Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Marriage Matters by Cynthia Ellingsen

Reviewed by Charlotte Lynn




When I wrote “The Whole Package”, a novel about three best friends who lose everything and decide to open a scandalous business together, I noticed that lots of women were asking me to sign copies to send to their best friends from high school and college. “The characters just remind me of our crew,” one woman told me. “I can totally see us doing this. Listen to this story…”
This made me start thinking about what to write for my next book. It struck me that it might be fun to write something that women could share with their mother and grandmother. Since love is universal, that became the theme. “Marriage Matters” is  the story of a mother, daughter and grandmother who all get engaged at the same time and decide to share a wedding, with all sorts of antics in between.
Here’s what thrills me: Women are indeed coming up to me now and saying, “Oh, my gosh. The naughty grandmother? She took lessons from my grandmother. Listen to this story…”
Mission accomplished. 




Chloe, Kristine, and June are all planning weddings.  Well, all planning a wedding for three, they are grandma, mom, and granddaughter and are all getting married in one sensational ceremony.
Chloe and Ben have been best friends for almost their whole lives.  When Chloe gets engaged to Geoff with a G she is terrified to tell Ben, her best friend.

Married for 25 years, Kristine and Kevin are renewing their vows.  Since Kevin’s job has him traveling more than he is home, their marriage is struggling.  A trip that she goes on with an employee to Rome makes her wonder if her marriage is worth saving.

June is a meddling grandma and mom.  She takes charge of planning this family wedding after her neighbor Charlie proposes.  The rest of the family is struggling to keep her under control.

As I started reading Marriage Matters, I knew I would love this romantic comedy.  I found myself putting faces to the characters and making them real people and making them my friends.  I also loved that it was writing in a place I am very familiar with, Chicago.  Living right outside the city I could relate to the weather, the closeness of neighbors, the cabbies, and the location.

As the wedding plans were made I could see exactly where each character was heading and was really looking forward to seeing how they got there.  I was surprised that such a light read could have so much depth in the relationship and romance.  I highly recommend this novel.

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The books we review on this site (A NOVEL REVIEW) are sent to us by publishers, authors or downloaded from Netgalley. This is a very common practice.  We never take payments for these reviews and all the reviews on this site are our own thoughts and feelings and are not influenced.


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