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An Unexpected Love: The Man You'll Marry / Bride on the Loose
The perfect match is just around the corner for these women who consider themselves unlucky in love!
The Man You'll Marry
After her best friend's wedding, Jill Morrison finds that the bride has sent her the dress, a family heirloom that fortells that the first man she sees is the one she'll marry! There's no way the man she sat beside on the plane—gorgeous grouch Jordan Wilcox—is the one in question, right? After all, she met him before she got the dress!
Bride on the Loose
Jason Manning is more than content with his bachelor lifestyle, which leaves him plenty of time for his true love: watching sports. Then a precocious girl named Carrie Weston decides to introduce him to her mother, Charlotte. To his relief, she's just as averse to marriage as he is, so imagine their surprise when that all begins to change…
The Man You'll Marry
After her best friend's wedding, Jill Morrison finds that the bride has sent her the dress, a family heirloom that fortells that the first man she sees is the one she'll marry! There's no way the man she sat beside on the plane—gorgeous grouch Jordan Wilcox—is the one in question, right? After all, she met him before she got the dress!
Bride on the Loose
Jason Manning is more than content with his bachelor lifestyle, which leaves him plenty of time for his true love: watching sports. Then a precocious girl named Carrie Weston decides to introduce him to her mother, Charlotte. To his relief, she's just as averse to marriage as he is, so imagine their surprise when that all begins to change…
400 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 1, 2025
181 people are currently reading
327 people want to read
About the author
Debbie Macomber
917 books20.7k followersDebbie Macomber is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and one of today’s most popular writers with more than 200 million copies of her books in print worldwide. In her novels, Macomber brings to life compelling relationships that embrace family and enduring friendships, uplifting her readers with stories of connection and hope. Macomber’s novels have spent over 1,000 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Fifteen of these novels hit the number one spot.
In 2023, Macomber’s all-new hardcover publication includes Must Love Flowers (July). In addition to fiction, Macomber has also published three bestselling cookbooks, three adult coloring books, numerous inspirational and nonfiction works, and two acclaimed children’s books.
Celebrated as “the official storyteller of Christmas”, Macomber’s annual Christmas books are beloved and six have been crafted into original Hallmark Channel movies. Macomber is also the author of the bestselling Cedar Cove Series which the Hallmark Channel chose as the basis for its first dramatic scripted television series. Debuting in 2013, Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove was a ratings favorite for three seasons.
She serves on the Guideposts National Advisory Cabinet, is a YFC National Ambassador, and is World Vision’s international spokesperson for their Knit for Kids charity initiative. A devoted grandmother, Debbie and Wayne live in Port Orchard, Washington, the town which inspired the Cedar Cove series.
In 2023, Macomber’s all-new hardcover publication includes Must Love Flowers (July). In addition to fiction, Macomber has also published three bestselling cookbooks, three adult coloring books, numerous inspirational and nonfiction works, and two acclaimed children’s books.
Celebrated as “the official storyteller of Christmas”, Macomber’s annual Christmas books are beloved and six have been crafted into original Hallmark Channel movies. Macomber is also the author of the bestselling Cedar Cove Series which the Hallmark Channel chose as the basis for its first dramatic scripted television series. Debuting in 2013, Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove was a ratings favorite for three seasons.
She serves on the Guideposts National Advisory Cabinet, is a YFC National Ambassador, and is World Vision’s international spokesperson for their Knit for Kids charity initiative. A devoted grandmother, Debbie and Wayne live in Port Orchard, Washington, the town which inspired the Cedar Cove series.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 28, 2025
Both stories were really cute. I loved them.
May 30, 2025
The Man You'll Marry - do not reread.
Bride on the Loose - eh. OK. Not worth a re-read
Bride on the Loose - eh. OK. Not worth a re-read
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 6, 2025
This book is actually two short novels in one: The Man You'll Marry, which is a sequel to The First Man You Meet; and Bride on the Loose, book 5 of the seven-book "Manning Family" series. More on Debbie Macomber's vast and complex oeuvre later.
In The Man You'll Marry, Jill's friend mails her the family heirloom wedding dress that she believes brought her and her newly-wed husband together. It arrives in Jill's hotel room in Hawaii, just after she's spent hours on an airplane next to a grumpy businessman. Suddenly, despite her doubts about the dress, something seems to be drawing the couple together. But the question remains, can they be happy together? The book explores that question further than consumers of cookie-cutter romances may expect.
