This book follows the story of Dara and Austin as their love story twists and turns when the unexpected happens right before their wedding. This was an exploration of different love stories and how our lives shape who we are and how we love. The book felt a little long with not much nuance in characters and the author wrapped it up in a happy ending that I’m not sure would have played out in real life.

Do you believe in love at first sight? For some people it happens and it can’t be ignored. Even when you have your life plans laid out and nothing was ever going to get in the way of that, nothing! Well one day while in NY City, Dara Willcox meets Austin Clarke at an art gallery. He’s British on his own course and she is from North Carolina and she is set to go to law school. They have plans, they can’t change them, or can they? Or do they have to find a way to be together? All bets are off and the two forge a life together. An April engagement dinner seems like the start that they need. They are so happy with their friends and family but Austin gets news from England and suddenly the wedding is off. Austin heads to England and Dara heads to her grandmother’s home. She won’t tell anyone anything and travels to see friends and family, to escape the whole situation. She is looking for comfort, looking for a way to move forward. Meanwhile Austin is living with life altering situations and trying his best to forget Dara. Beth, Dara’s mother, heads to England and a chance meeting Austin and things just might be set straight. This was a very cute story. The author did a great job telling the story from both perspectives. This was a four star read for me. I want to thank Netgalley, Frances Mayes and Random House Publishing/Ballantine for my copy of A Great Marriage. It was my pleasure to read and review this story. I love a good love story and this book was just that.

*A Great Marriage* is a delightful exploration of love, family, and the twists life throws your way. Dara and Austin’s whirlwind romance starts with a bang in New York, but when unexpected news from London derails their engagement, everything begins to unravel. Dara retreats, keeping her reasons hidden, while her family’s secrets and legacy of "great marriages" start to complicate matters.

Frances Mayes brings her signature charm and humor to this tale, creating a fun and insightful look at what makes a marriage work—or fall apart. With a mix of romance, family drama, and life-changing choices, this book keeps you hooked. It’s heartfelt, relatable, and just a great read overall!

I read a couple pages and started another book then picked it up again after reading kirkus review. So glad I didn’t let it languish in my dnf growing pile
simply because of the quality of the writing and character development which makes sense given the authors SFSU tenure. In many ways this seems like the quintessential southern novel writ modern. So interesting to follow well educated moneyed generations deal with the vagaries of life..makes for
a perfect read. A real tell is that I felt empathy for all the characters as the plot unfolded. I had minor issues with the fictitious city names and was
confused that Mei lived in real city Charleston? This mixup in my mind could have been due to less than careful reading..in any case my preference would have been to say Pawleys is Pawleys, etc…perhaps it’s a confusion when fiction contains the autobiographical. I think a different less spelled out ending could have worked to elevate to a level of best books of the year.

I wanted to love this book but the switch from first person to third person kept me confused for most of the book. This book just did not resonate with me. I enjoyed the beginning but just could not get into it. I'm sure there are people who adored this book and I understand why but it just wasn't for me!

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the chance to read and review this book.

thank you netgalley for the e-arc. i thought this would be one thing when i started and it turned into something completely different but maybe for the best. i really enjoyed the story and the changing settings. i did not like the switching between first and third person a lot.

Dara is raised with privilege. She has connections in Washington DC that helped her get her job. She lives, rent free, in her grandmother’s apartment since the grandmother no longer lives in DC. Dara meets and quickly falls in love with Austin, an architect from London who is working in New York City. The book begins at dinner at her parents’ home. Dara and Austin are surrounded by their friends and her family. The wedding isn’t far off. The next week, back in New York, Austin is given news that will change the trajectory of their lives. Dara responds to the news by giving back the ring and running home. Then she runs to California to visit college friends. She seems to be trying to make huge changes in her life. There are several intertwined stories going on in the book. While I admire Austin for how he finally deals with adversity, Dara annoyed me in some places. But that makes the story interesting.

