Long romantic walks along the beach, snuggling together in front of a warm fire, and falling asleep in each other's arms is what Meg Langslow and her boyfriend Michael are looking forward to. Their hopes are dashed when they arrive to find Aunt Phoebe's house already populated by Meg's parents, her brother, a neighbor, and Aunt Phoebe herself. Neither Meg nor Michael is fully prepared to spend their getaway weekend trampling around the muddy island...

Poor Meg Langslow. She's blessed in so many ways. Michael, her boyfriend, is a handsome, delightful heartthrob who adores her. She's a successful blacksmith, known for her artistic wrought-iron creations. But somehow Meg's road to contentment is more rutted and filled with potholes than seems fair.
There are Michael's and Meg's doting but demanding mothers, for a start. And then there's the fruitless hunt for a place big enough for the couple

...

Meg Langslow was actually looking forward to renovating the old Victorian mansion she and her boyfriend Michael bought. But she wasn't thrilled by the lifetime of junk accumulated by the house's eccentric previous owner, Edwina Sprocket. The easiest solution: hold the end-all and be-all of gigantic yard sales. But when the event attracts the late Miss Sprocket's money-hungry heirs, the over-enthusiastic supporters of some endangered barn owls,...

Maybe there are people in Antarctica with penguins in their basements, but in Virginia? Finding a body down there is somewhat more likely for Meg. Explaining the penguins' presence is easy; Meg's dad volunteered to take care of the birds until the future of the bankrupt local zoo could be determined. But identifying the body in the basement proves a harder task. Meg and Michael have been planning to elope to avoid the elaborate wedding their mothers...

Meg Langslow and Michael's house is serving as the marshalling point for the annual Caerphilly holiday parade. The theme is The Twelve Days of Christmas, and it features twelve drummers from the school's marching band, eleven bagpipers, ten leaping lords costumed in medieval finery from the college's drama department, and so on. There are also assorted floats, a live nativity scene on a flatbed truck, the three wise men on Caerphilly Zoo camels, and...

Meg is eight-and-a-half months pregnant with twins when she and Michael host a Spanish playwright for the production of his play by one of Michael's graduate students. Then enters the dean of the English department and a man from the college president's office, who say Michael's student is not allowed to do his dissertation and that the play must be canceled. While discussing this, the dean is found murdered. Meg's house becomes a crime scene, and...

"Meg Langslow is plying her blacksmith's trade at ''Caerphilly Days,'' a festival inspired by her town's sudden notoriety. The lender has foreclosed on all Caerphilly's public buildings, and evicted all employees - except one. Town clerk Phineas Throckmorton has been barricaded in the courthouse basement for over a year. The fesitval's real purpose is to conceal the existence of the Pre-Civil War tunnel used to bring him supplies. But the lender may...

Meg Langslow is helping to organize the Virginia Un-Fair, Caerphilly's entry in the race to replace the bankrupt state fair. Patrolling the fairgrounds after a rash of vandalism and a chicken theft, Meg meets her friend Molly, there with her artisan cheeses. Molly is terrified of losing her farm because her idle husband Brett, who left her for a rich hobby winemaker, is demanding half the land. That night, Brett is found murdered and Molly is swiftly...

"As the holidays draw near in Caerphilly, Mother volunteers to take part in in a big Christmas-themed decorator show house--each room of a temporarily untenanted house is decorated to the hilt by a different decorator for the public to tour. Of course, Mother insists that Meg pitch in with the organization, and she finds herself surrounded by flamboyant personalities with massive egos clashing and feeling their professional reputations are at stake....

"The brilliantly funny Donna Andrews delivers another winner in the acclaimed avian-themed series that mystery readers have come to love. The nineteenth book in her New York Times best-selling series continues to surprise and delight in this next knee slapping adventure featuring Meg Langslow and all the eccentric characters that make up her world. Meg is Team Mom and Michael is coach of their twin sons' youth baseball team, the Caerphilly Eagles....