Cornelia “Neely” Mason is finally tying the knot at forty-five to Robert, a special man with whom she works with in Georgia. Neely’s family also lives locally, and when Neely informs them that she is getting married to Robert, they are baffled. One, they have never met Robert although Neely has mentioned him over the past few years. While Neely’s family is happy for her, they are actually a bit shocked that this staid sister will not become the local “crazy cat lady” after all.

Neely is the practical one in the family, whereas her older sister, Savannah, is the “perfect wife and mother,” married to a doctor with two sons (one in college and one soon to graduate from high school). Then there is Vidalia (the Masons named all their children after cities in Georgia), whose sharp tongue and eccentric nature has left her in a single state, which suits her independent nature. The sole son is Douglas, an attorney in his late thirties who is divorced, which somehow does not garner the shame it would have on the Mason family had Douglas been a woman.

When Neely informs her family that the ceremony is to be simple (to which Robert agrees), Neely’s mother has other plans. Being the Southern matriarch of a traditional family, she starts issuing orders like a wedding planner on crack (or so Neely thinks as she mulls the possibility of eloping, which Robert refuses to do). Even more strangely, the eccentric baby sister, Vidalia, begins to actually start making sense while Savannah, the eldest and “perfect” sister, starts acting “off.” Perhaps Savannah is mourning the early days of her marriage, when life was simpler and moments were more frequent and tender between her and her oh-so-busy (and perhaps a bit lackadaisical) husband.

The question is whether the Mason family can pull off this wedding and keep their loving yet often strife-ridden bond intact. Neely likes to refer to her family as “crazy,” and she is not far off the mark at times, depending on whom you ask. The Good Kind of Crazy is a thoughtful, entertaining read without getting overly zany. Fans of the NEXT line of Harlequin books and fans of Southern and women’s fiction will enjoy this book.