trilogy is done. But it was such a good series and such a good ending, I can’t be upset. All I can do is happily sigh. 😌

See y’all on Friday with a new review!