MARRY ME by Karen Stivali is a fun, entertaining and realistic story that packs
a punch. It is a quick read with the feeling of a much longer novel. This story
fulfills one musician-lover's dream of marrying a rock star. If you can survive
swooning with envy, this book is definitely for you. I give MARRY ME 4
stars.
MARRY ME tells the story of Julia, a fashion designer/tailor, who
falls in love with Ben, a British drummer. Julia has worked on the band's
clothing for video shoots and concerts for a while, and during the band's visit
to New York, Ben asks Julia to marry him in a flirtatious joking manner. Julia
says no because they've never even been on a date. Ben immediately rectifies
that situation, and soon the relationship progresses to the point where they
fall in love. They each have some baggage, though, and it collides in a violent
way.
Even though it was short (83 pages), I definitely enjoyed this book.
Often I find that short books, or novellas as they are sometimes called, skimp
majorly on the character development, thus making the story completely
unbelievable. Not so here. There is just enough time spent on character
development for their romance to be believable. Still, I would have preferred
fewer sex scenes and more of their time spent together. The passage of time is
properly described, so the reader knows that it took more than a week for them
to fall in love. This is also a minor aspect to novels that is so often ignored.
The reader needs a timeline of sorts to understand the drama in context.
Here, the main characters meet each other's friends and have to deal
with jealousy in the work place. We get to see the characters' interactions
through dialogue instead of heavy narration. The pace is quick without feeling
rushed, and it was well edited. No pesky spelling errors to distract you. It's
funny; it's real, and it's an easy quick read. The ending or resolution of their
issues was very well done - absolute intense emotion without being cheesy. I
would have loved for there to have been an epilogue that showed their life after
the ending, but that is a personal preference. Because the ending was so well
done, you don't feel as if an epilogue is necessary.
Note: This story is
definitely for 18+. For such a short book, it had quite a few explicit sex
scenes. So out of 5, this would rate a 4 on the heat level. Remove the explicit
sex scenes, and this story would easily make a great motion picture. Overall, I
enjoyed this book, and look forward to reading more of Karen Stivali's work.
Review originally written for The Romance Reviews:
http://www.theromancereviews.com/viewbooksreview.php?bookid=5878
