What do you think?
Rate this book
The Marriage Miracle
Matilda Lang is terrified when she feels herself falling for hotshot New York banker Sebastian Wolseley. An accident three years ago has left her in a wheelchair, and Sebastian's the man who can make, or break, her heart...
Sebastian is compassionate, sexy and, most importantly, he treats her like a desirable woman. It would take a miracle for Matty to risk her heart after what she's been through. But Sebastian knows he's the man who can help this brave woman embrace life and love -- and persuade her to say "yes" to his proposal of marriage!
Sebastian is compassionate, sexy and, most importantly, he treats her like a desirable woman. It would take a miracle for Matty to risk her heart after what she's been through. But Sebastian knows he's the man who can help this brave woman embrace life and love -- and persuade her to say "yes" to his proposal of marriage!
187 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
11 people are currently reading
99 people want to read
About the author
Liz Fielding
560 books469 followersHi, I'm Liz Fielding, and I'm a best selling contemporary romance author with more than 15 million books in print and Katie Fforde wrote, when honouring me with the Romantic Novelists' Association's Outstanding Achievement Award in 2019 said - "Liz Fielding's books, with their warmth, humour and emotion, have charmed millions of readers. She is a true star of the romantic fiction genre..."
And now I've turned to a life of crime with my first cozy mystery. Murder Among the Roses, published on 18 April 2023 - of which Katie Fforde also said, "I was gripped from beginning to end..."
Reading is a big part of my life. I love witty, contemporary romances, not too much sex,, Women's fiction by the likes of Fiona Harper, Julie Cohen, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Jennifer Crusie and Barbara O'Neal. And I love crime fiction that isn't too gory, or focussed on clue hunting, but is big on character.
My best loved series at the moment are the Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths, The Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch and the Libby Sarjeant Mysteries by Lesley Cookman. I've just read the first in the Georgina Drake crime series from Kate Hardy and looking forward to the next.
For news and excerpts of my new releases, visit me at http://www.lizfielding.com and sign up for my newsletter
And now I've turned to a life of crime with my first cozy mystery. Murder Among the Roses, published on 18 April 2023 - of which Katie Fforde also said, "I was gripped from beginning to end..."
Reading is a big part of my life. I love witty, contemporary romances, not too much sex,, Women's fiction by the likes of Fiona Harper, Julie Cohen, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Jennifer Crusie and Barbara O'Neal. And I love crime fiction that isn't too gory, or focussed on clue hunting, but is big on character.
My best loved series at the moment are the Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths, The Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch and the Libby Sarjeant Mysteries by Lesley Cookman. I've just read the first in the Georgina Drake crime series from Kate Hardy and looking forward to the next.
For news and excerpts of my new releases, visit me at http://www.lizfielding.com and sign up for my newsletter
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 7, 2011
The best I can say about this patronizing mess of romance cliches is that it had impeccable grammar and spelling. It's going to be hard to review this without punishing it for the sins of other books, but that's just how it goes sometimes.
The book starts off well enough. Sebastian Wolsely is a banker who usually lives and works on Manhattan. He's come to London to settle his wealthy uncle's estate as well as attend an old friend's wedding. Having come directly from the funeral, he's looking somewhat less than celebratory when Matty Lang, cousin of the bride, decides to chat him up. He likes how she shamelessly flirts with him without laying on the giggles, and she's impressed at how he doesn't lose a beat once he notices she's in a wheelchair. When he attempts to ask her out to dinner, however, she turns cold. Unfortunately for her, he's not a man used to taking no for an answer.
Here's where it all goes pear-shaped for me. Now, I understand that the determined hero in pursuit of the reluctant heroines is anything but particular to books working with a disability theme. Where it infuriated me was with her reasons for trying to put off the hero. There's insecurity, which pretty much everyone falls prey to every now and again, and then there's self-loathing.
Matty's behavior did not at all strike me as that of a healthy woman with normal insecurities about her place in relation to the world and the cosmopolitan hero. They were the musings of a deeply troubled woman stuck in mourning. She dwells on everything she's lost since being paralyzed in a car accident she blames herself for. I can understand wistfulness and regrets, but not being able to look at her godson without pangs of sadness at what she'll no longer have, three years on from her accident? Lying to her fiance while she was in rehab to drive him away? Feeling that her fiance's mom was right to have said "thank you" to Matty for setting him free to marry a non-cripple? Isolating herself from clients so they won't know she's in a wheelchair? Or, most dramatically, hacking at her hair with nail scissors to discourage the hero by making herself ugly:
This being a 45k word Harlequin, this is just completely glanced over. I don't hate this book for having a head-case heroine, I hate it for attempting to pass her off as healthy, normal or as an example of how any woman would behave in her shoes. The book lacks any sort of self-reflection concerning her behavior, leaving me with the impression that she's supposed to be a crippled everywoman, and I didn't buy it.
So, and this is where I punish this book for the sins of others, I walked away angry at yet another romance using physical disability to provide angst and high drama. Independence is not about living alone and working. It's about confidence. Accepting help isn't a sign of weakness, so I'm baffled at how the genre seems to regard a stubborn refusal of help and friendship as some sort of sign for a strong, independent heroine. Conversely, the easiest thing to do is hide, mope and avoid. So when you show me a woman who pushes new friends away, hates herself for needing help and is embarrassed of her wheelchair, I see a deeply troubled woman. I don't see someone who can commit to a marriage after a weeklong courtship. If she can't love herself, how can she love anyone else?
Also irksome is the popular "I don't want to be a burden/I know I'm a burden" theme. Matty voices this about herself clear through the book. She interprets Sebastian's advances and others' actions in terms of how they must be wary of what a handful she is or that if she showed them how she's different they'll distance themselves. Since this comes up often and is never really dealt with, I had to wonder if this is what people think of the disabled. So far as I could tell, I was supposed to admire the hero for being the one to condescend to take on a pitiably crippled woman. That he was a good man for loving her despite her otherness. Her disability seemed to exist to make him look good.
In the end, I just have to say that you're not telling a story about transcending differences if the plot hinges entirely on a character's otherness. As a Harlequin Romance, it's an uninspired three star story of an artist swept off her feet by a lordling in disguise. As a treatment of disability, however, it's a resounding, patronizing fail.
The book starts off well enough. Sebastian Wolsely is a banker who usually lives and works on Manhattan. He's come to London to settle his wealthy uncle's estate as well as attend an old friend's wedding. Having come directly from the funeral, he's looking somewhat less than celebratory when Matty Lang, cousin of the bride, decides to chat him up. He likes how she shamelessly flirts with him without laying on the giggles, and she's impressed at how he doesn't lose a beat once he notices she's in a wheelchair. When he attempts to ask her out to dinner, however, she turns cold. Unfortunately for her, he's not a man used to taking no for an answer.
Here's where it all goes pear-shaped for me. Now, I understand that the determined hero in pursuit of the reluctant heroines is anything but particular to books working with a disability theme. Where it infuriated me was with her reasons for trying to put off the hero. There's insecurity, which pretty much everyone falls prey to every now and again, and then there's self-loathing.
Matty's behavior did not at all strike me as that of a healthy woman with normal insecurities about her place in relation to the world and the cosmopolitan hero. They were the musings of a deeply troubled woman stuck in mourning. She dwells on everything she's lost since being paralyzed in a car accident she blames herself for. I can understand wistfulness and regrets, but not being able to look at her godson without pangs of sadness at what she'll no longer have, three years on from her accident? Lying to her fiance while she was in rehab to drive him away? Feeling that her fiance's mom was right to have said "thank you" to Matty for setting him free to marry a non-cripple? Isolating herself from clients so they won't know she's in a wheelchair? Or, most dramatically, hacking at her hair with nail scissors to discourage the hero by making herself ugly:
Painful as the subject was, at least he seemed to have forgotten all about her hair—the reason she’d attacked it with the nail scissors. At least she hoped he’d forgotten. Because it wouldn’t take him long to work out that hacking it off in the bathroom that day in the rehab centre had been a symbolic gesture. Severing herself from all that was womanly, alluring in her appearance. A denial of her very femininity.This woman isn't merely insecure, she's more emo than a Smiths album playing on a rainy February day. She doesn't need a husband, she needs therapy.
And then he’d know why she’d done it again today.
So much for keeping him away.
This being a 45k word Harlequin, this is just completely glanced over. I don't hate this book for having a head-case heroine, I hate it for attempting to pass her off as healthy, normal or as an example of how any woman would behave in her shoes. The book lacks any sort of self-reflection concerning her behavior, leaving me with the impression that she's supposed to be a crippled everywoman, and I didn't buy it.