I’m sorry. I wanted to like this story but I really couldn’t t get into it . The writing was sporadic and confusing. I had trouble figuring out what was going on. It took so much effort that l found I was not enjoying reading the book so I did not finish it..
I’d never read this author before but I likely will not try her again.
Thank you to Net Galley for allowing me to read this book. The opinions are entirely my own.

This book was really difficult for me to get into, and I didn’t really connect with the writing style. It flips back and forth between first and third person narration and comes from many different points of view, which can make it harder to follow. I did, however, get really sucked in to the story and in the end I couldn’t put it down. Some very intriguing twists and turns to this one. I’d just recommend sticking with it until the story grabs you, even if the first part feels like a bit of a struggle.

A Great Marriage
A Novel
By Frances Mayes ( this review is from an ARC sent to me by Netgalley)
Dara Willcox, up in New York for a weekend, meets Austin Clarke at an art gallery. If love at first sight can happen, it happens to them.
However, days after their engagement Austin hears news that causes Dara to cancel the wedding and she refuses to reveal the reason to her parents and best friends.
While Dara escapes to California and Indigo Island, South Carolina, Austin, back in London, faces a major tragedy, the consequences of which are life-altering.
The author weaves the plot with the challenges of modern love empathy and acceptance as well as forgiveness.
Frances Mayes is the author of the modern classic Under the Tuscan Sun, which was a New York Times bestseller for more than two and a half years and inspired the beloved motion picture starring Diane Lane. It was followed by Bella Tuscany, Every Day in Tuscany, and two illustrated books, In Tuscany and Bringing Tuscany Home. She is also the author of A Year in the World, See You in the Piazza, Always Italy, and A Place in the World: Finding the Meaning of Home. Her novels include Swan and Women in Sunlight. Her books have been translated into more than fifty languages.

Enjoyable and thoughtful, this book surprised me with how much I enjoyed it. The story held my attention, and the writing is engaging. Recommended!

Frances Mayes can create great characters that are engaging, empathetic, and coping with love. When a perfect wedding is called off just days before the big event, it sends two people—and their families—reeling, in this poignant novel. A Great Marriage uses a multi-generational approach to illustrate the challenges of marriage, celebrating those who manage to navigate them together.
This is a slow story about how circumstances in our lives can affect not only ourselves but our extended families and friends. The storyline focuses on relationships and how compromise serves as a valuable tool.
I enjoyed this story, I used it as a palate cleanser between a mystery and an epic fantasy and it was a perfect book at this time. I read it on the beach too! The characters are likable and the storyline is engaging. If you enjoyed books such as Under the Tuscan Sun by this same author or Abby Jimenez's Just for The Summer, you will like this story. This might not be your next read if you seek action adventure and an in-depth plot.

As a longtime fan of Frances Mayes, I looked forward to reading “A Perfect Marriage” via an ARC provided by NetGalley. The story follows Dara Wilcox and her fiancee Austin Clarke, whose wedding is called off due to a surprise happening in Austin’s former life in London. The book then explores how they both pick up the pieces, and figure out how to move forward with their lives.

Dara escapes to California to recoup with friends as Austin leaves for London. Meanwhile, Dara feels small in comparison to her accomplished parents and grandmother, who themselves have lived and loved within great marriages and privilege. I appreciated the multi-generational character depictions here: with multiple points of view, we get the sense of complex familial dynamics at work, even if the book carried low stakes. In comparison , Mayes previous novel “Women in Sunlight” pulls off its promise much more effectively.

Frances Mayes’ A Great Marriage starts off with short, punchy sentences and a stream-of-consciousness style that introduces a lot of characters quickly. This matches the hectic feeling of wedding planning, but it left me confused about what was happening at first.

Set in 1995, the story follows Austin and Dara, a couple with what seems like a fairytale romance. They’re planning a beautiful wedding, but Dara suddenly calls it off and breaks up with Austin. The people around her don’t understand why, but we, as readers, are shown the real reason. The book follows Dara and Austin separately as they deal with the breakup and major life events.

Overall, while the story was interesting, it just didn’t hold my attention. I didn’t feel a connection with the characters, and I found most of them fairly unlikeable. The dialogue also felt a bit stilted and unrealistic, which made it harder for me to get into the story.

I wanted to enjoy this book more than I did, but it just wasn’t for me. I hope others will enjoy it more.

A very sweet book full of interesting characters. It takes place in the U.S. and England. There are many many characters and Mayes finds ways to make meaningful connections between them.

A Great Marriage was a beautifully written story about two people in a painful and impossible situation. Dara and Austin have a strong relationship and a loving bond but are ripped apart when something unexpected and heartbreaking happens. Dara and Austin go on separately to figure out the path for their individual futures. While also hoping to somehow find their way back to each other.

The story is heartbreaking, thoughtful and written with a strong prose. I enjoyed it thoroughly and felt deeply the emotions the characters were facing. I felt like there were some tangents on Dara’s end that either didn’t add to the story or weren’t fleshed out enough to make a difference. Either way I enjoyed the journey Dara & Austin taken in their lives. Each of the characters is interesting and important to the plot. It’s a story with a great deal of pain but a strong focus on the beauty of life.

I also tried the audiobook for parts of this book and found it to be a wonderful production with multiple narrators.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are mine alone.

This book had great promise but gets bogged down with a large character count and clunky plots that make it feel longer than its 320 pages. From the first few pages, the reader gets introduced to characters without really understanding who they are or how they play into the main story. This continues through the book….even within the chapters we would get different points of view that weren’t necessary for the plot and at times, created holes that never get filled in. The dialogue was too formal at times and didn’t sound realistic. It was hard to feel any connection between the characters because there rarely was emotion in their dialogue. Dara was an unlikable FMC who flipped opinions at the drop of a hat and was hard to relate to. The main conflict of this story had promise, but we see our MCs handling it mostly on their own, leaving the reader uninvested in their story and how it resolves itself.

I hate giving such a negative review, but I really struggled through this book and had to be fair on this one. While this one didn’t work for me, others may better receive the author’s writing style so hopefully this can help any prospective reader decide if this book is for them.

**Thank you to NetGalley and Random House-Ballantine for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. I appreciate the opportunity!**

For me, Mayes is a gem. I love her writing, how she creates images with words and phrases, how she uncovers the small moments and amplifies them in ways that are relatable. Somehow I always leave her books feeling more grounded, understood, and at peace. To read Mayes is to dive into the small moments, see them expand, and to study relationships, even ones that are complex or hard to understand. I really enjoyed A Great Marriage and appreciated the focus on the intersections of family relationships and generations, not just what makes a great marriage or a good one but what makes a strong person and a enduring connection.

*A Great Marriage* by Frances Mayes is a beautifully written exploration of love, commitment, and the complexities of long-term relationships. Mayes’ lyrical prose and deep emotional insight create a rich, heartfelt narrative. It's a moving and reflective story that celebrates the beauty and challenges of marriage.

This beautifully written book was about a couple who met, fell in love, planned a wedding, and called it off two day before it was to happen.
Dara, a southern belle poised for Law School, met Austin, a British architect in New York City at an art gallery and it was love at first sight. They make plans for a lavish wedding, but Dara calls it off two days before the big event, and will not give the reason. Austin heads back to London, while she heads to San Francisco to find support from her two friends who were supposed to be in the wedding party.
This is not a sob story, or a self-help book, but a book for the reader to ponder over and to examine the values of honesty, and forgiveness in a relationship. The author delves into love between a couple, and among a family, and the strength and support that each type of love provides. She also examines how choices affect a relationship, and ultimately, what makes a good marriage.
I like Frances Mayes writing and she has once again brought us a book which has deep meaning, within a contemporary background.
I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher and the opinions expressed are my own.