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The Man I Should Have Married - Pria Yang Seharusnya Kunikahi

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Tiba-tiba suami Kennedy, Frank, meninggalkan Kennedy demi mantan pacarnya di SMA, peselancar bernama Sunny,lalu juga akan keluar dari biro hukum untuk mengajar yoga.Akhirnya Kennedy bebas melakukan apa yang selalu diinginkannya dalam hidupnya. Masalahnya, ia tidak tahu persis apa yang diinginkannya. Berniat mengembalikan semangat dan kebebasannya yang dulu ke dalam kehidupannya sebagai ibu pinggiran kota, Kennedy mengunjungi beberapa tempat yang dulu sering didatanginya di New York City, termasuk Declan McGlynn's - bar di Greenwich Village tempatnya pernah bekerja. Lalu, ia menemukan Declan sendiri di balik bar - tetap seksi...dan single...seperti dulu.

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

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361 people want to read

About the author

Pamela Redmond Satran

41 books315 followers
Pamela Redmond Satran is the author of 20 books, both fiction and non-fiction. Her most recent novel, The Possibility of You, is written as Pamela Redmond and published by Simon & Schuster's Gallery Books. A New York Times bestselling humor writer, she has a new humor book, Rabid: Are You Crazy About Your Dog or Just Crazy?, due out from Bloomsbury in September 2012. She is the creator with Linda Rosenkrantz of the million-visitor website Nameberry, based on the 10 books on baby names they coauthored. Satran also writes The Glamour List column and contributes to The Huffington Post and The Daily Beast.

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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
Profile Image for Farah.
174 reviews36 followers
September 3, 2012
Pria-yang-seharusnya-kugenggamtangannyadankutatapmatanyadenganpenuhcinta.

Pria-pria itu bisa siapa saja, sih.

Mungkin itu hebatnya manusia. Tubuh kita memiliki kemampuan untuk menyembuhkan diri sendiri, sampai satu waktu, kita tidak bisa lagi menyembuhkan luka kita. Kita akhirnya mati.


"duh kebaca nggak yah.. ini buku yang menunggu untuk dibaca aja udah lumayan banyak.." *masih sambil melirik belasan novel yang menumpuk dan menunggu untuk di checkout di kasir*


Yang ada hanya mereka yang kepergiannya meninggalkan pelajaran membekas di dalam hati kita.
Memaksa kita untuk menghargai apa yang pernah ada, yang tak lagi kita punya, kemudian benar-benar mensyukuri apa yang saat ini ada di samping kita.
Karena itulah kita pikir, orang yang saat ini mendampingi kita adalah orang yang benar-benar tepat untuk kita.




Berbeda dengan Kennedy, gue malah mengeksploitasi rasa sakit itu.


Pria-yang-seharusnya-kupeluksetiapmalamhinggafajartiba.
Pria-yang-seharusnya-menjadiayahdarianakanakku

Denial. Denial. Denial.
Akan selalu ada satu masa dimana kami, wanita, pernah memimpikan satu orang pria yang ingin kami nikahi. Begitu setiap kali. Tapi karena satu dan lain alasan, biasanya berulang kali mimpi itu layu kemudian gugur dengan sendirinya.



Kennedy yang menolak untuk mengenali tanda-tanda yang mengarah ke perpisahan.
Denial kalo sebenernya dia lemah dan sakit hati.
Yang berasa nggak butuh orang lain.
Yang sok tegar karena dia harus melindungi perasaan orang lain dengan berusaha mengabaikan perasaannya sendiri.


Pria-yang-seharusnya-menikahiku
Pria-yang-seharusnya-
Ia-seharusnya-
seharusnya


Ini tidak bisa dijadikan review seperti yang biasanya. Ini dinding. Biar tulisan-tulisan ini menjadi mural.
Tidak, tidak. Jadikan ini kotak mainan. Yang penuh lego. Silakan dimainkan, susun, dan pahami sesuka kalian..

I'm the ghost of a girl that I want to be most.
I'm the shell of a girl that I used to know well.


Bagian mana dari semua daftar diatas yang tidak juga gue pahami? Bagian mana dari semua daftar diatas yang tidak membuat gue merasa dipaksa berkaca dan memandangi refleksi atas apa yang pernah gue lalui?



"I don't hate him. Why should I?"
"You don't? After what he did to you?"
"Why would I want to hate someone who have taught me so many lessons? I have learned so many things, the hard way. He taught me to. I didn't have any choice."



