A Practical Marriage

Family of the Heart #2

by Dallas Schulze

For weeks John Lonigan had been repairing Abby's farmhouse, male-bonding with her nephew and coaxing smiles from her shy little niece. John wasn't Abby's good friend or her lover, so why then had he proposed marriage? Abby didn't know. What she did know was that she needed help with her makeshift family and he needed to settle down, making marriage the practical answer. Original.

Genres: Romance, Marriage Of Convenience, Category Romance

217 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 1991

About the author

Born and raised in Colorado, Dallas Schulze now lives in California. She sold her first book in October 1983. It was published under her pseudonym Dallas Hamlin in the Candlelight Ecstasy Romance line. She loves happy ending and wrote category romances, contemporaries and historicals for Harlequin, Silhouette, Dell and Mira. Her latest title was published in 2004.

Reviews

[Saly · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, I have had a paperback of this book forever but since I read ebooks thesedays never got around to it but the past few weeks I am liking the feel of books again. This one was nice, the hero is 40, with no ties and on his birthday he wonders what he has to show for it and who would miss him, when a little boy of about 10 comes into his store trying to rob it and that brings him into the heroine's life, the boy's aunt.

The heroine is a 26 year old with a biologist degree working at a store struggling to raise her dead brother's kids. Her nephew wants to quit school and help her and her niece hasn't spoken since her parents death and the house she lives in is falling apart. Then, John comes into her life, helping around the house, being around the kids. The attraction between them is there but they don't act on it until the children's grandmother tries to take them away. John suggests getting married, he wants a family but what he didn't count on the emotional ties it would bring.

He isn't used to sharing himself and his troubles and marriage is about that but gradually he learns. I liked the sweetness and quietness of the book. There is a nice sub-plot with the heroine's cousin and best friend.

[*CJ* · Rating 3 out of 5]

"A Practical Marriage" is the story of Abby and John.

Here we meet John, the secondary character from "Together Always" , who turns forty. He has never had a home, and is searching for somewhere to lay his roots. Things change when a ten year old tries to rob him, and he ends up meeting his aunt and sister.
The heroine has been solely responsible for her niece and nephew since their parents' tragic murder. Struggling to make ends meet, she is shocked when a stranger gives a second chance to her nephew. Slowly, the hero starts welding himself in their lives, slowly repairing the heroine's home and soon making a place in all their hearts. A threat relating to the kids' guardianship leads to a "practical" marriage, but soon feelings get involved..
There is a secondary story with the heroine's best friend and brother, which was also fun to read. The hero was very closed off, and the ending was a bit rushed, we never got around to exploring the kid's feelings- otherwise this did have a potential to have a higher rating.

Enjoyed it.

Safe
3.5/5

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars ~ While this is a stand-alone romance, our hero, John, was first introduced in Ms Schultz's Together Always. He was the good Samaritan who helped two runaway children and then had the bitter-sweet pleasure of meeting them again as adults and discovering how his hand had given them the security and love they so needed. In that book, Ms Schultz only hints at John's past but in the present she shows that his strong solid confidence can be shaken by moments of loneliness and yearning.

This story opens with John working in a liquor store when a young boy of ten comes in to rob him. Jason is desperate to help his Aunt Abby who is struggling to take care of him and his four year old sister. I love the way Ms Schultz wrote this scene with a mixture of poignancy and humour, plus the depth she's given to both Jason and John. John, the hardened ex-government agent, finds himself moved by this kid and though he knows he should just wash his hands of him and call the sheriff's office, he can't bring himself to do it. Yet, he can't just let the kid go, which means a visit with the boy's Aunt Abby. He thinks he'll just pass on the bad news, hand over the boy for his punishment and then be on his way. But Abby isn't the elderly aunt he'd been expecting and those brown eyes of hers touches something deep inside him. As soon as he tells her that Jason tried to rob his liquor store and shows her the gun, John finds himself totally out of his depth as she bursts into tears.

I'm glad I read both books in the Family of the Heart duet. While they stand-alone, the connection for the good Samaritan, John, enriches both. I'm a new reader of Ms Schultz. Her character development in these early books is master class, drawing this reader into these stories with an eagerness to read their journeys to HEA.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick fun read.