Throwback: Marital Bitch

 Some people never grow up, and there are some people you never grow out of no matter how hard you try.

She’s irrational. He’s crass. She wanted out of South Boston. He never wanted to leave. She keeps him at a distance. He refuses to leave her side. Together, Colleen Frasier and Bradley Patrick are ridiculous and juvenile. Apart, they’re just plain miserable.

While Detective Bradley Patrick was keeping the streets of South Boston safe, Colleen Frasier was busy litigating late into the evening and admiring the view from her high-rise condo downtown. Her life was perfect– sort of. She spent too much time drinking her high-priced lattes and acquiring an impressive shoe collection and before she knew it she was 35 and time for all that other stuff she wanted, like a husband and children, was quickly passing her by. And then there’s that longtime rift that’s kept her and her childhood best friend, Bradley Patrick, at odds for over a decade.

All of that changes on Colleen’s 35th birthday when she receives a surprise marriage proposal from Brad. One night. One birthday wish. Trouble is, he brings out the worst in Colleen. She can’t possibly marry him, can she? She’s never been very good at saying “no” to him, either. What was supposed to end the next day with an annulment takes on a life of its own when video of the wedding ends up on the internet and their families are overjoyed by the news. Fearing the shame of her Catholic family, Colleen has a proposal of her own: pretend the marriage is for real– and Brad is all too willing to play the doting husband.

I struggled with the rating on this story.  I wanted to give it a three for the writing style and how I just couldn’t stand Colleen right out of the box but then the humor and pure examples of Murphy’s Law won me over in the end and I had to admit I did love the humorous side of this story.  I can’t stay that the author didn’t develop the characters well enough because she did, but they were people I wouldn’t want to be around in the beginning which made it a struggle for me to get to “good” part of the book.

Colleen is turning 35 and her friends planned a trip to Vegas for her birthday.  The book starts out with her being in a rotten mood because she is turning 35, no marriage, no kids and all she has is the career she busted her butt over so she could rise from the environment she came from.  Brad a detective, with a heavy Boston accent that Colleen had worked hard in stopping in her speech and her best friend is on the trip as well.  They joke around with each other and people could actually see that they might have more feelings for one another, but Colleen being the stubborn one refuses to accept that possibility.  Seeing how depressed she is about not having anything more than her career Brad offers to marry her while in Vegas.  It would be simple, she could experience being married and they would have it annulled, the only thing they didn’t consider is their religion prohibited divorce. 

The rest of the story goes on with them trying to figure out how to make this fake marriage work and how it takes some turns that could lead them to finally accept their feelings for each other that they have been denying.  Their humorous ways of approaching life and each other is what sold me on the book. If he said the box was black, she would have demanded it was white.  He had found his goals in Boston; she was still reaching for new goals away from Boston.  It just doesn’t appear that even love would be the cement that could keep them together, that is if love even enters the story for her.

There is a dual POV but primarily you will hear from Colleen and I would have liked to have heard more from Brad because I will admit he entertained me the most in this book.  I did love how the author kept most of this story real with the gross habits new couples have to deal with when being together, I am sure you can figure out some of the things I am referring to and she did make the story complete with the ending. 

This is certainly a book I would recommend to my romance and humor loving readers.  You will be in for some laugh out loud moments and find that your heart will satisfied with the romance by the end of the book.  Even though it took me a while to like Colleen, by the end of the story I was enjoying myself and found she wasn’t so bad after all. 

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As a child, JC was fascinated by things that went bump in the night. As they say, some things never change. Now, as an adult, she divides her time between the sexy law men, mythical creatures, bad-ass bikers, and kick-ass heroines that live inside her head and her Netflix addiction. JC is a San Francisco Bay Area native, but has also called both Texas and Louisiana home. These days she rocks her flip flops year-round in Northern California and can't imagine a climate more beautiful. Her dream is to own her own Harley and she feels compelled to tell you that she is Team Peeta all the way.

JC is the author of the Men with Badges series and the Bayonet Scars series.

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