Pria-yang-seharusnya-kunikahi.

Bersama goresan-goresan panjang itu, gue mematikan hati pelan-pelan.

"..seandainya Engkau mengetahui bahawasanya urusan ini adalah baik bagiku pada agamaku, kehidupanku dan kesudahan urusanku sama ada cepat atau lambat, takdirkanlah ia bagiku dan permudahkanlah serta berkatlah bagiku padanya."


Pria-yang-seharusnya-entahapalagicurhatmelulunihsiFarahkerjaannyaGogetalifedongFarPlisdehUdahtuajugalo.

Sshh.. It's okay. You hear me? It's okay, it's gonna be okay. Let makes thing easier and less painful for you. *dan rasa sakit itu mati lemas, layaknya tak ada yang bisa bertahan tanpa udara. Kata-kata terdiam. Terbungkam. Sisanya hanya ada di lembar-lembar draft yang tidak pernah bisa terkirimkan.



Pria-yang-seharusnya-tahubahwabahagianyaadalahbahagiaku

Kennedy yang mendadak sok ngehip, sok lively, sok jadi life enthusiast dengan merasa kalau dia mendadak terbebas dari ikatan dan bisa melakukan apa saja yang dulu tidak pernah bisa dia lakukan. Denial kalau dia punya kebimbangan-kebimbangan,....

L-i-f-e-e-n-t-h-u-s-i-a-s-t.


Pria-yang-seharusnya-saatinimasihdisisiku.
"Siapa yang benci melihat lo mempertontonkan drama yang tidak ada habisnya setiap malam? Gue. Berhenti. Berhenti mendisplay rasa sakit lo ke hadapan publik karena mereka ngga benar-benar peduli."

Denial. "Boleh tidak aku menolak untuk memahami rasa sakit ini?"

Kata-kata yang tersamarkan, yang mengaburkan apa yang sebenarnya bisa dipaparkan dengan jelas. Kata-kata panjang yang meliuk indah tapi sebenarnya mematikan.

"I'm okay. I AM OKAY."



…sampai satu waktu, kita tidak bisa lagi menyembuhkan luka kita sendiri. Kita akhirnya mati.

Mungkin bukannya kita dipertemukan dengan orang yang salah terlebih dahulu.
Tidak ada orang yang benar-benar salah tempatnya di dalam hidup kita.
Profile Image for Julia.
62 reviews5 followers
May 1, 2013
Everything I say about how ridiculous this book was should be taken in the context of the fact that I read about 3/4 of it in one sitting. It was entertaining and even oddly soothing during that first go. When I went back to finish it the next day, it was just irritating. So, it gets some points for entertainment, but here were my frustrations.

1. There's no build-up for the Declan plot. They see each other, they have sex, in like the first 20 pages. Tease us a little.
2. But then they go back and forth, with no apparent logic, about whether they are going to get together for real. I started to roll my eyes the way you would with a friend who is off-again, on-again with a romance. It wasn't suspenseful or romantic. It didn't build. It just got choppy and irritating.

2. The best friend had very little personality. I also would have liked to read a book about the three friends starting a real estate/house-flipping business. That strikes me as much more interesting book.

3. I know it's chick-lit, but the main character's shallow dependence on men (and willingness to just kind of drop her kids off whenever go to have sex) was really grating. Not that book characters always have to make good choices or even be relatable, but the book's treatment of Kennedy's choices struck me as very glib, like there were no real consequences to her actions for her kids, her mom, Declan, Frank, etc.
564 reviews5 followers
December 11, 2021
Love the title so wanted to like the book. Karen Briscoe, author and podcast 5 Minute Success
1,214 reviews4 followers
February 15, 2025
Not for me but I loved the cover art and the title was sooooo intriguing!
Profile Image for Ibnu Ikhwan Ilyas.
10 reviews3 followers
March 24, 2017
Sungguh bukan karena terjemahannya yang kurang bagus atau ceritanya yang tidak menarik. Saya cuma tidak suka dengan karakter tokoh utamanya. Itu saja.
Profile Image for Veronica Widya.
251 reviews9 followers
September 12, 2010
Although this book is fiction, but i feel this book tell the author's experience. this book is full of truth. its telling the facts out there, where not everybody married happily ever after once in a life time. sometimes a few peoples married twice to find the rite one.
i know that we must meet the few wrong ppls before we found the right one, our soulmate. but still, our hope as a woman is just married once in a lifetime.
This book is great, it make us learn things, that we must think thousand times before we married someone or having child with someone (in my country we cant have child with the unmarried status), we must think about everything before we make decision.
its the huge decision when we want to marry someone, because we must spend the rest of our life with the whom we choose, for better for worse. even the worst! and we meet him everyday! every single day! in the kitchen, bedroom, living room, all together. so imagine that we choose the wrong person!

(sorry, i start to make different topic :P) but like this book, we learned many things. she have child with marco, but marcois not being a good father, than she divoreced him and married with frank who look promising, but she's not happy with him, and frank meet his ex! sunny! (i hate someone who make an affair or stuff!) he's married, for God's sake! but maybe its destiny, because after they divorced..Kennedy meet her soulmate, Declan. Maybe its destiny that they meet again after a few years later, after Declan mature enough to have serious relation ship.
but the thing that im not like is too many sex things in that book! ukh! sex is not everything, isn't it? ;)
Profile Image for hasian_cinduth.
19 reviews7 followers
August 13, 2010
Frank, -suami kennedy,- meninggalkan istri dan anak-anaknya untuk Sunny yang merupakan mantan pacarnya di SMA. Frank juga akan meninggalkan pekerjaannya di biro hukum dan akan menjadi pengajar yoga.

Sepeninggalan Frank, Kennedy merasa menjadi orang yang bebas, bebas melakukan apa saja yang diinginkannya. Sayangnya, dia benar-benar tak tau apa yang diinginkannya. Sampai akhirnya di tengah-tengah usahanya untuk menemukan kembali Marco (kekasih di masa lalu yang telah memberinya seorang anak bernama Maya), dia pun bertemu lagi dengan Declan, pemilik bar yang menjadi fantasinya selama ini.

Pertemuannya kembali dengan Declan memberikan warna baru dalam kehidupan percintaannya. Kennedy pun semakin yakin, bahwa Declan adalah orang yang paling diinginkannya selama ini. Namun ternyata Declan menyimpan sebuah rahasia yang membuat mimpi Kennedy untuk hidup bersama hancur berantakan. Seharusnya Kennedy sudah menduga hal itu dari awal, karena Declan memang seorang 'petualang' cinta.

Rahasia apakah yang disembunyikan oleh Declan? Lalu bagaimana dengan Marco yang masih menginginkan Kennedy? Dan apakah yang terjadi ketika Frank hadir kembali dalam kehidupan Kennedy?

Baca sendiri yah? hehehe..
Profile Image for Tonya.
Author 7 books42 followers
April 30, 2013
Here, the man who got away (well the one she left) also thought she was the one who got away, which lead to some poignant moments.

Kennedy's husband had left her for his high school girlfriend. [I got tickled when I learned her husband's name was Frank Burns - pretty apropos.] The day she told him to pretty much quit his mid-life crisis, he challenged her to finally accept that it was over and move on. And that's what she did. Later that day, the old friend, that best friend, the one who was seen best to stay as a friend slipped into her thoughts. She goes to see him and there the story keeps going, along with her oldest daughter's desire to see her father, who Kennedy left because of his addictions. So after many years, they do meet again too.

I kept flying through the chapters because I really wanted to know what was going to happen.

The one moment that got me was after all was said and done was when she realized how many times over the years in her marriage she had to talk herself into realizing it was best to marry him, to stay, to be his wife; all the while, she never stopped wanting to leave.

Complete with her way-too-sassy-for-me teenage daughter, best friend, and embarrassing (yet at times hilarious) ribald mother. It was a good quick rainy weekend read.
Profile Image for Holli.
9 reviews13 followers
February 18, 2010
After her husband, Frank, leaves her for his old high school girlfriend, Kennedy begins to take charge of her life. When her teenage daughter inquires to finding her father, it leads Kennedy down a path to the past, back to her old stomping ground. There, she reconnects with Declan the man that she slept with the night before she agreed to marry Frank. But Declan wasn't the man for her at the time. She had a daughter to think of and Declan wasn't ready for a relationship, much less a marriage and fatherhood. Kennedy's life is soon thrown into turmoil as she has to reconcile managing her sexually active teenager, shuffling her children between their fathers while paving a life for herself and her daughters without a man despite Declan always being right out of her reach. Kennedy gets her happily ever after, but its not without its trials and various bumps in the road. This was utterly charming! It made me think of the men I should have married. And made me glad that I didn't, lol!
Profile Image for Marcia Gloster.
Author 5 books27 followers
September 6, 2016
Great title and a super fun book

I only found this book a couple of months ago and I am so glad it did. The main character is relatable in that there’s a bit of all of us in her. Dealing with a ridiculous almost ex, a snappy teenaged daughter, I wondered if she was really going have the nerve to get out of suburbia and take her chances at a new life and independence. I felt her caution and emotions in seeing her old love after so much time had passed, and I especially enjoyed the unexpected twists and turns the story took. Thank you, Pamela. Now that I found you I’m looking forward to Babes in Captivity—how can one resist that cover?
Profile Image for Yolibear.
266 reviews16 followers
March 19, 2009
This book was the journey of a woman who is going through a divorce and trying to decide if she can go back and reclaim what we believe is ours. I enjoyed this book because it wasn't all black and white. There are problems with the relationships we try to have and I hate it when a book tries to make it seem like it is all fairytales and pixeydust when dealing with a serious situation. This was a joy to read. Will attempt to read more by this author.
Profile Image for Palsay  .
259 reviews38 followers
September 15, 2010
ehm...emang kalo pilihannya Roos paling2 dehh....hehehe.....light, sweet, naughty and impressive story...3,75 stars :D

setelah bingung mencari buku apa yg mau dicuri dari penthouse-nya Roos, akhirnya gw menyerahkan pada tuan rumah untuk memilihkannya.

dan setelah deg2an di beberapa bagian novel *lap keringet*, gw memutuskan bahwa Roos harus bertanggung jawab: cariin gw cowo kaya Declan donng Rooooooossssssssssss....:'( :'(

hahahahaha..=))
Profile Image for Arra.
325 reviews31 followers
March 7, 2013
This book made me wonder as well if ever going back is really a bad idea and if really moving forward is the only right choice. Another is that if that situation is really possible. I mean when two people separate and eventually change to be better persons for each other without knowing it and that they will also end up together in the end. Anyway, it was a very good and a heartfelt story. You will really feel the emotions in the story.
Profile Image for Angelic Zaizai.
976 reviews35 followers
December 15, 2011


Pembuka bulan Agustus, baca chiklit lagi setelah sekian lama absen
lumayan sih ceritanya, tapi berasa Kennedy ini masih labil gitu hehehe (atau jujur)

tapi bener juga sih, kalo langsung sama Declan, belum tentu juga hubungan mereka akan mulus..
tapi suka deh sama kalimat terakhir di buku ini... "Semuanya karena kau."


Profile Image for Roxie.
72 reviews
August 24, 2014
This is the epitome of a mindless, brain-rotting escapist read. I don't really remember a single word of the story, I don't remember much of the plot, and I don't even remember if I really liked it. But considering that I read it during a time of high stress as a way to shut my brain off for a few hours, I guess it did the job.
Profile Image for Karschtl.
2,256 reviews61 followers
January 14, 2016
Nice chick-lit that I liked a bit better than average novels of this kind.
The 'fight' between Kennedy and Declan in the middle of the book, where Declan accuses Kennedy of being self-centered, and not everything revolves around her, seemed a bit constructed and I couldn't understand Declans reaction to what Kennedy initially said.
Anyway, it was a joyable read.
328 reviews5 followers
June 7, 2008
This would have been 3 stars, but the last page was my favorite. The beginning of the book was fairly explicit, but I didn't think the ending could be any better.
Profile Image for Angie.
1,076 reviews11 followers
October 28, 2009
I liked this book. Simple and sweet. Nothing to deep. And it has a happy ending. But if I remember right, there are a few naughty parts, so beware!
Profile Image for Andi.
878 reviews
September 22, 2010
This was realistic without being depressing. I enjoyed the read and look forward to the other books by the author.
Profile Image for Tessa.
25 reviews
Read
April 7, 2013
Actually the book was quite good. i liked reading it and loved the ending .♥
Profile Image for Kat.
82 reviews10 followers
May 30, 2015
Meh..
Profile Image for August A.P..
535 reviews38 followers
March 1, 2016
I should give this 4 stars actually.

But the story is just slow, some of scene and acts is just like vain.

So 3.5 stars is enough.

But, of course, I like it.
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