Award-winning uplifting read for people of all ages. Why do couples come and get married in Las Vegas the wedding capital of the world?
Known for its lavish hotels and casinos, beautiful showgirls and sumptuous buffets, Las Vegas is home to an abundance of wedding chapels, earning the city the title as ‘the marriage capital of the world’. Follow Rosemary, the wedding organizer, and Buster, her dachshund with a nose for matrimony, as they guide you through the fictional stories of the Chapel of Eternal Love. Witness a Harley-riding love affair and a May-December romance. Meet a widow and widower who encounter each other at a cemetery and an Iraqi veteran and his anti-war activist bride. Walk down the aisle with two lost souls who find hope and a couple with differing religious backgrounds finding faith. Share the poignant, moving and occasionally humorous tales of the young and old, first-time sweethearts and long-lost loves. Discover the joys, sorrows and journeys that led each of them to the Chapel of Eternal Love.
Excerpt
Las Vegas! The city that never sleeps … the city where fortunes are won … where fortunes are lost … sin city. The glitzy, glamorous, entertainment capital of the world. But there is another side to the city. Las Vegas boasts more churches for its size than any other city in the country. It
is also home to an abundance of wedding chapels, earning its title as the “marriage capital of the world.”In the very heart of the city, one such wedding chapel opened its door more than fifty years ago …
Professional Reviews From Readers Favorite - 5 star rating
The Chapel of Eternal Love: Wedding Stories From Las Vegas by Stephen Murray is a unique story that actually contains multiple stories. Pastor Glen and his wife, Laura, move to Las Vegas, Nevada where tragedy occurs. During a complication in her pregnancy, Laura and the child she is carrying die. Grief stricken and lonely, Pastor Glen erects The Chapel of Eternal Love in honor and memory of the wife he would love forever and their almost perfect marriage. He wanted to unite other couples in the blessed state of marriage that he and Laura had shared. He still believed in the power of love. The constant reminder of the love and life that he lost was overwhelming and Pastor Glen sells the chapel and returns to Wyoming.
Over the next fifty years, countless marriages have taken place in the small chapel that he built in memory of his love. Rosemary has run the chapel for the past twenty-five years. She and her dog, Buster, schedule and assist couples every day to fulfill their desire to become one in The Chapel of Eternal Love. We are invited to witness a number of marriages and discover a little of each couple's background and what preceded each of their decisions to come to the chapel. Their stories are tender, touching, fun, romantic and sometimes sad. All of the couples are welcomed by Rosemary and Buster. Some are obvious in their love and devotion, some leave Rosemary wondering if they stand a chance; all are given her devoted attention and assistance.
The Chapel of Eternal Love: Wedding Stories From Las Vegas is a charming and tender collection of experiences of people from all faiths, economic status and walks of life - all seeking the same joy and happiness. The end of the book has some very tender and touching moments that will tug at your heartstrings. Stephen Murray delivers a well written, endearing story of not one love, but multiple stories of romance and love. Stephen Murray details the journey of each couple with clarity, emotion, and realism. Each couple is different and their stories are varied. This is an unusual, but compelling variety of people and situations that have been expertly woven into one delightful story. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to reading Stephen Murray's sequel, Return to the Chapel of Eternal Love.
Authors Talk About It Book Contest- 1st Place Award - Mainstream Fiction Category
I have fallen in love with Stephen Murray’s book, The Chapel of Eternal Love. This amazing little book is filled with fascinating love stories of couples. They range from a couple of Harley riders who unexpectedly fall in love to a lady of the night to two sets of twins to a couple from vastly different religious backgrounds. Rosemary, who runs the chapel, is interwoven throughout each of the stories. Furthermore, Buster, Rosemary’s sweet little dachshund, is always at the chapel. He has a nose for simply knowing whether or not a couple is going to make it or not. There is even a hint at romance for Rosemary. With so many stories, you just have to keep turning pages – you want to know who will show up at the chapel next.
Extremely well written, The Chapel of Eternal Love is really, really good from page one. I am blown away and very impressed by how easily Stephen Murray gets you to understand the characters almost instantly. With each couple’s story only lasting for that chapter, I was shocked at how much information and depth Murray was able to give to each character and Buster. Love, love, love Buster – what a fun piece to add to the overall ambiance of the chapel. Ultimately, The Chapel of Eternal Love is like a peek into a day-in-the-life of Rosemary and her little dachshund, Buster. Yet, Murray has a way with words and style of writing that opens your heart to each character and their love stories. He makes it easy to fall in love with not only the chapel and Buster, but with each and every person chapter after chapter. I can hardly wait to read the sequel, Return to The Chapel of Eternal Love. If I could give The Chapel of Eternal Love six stars, I would!
Linda Thompson, Host of The Authors Show
No words can describe the heartwarming stories in Stephen Murray's book. While each of the wedding stories took place on one particular day, the care given to the development of each character is usually reserved for a full length novel about one particular couple. Murray has a wonderful talent of drawing his reader into the lives of each character and each separate story, and I found myself really caring about these people. Rosemary is the glue that holds this book together. With the help of her little dog Buster, each couple who visits the chapel is struck by Rosemary's caring nature. The two of them made that little wedding chapel unforgettable. Kudos to Murray for writing a book that will withstand the test of time and will become one many readers will go to again and again whenever they need a feel-good read.
Reviews for "The Chapel of Eternal Love: Wedding Stories from Las Vegas"
Reviewed by Michael Hartnett (Reader)
Reviewed on March 8, 2018
A Great Read about America at the Altar
The last chapter of Stephen Murray’s wonderful book The Chapel of Eternal Love: Wedding Stories from Las Vegas is entitled “A Day in the Life of a Wedding Chapel.” And what a day! Through the various nuptials in this collection, Murray offers no less than a fascinating cross-section of American culture. He achieves this ambitious vision through subtle, incredibly compact storytelling.
Along with an easy humor, Murray demonstrates a poignant empathy for his characters. Whether he captures the psychology of Linh, the Vietnamese immigrant in search of her father who decades ago had been an American soldier in Saigon, or the gentle counsel of chapel director Rosemary, Murray evokes individual perspectives with deftness and economy. The breadth of vision here is impressive from Harley-riding loners to septuagenarian second-timers to an Iraq-war veteran’s correspondence with an anti-war attorney to the young lovers confronted with an unexpected pregnancy to the glamorous model and the photographer to the kindly counselor and the prostitute (not to mention a crazy Elvis-impersonator wedding – hey, the book is set in Vegas). Given such diversity, Murray can juxtapose the hilarious interreligious romance of the Jewish Becky and the Italian Giovanni up against the heartbreaking tale of betrayal suffered by Rosa, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala.
From story to story, The Chapel of Eternal Love is constantly engaging and revealing. Grasping loneliness with nuance, Murray presents a book that is Exhibit A about how much a single personal connection can make huge difference. On one level, the book is about identity, maintaining the one that originally defines an individual, but then discovering through another what allows that identity to flourish.
Indeed, The Chapel of Eternal Love gets a reader thinking, but, as importantly, it provides so many pleasures that one can’t help but get as swept up in the romance of the book as much as the motivations that propel Murray’s characters to the altar.
Five years have passed. The sequel to the award-winning Chapel of Eternal Love, this book revisits the same couples in the first book, and where the lives have taken them since they left the altar at The Chapel of Eternal Love
Just as life during the pandemic was color-coded with different hues representing different levels of danger, life in its aftermath has become shaded in similar ways. As a self-styled “Seeker of Beauty with Beauty,” (borrowing from a quote by W.E.B.
The last chapter of Stephen Murray’s wonderful book The Chapel of Eternal Love: Wedding Stories from Las Vegas is entitled “A Day in the Life of a Wedding Chapel.” And what a day! Through the various nuptials in this collection, Murray offers no less than a fascinating cross-section of American culture. He achieves this ambitious vision through subtle, incredibly compact storytelling.
Along with an easy humor, Murray demonstrates a poignant empathy for his characters. Whether he captures the psychology of Linh, the Vietnamese immigrant in search of her father who decades ago had been an American soldier in Saigon, or the gentle counsel of chapel director Rosemary, Murray evokes individual perspectives with deftness and economy. The breadth of vision here is impressive from Harley-riding loners to septuagenarian second-timers to an Iraq-war veteran’s correspondence with an anti-war attorney to the young lovers confronted with an unexpected pregnancy to the glamorous model and the photographer to the kindly counselor and the prostitute (not to mention a crazy Elvis-impersonator wedding – hey, the book is set in Vegas). Given such diversity, Murray can juxtapose the hilarious interreligious romance of the Jewish Becky and the Italian Giovanni up against the heartbreaking tale of betrayal suffered by Rosa, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala.
From story to story, The Chapel of Eternal Love is constantly engaging and revealing. Grasping loneliness with nuance, Murray presents a book that is Exhibit A about how much a single personal connection can make huge difference. On one level, the book is about identity, maintaining the one that originally defines an individual, but then discovering through another what allows that identity to flourish.
Indeed, The Chapel of Eternal Love gets a reader thinking, but, as importantly, it provides so many pleasures that one can’t help but get as swept up in the romance of the book as much as the motivations that propel Murray’s characters to the altar.