So, and this is where I punish this book for the sins of others, I walked away angry at yet another romance using physical disability to provide angst and high drama. Independence is not about living alone and working. It's about confidence. Accepting help isn't a sign of weakness, so I'm baffled at how the genre seems to regard a stubborn refusal of help and friendship as some sort of sign for a strong, independent heroine. Conversely, the easiest thing to do is hide, mope and avoid. So when you show me a woman who pushes new friends away, hates herself for needing help and is embarrassed of her wheelchair, I see a deeply troubled woman. I don't see someone who can commit to a marriage after a weeklong courtship. If she can't love herself, how can she love anyone else?
Also irksome is the popular "I don't want to be a burden/I know I'm a burden" theme. Matty voices this about herself clear through the book. She interprets Sebastian's advances and others' actions in terms of how they must be wary of what a handful she is or that if she showed them how she's different they'll distance themselves. Since this comes up often and is never really dealt with, I had to wonder if this is what people think of the disabled. So far as I could tell, I was supposed to admire the hero for being the one to condescend to take on a pitiably crippled woman. That he was a good man for loving her despite her otherness. Her disability seemed to exist to make him look good.
In the end, I just have to say that you're not telling a story about transcending differences if the plot hinges entirely on a character's otherness. As a Harlequin Romance, it's an uninspired three star story of an artist swept off her feet by a lordling in disguise. As a treatment of disability, however, it's a resounding, patronizing fail.
October 14, 2017
I really wanted to like this book. I did, up until the end. Okay, so here's a huge spoiler for the ending: Matty walks up the aisle on her wedding day. Ugh. Why can't a woman (not to mention a man!) in a wheelchair stay in a wheelchair in a romance novel and still have a happy ending? Bleh.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 4, 2024
A follow up to "a Wife on Paper" featuring Francesca's cousin Matty who is a side character in that novel. Sadly we didn't get to see much at Francesca and especially the lovely guy in this.
Unlike some other reviewers I didn't find Matty whiny at all and I thought her behaviour was completely understandable. She lost the use of her legs and her own born child through a moment's distraction and naturally blames herself for it. 3s on from the car crash she thinks her romantic life is over and she is very very scared when she meets the lovely Sebastian. But he won't take no for an answer.
Unlike some other reviewers I didn't find Matty whiny at all and I thought her behaviour was completely understandable. She lost the use of her legs and her own born child through a moment's distraction and naturally blames herself for it. 3s on from the car crash she thinks her romantic life is over and she is very very scared when she meets the lovely Sebastian. But he won't take no for an answer.
February 24, 2020
A gem of a story
Mattie is a fighter. A sassy, smart mouthed witch who delivers the kind of banter that could make a grown man cry. Enter Sebastian, who is not only handsome and clever, but perceptive enough to realise that Mattie's snark is her way of protecting herself from the more hurtful things that might be said about a girl in a wheelchair. The problem is that Mattie knows that men like Seb don't stick around when things get serious with a girl like her - problem is, nobody has told Seb that. A great story.
Mattie is a fighter. A sassy, smart mouthed witch who delivers the kind of banter that could make a grown man cry. Enter Sebastian, who is not only handsome and clever, but perceptive enough to realise that Mattie's snark is her way of protecting herself from the more hurtful things that might be said about a girl in a wheelchair. The problem is that Mattie knows that men like Seb don't stick around when things get serious with a girl like her - problem is, nobody has told Seb that. A great story.
November 21, 2024
Well written and would have been a 5 star read if it weren’t for the awful heroine. Matty started off well. She engaged my interest in the first chapter - sparky, flirtatious, intelligent and engaging. Then she had a personality transplant and turned into an absolute horror - rejecting the hero, being rude and aggressive and so damn sorry for herself and using her disability as a barrier and an excuse.
Sebastian was delightful and quite frankly I couldn’t figure out why he just didn’t walk away from her. Her disability wasn’t the problem - she was.
Sebastian was delightful and quite frankly I couldn’t figure out why he just didn’t walk away from her. Her disability wasn’t the problem - she was.
Read
January 4, 2018What was there was fine. I enjoyed the surprise regarding the hero's family. I actually liked the hero quite a bit. But given the subject matter--the challenges the disabled heroine had to overcome, there was so much missing from the book. Ended up feeling the characters were superficial. The author just didn't go deep enough.
January 13, 2011
The romance that blooms between Sebastian and Matty is tenderly written and deals with handicaps, both physical and emotional.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews