Arranged Marriage, Wanted Wife

by Mary Goldberger

She married to save her family... He married to collect a debt... Who knew what would happen next...

266 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 24, 2016

Reviews

[Jac K · Rating 2 out of 5]

Arranged Marriage, Wanted Wife is sort of a Cinderella/ arranged marriage romance between Waren and Jassi. Basically, Waren and Jassi enter into a 1-year arranged marriage, because Jassi’s family owes his money. Neither party is down with this, but they proceed for some unexplained reason. They have never met before the wedding; Waren doesn’t even look at Jassi, and he immediately leaves with his mistress Priscilla. The book picks up 10 months later with Waren returning. I’m spoiler tagging the rest, so stop if you want to go in blind.

There’re numerous grammar/editing issues. It also feels awkward at times, almost like a screen play rather than a book with all the descriptions of what the characters are doing. There’s also a lot of talking to themselves to get us information. But, IMO the biggest issues are the lack of development and plot holes. The bones of the story are pretty standard for an arranged marriage/unwanted wife scenario, but we’re only given part of the story. For example, why did he go through with the marriage? Why did the dad ever agree to the marriage? The said to repay a debt, but he got nothing out of it. Why did Warren leave for almost a year? Especially because we learn early on that Jassi is the woman he fell in “love at first sight” with at the restaurant, and has been searching for years for. How did he have zero details on her life? This part made zero sense to me. He loved her so much, but then left her for almost the entire marriage with another woman. Then, out of the blue (for no explained reason) he has a complete change of mind, and is all in. But, continues to allow Pricilla to be a buttinsky, and this doesn’t piss Jassi off. 🤷‍♀‍ IMO, it would’ve worked better (and been more believable) if the “restaurant” part was deleted, and he just fell in love with her naturally when they started spending time together.

No-one, and I mean no-one acts like they should. The amount of "no reactions" is massive... in situations where anyone would have some reaction. Characters are unaffected when they should be pissed. Secondary characters are pissed when there's no reason for it. (why did the dad hate her so much) Characters change their minds for no reason. Bad behaviors are ignored and rewarded. We get zero clarification for big stuff, but in depth discussions/descriptions of formula and breastmilk. 🤷‍♀️

Bottom Line- I would only recommend this to readers that love crazy OW drama, and are looking for brainless entertainment. It had the potential to be better had the author fleshed out/planned the plot more, and the character’s actions were more logical. You can still have an overstepping OW without the H and h being completely passive to all her shenanigans. Jassi should have displayed some anger and pushback with both being deserted for 10-months and the constant meddling of Priscilla. The fact that she never called him out on his relationship with her was just silly. This could’ve been angsty AF with some epic groveling, but with everyone being so unemotional and go with the flow… it sucked out any potential drama.
Safety- We’re given conflicting information if Priscilla and Waren had a sexual relationship during the 10-months. Earlier, Jassi says, “Waren won’t dishonor himself or me, and even more you by doing that. He will divorce me first before anything else.” Later, we get this… “Don’t look so shocked,” Pricilla snarled tossing her hair over one naked shoulders. “I’ve slept with your husband too.” “Before we met,” Jassi shot back her eyes narrowed, “and after our wedding, I chose not to have say in what Waren did.” Which is funny because she had no say whatsoever because they never spoke. 🤷‍♀️ Regardless, she never asks, and he never brings it up. I can't even think of a time where they discuss what type of relationship him and Priscilla even have.

[Athena Que Será, Será · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Hero was a doormat for his ex-lover aka Ow. But I liked the angst and emotional cheating trope, so... 😬
Tags: doormat_heroine, editing-needed, emotional-cheating, enemies-to-lovers, hero-hurts-heroine, hero-loved-or-loves-ow, heroine-leaves, hurtful-words-overheard, in-laws-from-hell, marriage-arranged, ow-drama, read, rejection-contemporary, rich-hero, shy-heroine, weak-hero

[San-Dee Keefner · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had such great potential but it fell so so so so so flat. There was so much that was left unsaid that we as readers need to guess. Like why the fudge would the hero keep permitting the ow, (pricilla) to keep coming over, keep talking t9 him, keep showing up every where her was, just walking I to his house (which means she has a key). The hero NEVER puts his food down or tries to stop her in any way. We as readers need to make our own assumptions that he has been cheating on the heroine with this woman. So we have. Hero who feel in love with the heroine but never knew her name or where she was, he spotted her at a restaurant 2 years before, but on the day they get married he finds out its her. So what does he do? He says I do and walks off with the ow. Then continues to have NO contact with the heroine for 10 months. While the h is counting down to when she can divorce the H. And yes in the 10 months the hero doing this with the ow. How do we know??? There is one single line at the near end of the book that the ow states that in those ten months he was still with her. ( personally I would have like the author t9 be a wee bit more clear here, was he involved or was he not) the hero Nevers disputes this so I am to believe he had sex with the ow., while he was married to the h. So all the sudden the hero pulse the magic stick out of his bum and starts to take notice of the heroine and peruses her. This of the book is the same, he goes after heroine, heroine falls deeper in love, ow chases after H, H does absolutely nothing to ow to make her stop, heroine puts up with her.... this continues until the end of the book. Personally I would have throat punched the ow and be done with it. We never got an explanation on why the her9 stayed away for 10 months. There was a line in the book that stated that he could not get feelings for the h because he did. To want to upset his father. H thought his father hated the h. But again we are not sure the reason why the H stayed away for 10 months. Other than the obvious that he was shagging the ow.

[Martha B. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Underwhelming

The plot was weak- I didn’t understand why the characters acted like they did. Why “insta love” in the restaurant when afterwards the H was supposedly sleeping with the OW, I mean the OW plot was the only thing that was really interesting . I didn’t understand why the father agreed to that marriage as a settlement of the debt. The explanation was unbelievable to me. That was many things I didn’t understand and that made the story weak even if it seemed like the variation of Cinderella .
The characters weren’t well developed. The story was underwhelming.

[Stacey Mullis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Predictable

While the plot was ok, the bad grammar made the story lose some of its effectiveness. Someone should have done a better job with the editing.

[Jennifer Lavallee-Chesley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love!!!

So I've read many books by the wonderful author before, but I have to say that I enjoyed this book very much. The storyline couldn't be better; it was destined that they would finally fall in love and be happy. I had moments where I wanted to throw my kindle due to what happened but in the end I had a huge smile on my face with the way things worked out.

[parnit singh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good

The story was great but who ever proofread this did not do a good job. There were too many grammar and spelling errors. Also name errors and little things that took the full joy out of the story.

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know what it is about Mary's books, but I love them (even with the copious editorial mistakes)!

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story that needs major editing..

Good story that could be better if it was edited.
The story had a good plot, characters were decent, the editing was just terrible.

[Noof · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.3 stars…

[RomeoJuliet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just wish hero had used rather different way of handling OW than him being rather polite and patient with her. why did she deserve that patience from him? I understand his reasons for not wanting to patch up with his wife until absolutely necessary but still he could have shown some interest in her by finding out more about her without letting her or his family know.