In Bride on the Loose, a desperate teenager wants her mother to let her go to the ninth-grade dance with the boy she likes. So, she tries to bribe their landlord, Jason, to sweep her mother, Charlotte, off her feet. Jason turns down the bribe, but the encounter sparks a flame between the two adults anyway and pretty soon, the only thing standing in the way of their shared happiness is the buried trauma from Charlotte's first marriage. This leads them on a surprising odyssey in the realm of mental health.
This list of Debbie Macomber's romance novels from 1983 to present, including standalone books as well as numerous series of various sizes, may give you an idea of how many books she has written and some of the ways they've been organized; I'm not going to try counting them now, but I'd say "hundreds" would be a fair estimate. I believe some of them have inspired made-for-the-Hallmark Channel movies. Even if that isn't the case, the "magic wedding dress" concept isn't far off a recent Hallmark series of "magic wedding veil" films, and the general tone of untrashy romance – with couples who don't fall into bed together until after they're married and, even then, the details are tastefully concealed – would work perfectly in that format. Except.
Except that they go further and deeper than "the hero couple overcome that one last obstacle to getting together and live happily ever after" formula so often seen in the TV movies, depicting a final threat to their shared happiness after the wedding bells fade. I only have these two novels to judge by, so I'm not sure whether that's generally the case with her work, but if it is, Macomber's romances have more to recommend them than mere chastity: they take care to test love's strength against the harsh reality of when the honeymoon is over. And in my opinion, that puts her in the company of such great novelists as Georgette Heyer.
In The Man You'll Marry, Jill's friend mails her the family heirloom wedding dress that she believes brought her and her newly-wed husband together. It arrives in Jill's hotel room in Hawaii, just after she's spent hours on an airplane next to a grumpy businessman. Suddenly, despite her doubts about the dress, something seems to be drawing the couple together. But the question remains, can they be happy together? The book explores that question further than consumers of cookie-cutter romances may expect.
In Bride on the Loose, a desperate teenager wants her mother to let her go to the ninth-grade dance with the boy she likes. So, she tries to bribe their landlord, Jason, to sweep her mother, Charlotte, off her feet. Jason turns down the bribe, but the encounter sparks a flame between the two adults anyway and pretty soon, the only thing standing in the way of their shared happiness is the buried trauma from Charlotte's first marriage. This leads them on a surprising odyssey in the realm of mental health.
This list of Debbie Macomber's romance novels from 1983 to present, including standalone books as well as numerous series of various sizes, may give you an idea of how many books she has written and some of the ways they've been organized; I'm not going to try counting them now, but I'd say "hundreds" would be a fair estimate. I believe some of them have inspired made-for-the-Hallmark Channel movies. Even if that isn't the case, the "magic wedding dress" concept isn't far off a recent Hallmark series of "magic wedding veil" films, and the general tone of untrashy romance – with couples who don't fall into bed together until after they're married and, even then, the details are tastefully concealed – would work perfectly in that format. Except.
Except that they go further and deeper than "the hero couple overcome that one last obstacle to getting together and live happily ever after" formula so often seen in the TV movies, depicting a final threat to their shared happiness after the wedding bells fade. I only have these two novels to judge by, so I'm not sure whether that's generally the case with her work, but if it is, Macomber's romances have more to recommend them than mere chastity: they take care to test love's strength against the harsh reality of when the honeymoon is over. And in my opinion, that puts her in the company of such great novelists as Georgette Heyer.
April 30, 2025
Two older stories, both published in l992 by the author, join in this recent book. "The Man You Marry" is a story about a magical wedding dress that leads women into unexpected marriages. In "The Bride on the Loose" a young woman's daughter leads her into a romance with the apartment manager but memories of her previous abusive marriage block her future happiness.
April 16, 2025
Another good one by Debbie Macomber!
January 24, 2026
Excellent
I loved the story lines in both books. They were exciting and heartwarming. Debbie Macomber is a wonderful author. She knows how to weave a story perfectly.
I loved the story lines in both books. They were exciting and heartwarming. Debbie Macomber is a wonderful author. She knows how to weave a story perfectly.
July 2, 2025
the man you’ll marry- 3
bride on the loose- 2
overall- 2.5
bride on the loose- 2
overall- 2.5
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews