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A Family Forever
A DAMSEL IN DISTRESS
When her fiance was killed just three week before their wedding, violinist Shelby Franklin's "happily ever after" dreams were shattered. The discovery of her unplanned pregnancy guaranteed those dreams would never be rebuilt.
A KNIGHT IN A BIKE HELMET
Tall, husky cyclist Tucker Sharpe promised his dying brother he'd look after Shelby. When he learned there was a baby on the way, a marriage of convenience seemed his only option. But would love for the unborn child be enough to bring them -- and keep them -- together?
When her fiance was killed just three week before their wedding, violinist Shelby Franklin's "happily ever after" dreams were shattered. The discovery of her unplanned pregnancy guaranteed those dreams would never be rebuilt.
A KNIGHT IN A BIKE HELMET
Tall, husky cyclist Tucker Sharpe promised his dying brother he'd look after Shelby. When he learned there was a baby on the way, a marriage of convenience seemed his only option. But would love for the unborn child be enough to bring them -- and keep them -- together?
256 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published February 28, 2006
2 people are currently reading
130 people want to read
About the author
Brenda Coulter
10 books35 followersBrenda Coulter lives somewhere in the Midwestern U.S. with the hunk o' burnin' love she married way back in 1975. Having successfully brought up two boys (they chew with their mouths closed and they always remember to say thank you), Brenda now makes up love stories, spends far too much money and time on her cottage-style flower garden, and endeavors to wait patiently for grandchildren.
To read long excerpts from all of Brenda's books, please visit http://BrendaCoulter.com
To read long excerpts from all of Brenda's books, please visit http://BrendaCoulter.com
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 18, 2019
I enjoyed this one. Though a romance, it dealt with a lot of issues: abuse, trusting God, forgiveness, letting things of the past cripple your life. Tucker was an awesome character that made the book
November 20, 2010
Great story, read it in hours because I couldn't put it down.
December 3, 2013
HomiGAWSH... for about half the day, today, I thought that this was going to be my new favorite novel, EVER. Even over 'Attachments', which... that one's about impossible to beat. But this one was SOOOO good...
And then it wasn't. Lemme back up.
Shelby is a violinist. She fell for a charismatic guy, and gave him her virginity three weeks before the wedding, even though she was a Believer and knew better. Holy WoW, a real live, HUMAN heroine... in an 'inspirational' novel. Knock me off my chair, why don'tcha.
But just after, her fiance died riding a motorcycle in a rainstorm - at night - with no helmet. He was impulsive, that way. But fun and witty and engaging... and now dead. And she's pregnant. And unwed. And his brother Tucker knows it. So Tucker does the noble thing, and proposes, to give the baby his family name, to keep the baby close to his family, and to help Shelby. No, he doesn't love her, but he knows that love is an action, or we couldn't be commanded to do it in scripture. (((I WAS LOVING THIS AUTHOR, at this point!!!!)))
Tucker is... OhmiWord, so amazing, I fell completely in love with him. He's big and imposing and doesn't take crap. He half owns a bike shop with his dad and uncle. He races bikes, loves to cook, writes a column for the paper on the side (just for kicks, and to use his journalism degree), loves beyond reason, prays aloud, and believes that if you plan ahead and calculate, you can make ANYTHING work. Even a marriage. Even when their pastor tells him that he won't marry them - which... ((I WAS *LOVING* this author!!!)) And Tucker actually DEFIES a pastor - this is absolutely INCREDIBLE for an 'inspirational' novel. A congregant, actually choosing Truth and Divine leadings ahead of a minister? I was so flabbergasted, I was fist-bumping Heaven, people!!!
Anyhow, Tucker puts himself 100% into the relationship he vows to have with Shelby. And he's hysterical - the goofy things he does, the way he freaks out at married life (to a highly hormonal female)... I was chortling out loud all over the place. His dog, RoadKill... I was crying, I was laughing so hard. The book was incredibly good, up to that point.
But then Coulter screwed the book, badly. A little over halfway thru, she loses the tone she had in the first part of the novel. She sacrifices the gumption for a bunch of cowering B.S. She doesn't seem to know how to finish the game, so she drags out this incredibly awful, tediously dialogued CRAP that spirals the book into a mess. Shelby loses the baby, and the rest of the book becomes this horrific, tedious slog of Shelby leaving Tucker, then going back, then leaving Tucker, then going back, then leaving Tucker... you just HATE her GUTS by the time you get to the end. And it's whining. And it's self-depreciation, and it's pain, sorrow, angst, woe, and...
THEN the author says that you can't forgive yourself, only God can. Which... I'm sorry, that is SO wrong. Yes, you have forgiveness found in the Father, but if you don't forgive yourself, you can't accept His forgiveness. It was wrong. Not good. And then Coulter spins around and sides with the pastor who wouldn't marry them, which REALLY pissed me off, because it was blatantly obvious that he'd been WRONG, and the deviation was a blatant slap in the face of the whole 'God put them together' thing... and... it just felt like the author took a really good thing and got scared and pansied out on me, going back to being another sheeple chrischun writer. Pissed me off, but good.
I suppose (since I bought it) I could tear out about fifty pages or so, and go straight from the smashed nesting doll scene to the epilogue... r'something. That would probably work. Heck, I've been known to tape sections of books closed, before. And if I do, it'd make it a five star book. A keeper.. with some revision on my part.
But nope. This is NOT as good as 'Attachments' (Rainbow Rowell). Not with the crap the author pulled at the end. The sign of a lousy literary piece is when they play hot-n-cold to lengthen the novel. It's tedious, a bad writer's ploy, and it sullied the awesome that the first half of this book really, truly was.
Read 'Attachments', instead. Lincoln *is* Tucker, so you don't lose the gentle giant, but you don't have to deal with a worthless heroine. Or a writer who spreads her wings wide and soars, but then looks down, panics, and folds her wings, leaving us to crash and burn with her.
And then it wasn't. Lemme back up.
Shelby is a violinist. She fell for a charismatic guy, and gave him her virginity three weeks before the wedding, even though she was a Believer and knew better. Holy WoW, a real live, HUMAN heroine... in an 'inspirational' novel. Knock me off my chair, why don'tcha.
But just after, her fiance died riding a motorcycle in a rainstorm - at night - with no helmet. He was impulsive, that way. But fun and witty and engaging... and now dead. And she's pregnant. And unwed. And his brother Tucker knows it. So Tucker does the noble thing, and proposes, to give the baby his family name, to keep the baby close to his family, and to help Shelby. No, he doesn't love her, but he knows that love is an action, or we couldn't be commanded to do it in scripture. (((I WAS LOVING THIS AUTHOR, at this point!!!!)))
Tucker is... OhmiWord, so amazing, I fell completely in love with him. He's big and imposing and doesn't take crap. He half owns a bike shop with his dad and uncle. He races bikes, loves to cook, writes a column for the paper on the side (just for kicks, and to use his journalism degree), loves beyond reason, prays aloud, and believes that if you plan ahead and calculate, you can make ANYTHING work. Even a marriage. Even when their pastor tells him that he won't marry them - which... ((I WAS *LOVING* this author!!!)) And Tucker actually DEFIES a pastor - this is absolutely INCREDIBLE for an 'inspirational' novel. A congregant, actually choosing Truth and Divine leadings ahead of a minister? I was so flabbergasted, I was fist-bumping Heaven, people!!!
Anyhow, Tucker puts himself 100% into the relationship he vows to have with Shelby. And he's hysterical - the goofy things he does, the way he freaks out at married life (to a highly hormonal female)... I was chortling out loud all over the place. His dog, RoadKill... I was crying, I was laughing so hard. The book was incredibly good, up to that point.
But then Coulter screwed the book, badly. A little over halfway thru, she loses the tone she had in the first part of the novel. She sacrifices the gumption for a bunch of cowering B.S. She doesn't seem to know how to finish the game, so she drags out this incredibly awful, tediously dialogued CRAP that spirals the book into a mess. Shelby loses the baby, and the rest of the book becomes this horrific, tedious slog of Shelby leaving Tucker, then going back, then leaving Tucker, then going back, then leaving Tucker... you just HATE her GUTS by the time you get to the end. And it's whining. And it's self-depreciation, and it's pain, sorrow, angst, woe, and...
THEN the author says that you can't forgive yourself, only God can. Which... I'm sorry, that is SO wrong. Yes, you have forgiveness found in the Father, but if you don't forgive yourself, you can't accept His forgiveness. It was wrong. Not good. And then Coulter spins around and sides with the pastor who wouldn't marry them, which REALLY pissed me off, because it was blatantly obvious that he'd been WRONG, and the deviation was a blatant slap in the face of the whole 'God put them together' thing... and... it just felt like the author took a really good thing and got scared and pansied out on me, going back to being another sheeple chrischun writer. Pissed me off, but good.
I suppose (since I bought it) I could tear out about fifty pages or so, and go straight from the smashed nesting doll scene to the epilogue... r'something. That would probably work. Heck, I've been known to tape sections of books closed, before. And if I do, it'd make it a five star book. A keeper.. with some revision on my part.
But nope. This is NOT as good as 'Attachments' (Rainbow Rowell). Not with the crap the author pulled at the end. The sign of a lousy literary piece is when they play hot-n-cold to lengthen the novel. It's tedious, a bad writer's ploy, and it sullied the awesome that the first half of this book really, truly was.
Read 'Attachments', instead. Lincoln *is* Tucker, so you don't lose the gentle giant, but you don't have to deal with a worthless heroine. Or a writer who spreads her wings wide and soars, but then looks down, panics, and folds her wings, leaving us to crash and burn with her.
December 7, 2013
In my opinion, this was not an uplifting book. Yes, there was a decent, Godly message but nothing positive happened until approximately page 250 of 256. Way too much sadness and strife for me. The heroine was not in the least likeable.
Shelby - a young woman whose fiance, David, passed away three weeks before their wedding in an accident. She discovers after the death that after one night of passion, she is pregnant with his child. She is anything but a nice person and it was very hard to take her continual whining about God. (He did this, He took this away, He doesn't love me....and it went on and on and on endlessly.) She has had many years to work through her problems and scars left behind, but refuses to. She won't let anyone get close, does not even like to be touched. I viewed her as mean-spirited, weak, self absorbed, bordering on mental illness, all because she would not seek help. She was not rational and I simply did not like her one bit. She treated Tucker horribly and did not seem grateful for anything he did. She grated on my nerves, made me angry, and caused me to almost put the book down for good.
Tucker - the knight in shining armor. David was his adopted brother and he loved him dearly. He figures out his brother's fiance is pregnant and insists that she marry him, offering a lifetime of caring and growing to love each other. He is every woman's dream. I don't know if a man like Tucker really exists, but I want one. That man had wisdom beyond his years. He is simply a very good Godly man. Shelby did not deserve someone as good and wonderful as Tucker, but he refused to let her go.
So can they work it out? Will she ever come to grips with her past and cease with her pity parties?
Do I recommend this book? Let me answer it this way. If I had know that 97.65% was sad and monotonous, whiny and depressive, with only a couple of pages that were happy and right, I would not have chosen to read this book. You may very well feel differently.
I have to also say that I usually love all of Ms Coulter's books so maybe this was just not a good fit for me.
Shelby - a young woman whose fiance, David, passed away three weeks before their wedding in an accident. She discovers after the death that after one night of passion, she is pregnant with his child. She is anything but a nice person and it was very hard to take her continual whining about God. (He did this, He took this away, He doesn't love me....and it went on and on and on endlessly.) She has had many years to work through her problems and scars left behind, but refuses to. She won't let anyone get close, does not even like to be touched. I viewed her as mean-spirited, weak, self absorbed, bordering on mental illness, all because she would not seek help. She was not rational and I simply did not like her one bit. She treated Tucker horribly and did not seem grateful for anything he did. She grated on my nerves, made me angry, and caused me to almost put the book down for good.
Tucker - the knight in shining armor. David was his adopted brother and he loved him dearly. He figures out his brother's fiance is pregnant and insists that she marry him, offering a lifetime of caring and growing to love each other. He is every woman's dream. I don't know if a man like Tucker really exists, but I want one. That man had wisdom beyond his years. He is simply a very good Godly man. Shelby did not deserve someone as good and wonderful as Tucker, but he refused to let her go.
So can they work it out? Will she ever come to grips with her past and cease with her pity parties?
Do I recommend this book? Let me answer it this way. If I had know that 97.65% was sad and monotonous, whiny and depressive, with only a couple of pages that were happy and right, I would not have chosen to read this book. You may very well feel differently.
I have to also say that I usually love all of Ms Coulter's books so maybe this was just not a good fit for me.
January 3, 2021
At first I thought I wasn't going to like this novel, but the characters grew on me. Was it the perfect novel? No. But it ended up being better than I thought it would be. Part of the novel reminded me of the Old Testament provision that if a married brother died without leaving heirs then the next oldest brother was to marry his widow and give her children to preserve his brother's family line. However, in this case, David and Shelby weren't yet married, though she was pregnant, and the brother is marrying her for the baby's sake. Another part of the novel reminds me of the "Prodigal Son" story.
We don't really know how long David and Shelby knew each other before getting engaged and planning their wedding. Presumably Tucker has known Shelby for at least that long.
Is love a feeling? Yes and no. That first part of loving someone, that spark of interest, etc. is probably better termed infatuation. Sometimes infatuation mellows and leads to love and sometimes it fades away. There are some arranged marriages where the couple does end up loving each other deeply despite not knowing each other well prior to the marriage. There are probably just as many where love does not develop--think of the celebrities who get married after only knowing each other a few weeks--only to get divorced later because the deep, abiding love didn't develop after the infatuation faded.
So is Tucker correct in that he and Shelby could grow to love one another? Yes, I think so. If both people are committed to the relationship and to getting to know one another and to respecting one another, then yes, I do think love can grow out of that--it may not, but it could.
Likes:
*Tucker tries to do the right thing. He also tries to make Shelby feel safe and protected. His actions show his care for her and his love for her.
*Tucker's taking in Roadkill. Roadkill (a dog) was a great addition to the book--even if Tucker is not so good at picking pet names. (And what does he have against poodles anyway?)
*Tucker caring about Bryan--not calling the police to have them bring Bryan and the bike in to prove it was stolen, not pressing charges on Bryan for stealing, giving Bryan a helmet so he rides safely, offering Bryan a job, making Bryan feel wanted (this happening along with Shelby doing the same), and being willing to keep his word to ride with Bryan even when he'd rather have been at the hospital with Shelby after the miscarriage.
*Pastor Dean telling Tucker that he felt the marriage of Tucker and Shelby wasn't correct. I liked that Pastor Dean recommends premarital counseling and that completing the counseling isn't an automatic "I'll marry the two of you" ticket. It sounds like Pastor Dean wants couples to marry for the correct reasons and he's willing to stand up for his beliefs. I also liked that Pastor Dean was willing to be the one to preside over Tucker and Shelby renewing their vows to each other though I'm not sure if he at that point felt they were doing it for the right reasons or if he just couldn't object because they were already married so whether he did preside or not, it wouldn't change their married state at that point.
*Tucker's columnist job--some of the stuff he wrote was a bit humorous.
Dislikes:
*Shelby slept with David prior to marriage--even though she knew it was wrong, possibly to prove to herself that she's "normal" and can like being touched--and ends up pregnant.
*Tucker didn't say anything to either David or Shelby even when he thought their engagement was a bad idea or that the two weren't right for each other. Tucker didn't seem to be able to say no to David at all.
*Tucker jumps into proposing the Shelby because of a promise he made to his dying brother. (It did make me wonder if Tucker had loved Shelby all along but stood aside because David wanted her too.) I do like that Tucker wants to make sure Shelby and the baby are safe and taken care of, but I'm not sure a quick marriage was the correct answer to that problem. It kind of seems like he's taking this step at the wrong time and for the wrong reasons.
We don't really know how long David and Shelby knew each other before getting engaged and planning their wedding. Presumably Tucker has known Shelby for at least that long.
Is love a feeling? Yes and no. That first part of loving someone, that spark of interest, etc. is probably better termed infatuation. Sometimes infatuation mellows and leads to love and sometimes it fades away. There are some arranged marriages where the couple does end up loving each other deeply despite not knowing each other well prior to the marriage. There are probably just as many where love does not develop--think of the celebrities who get married after only knowing each other a few weeks--only to get divorced later because the deep, abiding love didn't develop after the infatuation faded.
So is Tucker correct in that he and Shelby could grow to love one another? Yes, I think so. If both people are committed to the relationship and to getting to know one another and to respecting one another, then yes, I do think love can grow out of that--it may not, but it could.
Likes:
*Tucker tries to do the right thing. He also tries to make Shelby feel safe and protected. His actions show his care for her and his love for her.
