Marriage Of Inconvenience (1992) - Plot & Excerpts
Reviewed for THC ReviewsMarriage of Inconvenience was a nice start to The Manning Sisters spin-off series, Those Manning Men. It is a sweet story of two best friends who've had one too many bad dating experiences and have given up on traditional love and marriage. However, both of them badly want a child of their own, so they agree to enter into a marriage of convenience with the intention of producing one via artificial insemination. Things don't exactly go as planned, and before they know it, they've fallen in love.Rich is a wonderful guy and a great friend to Jamie. He's known her since they worked together on the high school year book where they constantly butted heads, but once they worked through those differences, they became the best of friends. Rich has always been there for Jamie. He's the one person she knows she can call day or night if she needs someone to share her problems or help her out. Rich is very responsible and doesn't take Jamie's proposal to father her child lightly. I liked that he refused to simply be a sperm donor, but instead wanted to be involved every step of the way in the process. He also refuses to let Jamie bear the entire burden of pregnancy and raising a child alone. He wants to be a true father in every sense of the word and for that I admired him. The realization that he'd been in love with Jamie for a long time kind of sneaks up on him, but once he figures it out, he knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that he wants to be a permanent part of her life if she'll let him.Being the hopeless romantic that I am, I'm not sure I could have made the choices Jamie did to abandon dating and have a child on her own, but I respected her decisions. At least, she wanted someone she knew and trusted to father her baby rather than a stranger, but of course, that led to all sorts of unintended consequences. Jamie was a sweet heroine, but her biggest faults were her stubbornness and lack of communication. She tends to be one of those women who expects her man to decode her odd moods and unspoken words which could be a little frustrating at times. I have to admit though, that Rich was guilty of these things sometimes too. They were both just a little too stubborn for their own good, which led to several arguments. They have a tendency to misinterpret the other's actions, especially after sharing intimacies, which led to even more miscommunications and misunderstandings. Their obstinacy also makes them both afraid to reveal their feelings, leaving them waiting on the other one to say or do something to indicate they want more than a marriage of convenience. I suppose this could be viewed as a comedy of errors, but it did give me pause. I started to wonder if they were going to make it for the long haul since both of them were so reluctant to open up, but once they finally got past expressing their feelings, things seemed to change between them for the better.In Marriage of Inconvenience, readers get to know Rich's two brothers a little better. Paul is a journalist and the only one of the brothers who is already married, which makes him the perfect person to give Rich a little advice on the topic. However, his marital status tragically changes, leading him to become the hero of the next book, Stand-In Wife. Jason is a veterinarian and playboy who has no intention of getting married. He is the closest of Rich's siblings and becomes the hero of the third book, Bride on the Loose. Then there is Rich's sister, Christy's ex-fiancé, James, an attorney who helps Rich and Jamie draw up a legal agreement. I had been a little disappointed that a seemingly good man like James got left out in the cold in the last book of The Manning Sisters duet, so it's nice to know that he'll get his HEA too, the fourth and last in the series, Same Time, Next Year.Overall, Marriage of Inconvenience was a light and easy, but enjoyable read. It contained a lot of themes I typically love, so if Rich and Jamie hadn't been quite so stubborn and hadn't had so many misunderstandings, it probably would have been a keeper for me. As is, I still liked it, and the prospect of Paul, Jason, and James becoming future heroes has sufficiently whetted my appetite for more of “Those Manning Men.” Marriage of Inconvenience was originally published as a stand-alone novel in the Silhouette Special Edition line, and was later reprinted in the single-author anthology The Manning Brides along with the second book of the series.
Quick, easy read. Nice story with some funny moments but *UGH* would have enjoyed it a little more if I hadn't spent most of the time wanting to either slap Jaime or tell her to pull her head out of her a**.Rich, a bit old-fashioned but he caught on quicker that they had more affection that just that of a long time friendship. Jaime, well she just had a stick up her rear and nothing he did was ever the right thing. And this was before the hormones kicked in. The telling of the parents...cheesy and so unrealistic. The brothers, Jason and Paul, now they made for some comic relief. Love Paul's reply when asked how a woman thinks. no right answer to that. Like I said, quick read. Cute story just wish it didn't have such a "fluff piece" feel to it.
What do You think about Marriage Of Inconvenience (1992)?
In Macomber’s romance novel, Rich Manning and Jamie Warren have been friends forever. And love? They each agree they love each other as friends. But when Jamie asks Rich to be the father of her future child, Rich agrees on one condition—they get married. One thing leads to another, and Rich discovers a passionate side to Jamie that he never knew existed. Before long he’s sure of one thing and one thing only—he loves her and will do anything to make this marriage work.What a unique twist on the whole romance concept. Well done!
—Debbie Heaton
Jamie and Rich have been great friends since high school. Jamie decides she has given up on getting married and she wants to have a child. After talking to some adoption agencies she found her wait would be long. So she spoke to a doctor about invetro. After contemplating having a stranger's child she tries to talk Rich into being the child's father through invetro. Rich finally agress but makes a stipulation that the child will be his and they will be married. Even though they live in different residents it didn't take long for the reader to know that they are perfect for each other. It didn't take them long to figure this out either and the baby is quickly conceived the natural way. It just took another 150 pages before either would be honest with each other about their feelings.
—Tiffany
I liked this fine. It was an incredibly quick read. I found it on the shelves at the beach house I was staying at. The characters were cute. I was a little annoyed at the tremendous amount of miscommunication that occurred. Are there really marriages out there where almost every word one says is misunderstood by the partner? It became a little annoying, although I did become curious as to how this simply thought could be misconstrued - but then the writer would explain how it happened. It makes you want to be incredibly explicit with every word you utter
—Donna Halloran