*Tucker's taking in Roadkill. Roadkill (a dog) was a great addition to the book--even if Tucker is not so good at picking pet names. (And what does he have against poodles anyway?)
*Tucker caring about Bryan--not calling the police to have them bring Bryan and the bike in to prove it was stolen, not pressing charges on Bryan for stealing, giving Bryan a helmet so he rides safely, offering Bryan a job, making Bryan feel wanted (this happening along with Shelby doing the same), and being willing to keep his word to ride with Bryan even when he'd rather have been at the hospital with Shelby after the miscarriage.
*Pastor Dean telling Tucker that he felt the marriage of Tucker and Shelby wasn't correct. I liked that Pastor Dean recommends premarital counseling and that completing the counseling isn't an automatic "I'll marry the two of you" ticket. It sounds like Pastor Dean wants couples to marry for the correct reasons and he's willing to stand up for his beliefs. I also liked that Pastor Dean was willing to be the one to preside over Tucker and Shelby renewing their vows to each other though I'm not sure if he at that point felt they were doing it for the right reasons or if he just couldn't object because they were already married so whether he did preside or not, it wouldn't change their married state at that point.
*Tucker's columnist job--some of the stuff he wrote was a bit humorous.
Dislikes:
*Shelby slept with David prior to marriage--even though she knew it was wrong, possibly to prove to herself that she's "normal" and can like being touched--and ends up pregnant.
*Tucker didn't say anything to either David or Shelby even when he thought their engagement was a bad idea or that the two weren't right for each other. Tucker didn't seem to be able to say no to David at all.
*Tucker jumps into proposing the Shelby because of a promise he made to his dying brother. (It did make me wonder if Tucker had loved Shelby all along but stood aside because David wanted her too.) I do like that Tucker wants to make sure Shelby and the baby are safe and taken care of, but I'm not sure a quick marriage was the correct answer to that problem. It kind of seems like he's taking this step at the wrong time and for the wrong reasons.
June 14, 2022
This book I couldn't relate to because if something happens to my husband I don't see his brothers stepping up to the plate lol but this book was really good and funny
December 6, 2013
The ending was really bad, but the rest was really funny.
Shelby is not careful with her fiancé, so when he gets in a motorcycle accident, she's pregnant. He dies, but his last words to his bother, Tucker, are 'Take care of her', meaning Shelby. Tucker decides that the best way to take care of her is marry her, so he asks her and tells her the reasons.
Tucker owns part of a motorcycle shop, and he also works there. He has a limestone cottage, and a kind heart. He helps Shelby as much as she'll let him, and since they're getting married, he gave her a nick-name, Shel.
Shelby is not sure she wants this marriage, and her mother doesn't help. Tucker helps her see that she wants a pretty wedding, and she does. When she gets kicked out of her apartment, Tucker lets her stay in his house, and he stays at his dad's.
Tucker and Shelby go though a lot of things together, and Tucker is hilarious. You will have fun reading this book.
Shelby is not careful with her fiancé, so when he gets in a motorcycle accident, she's pregnant. He dies, but his last words to his bother, Tucker, are 'Take care of her', meaning Shelby. Tucker decides that the best way to take care of her is marry her, so he asks her and tells her the reasons.
Tucker owns part of a motorcycle shop, and he also works there. He has a limestone cottage, and a kind heart. He helps Shelby as much as she'll let him, and since they're getting married, he gave her a nick-name, Shel.
Shelby is not sure she wants this marriage, and her mother doesn't help. Tucker helps her see that she wants a pretty wedding, and she does. When she gets kicked out of her apartment, Tucker lets her stay in his house, and he stays at his dad's.
Tucker and Shelby go though a lot of things together, and Tucker is hilarious. You will have fun reading this book.
November 28, 2013
This book was kind of far-fetched but I liked it. I really didn't think I would. I read it because I was intrigued by the idea of Shelby and Tucker being able to pull off getting married so soon after David's death. I was completely surprised by how the book turned out. There were some sad parts and some far-fetched parts but I enjoyed it. My favorite character was Tucker. He was a little bit of a head in the clouds kind of guy who also believed he was responsible for things that weren't his fault but he was also a steady, reliable guy which helped make the book as good as it was.
September 11, 2014
Surprisingly good LI, even with a marriage of convenience storyline! Touching story about healing and miscarriage.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews