SRP Book Review #23

Twelve Times Blessed by Jacquelyn Mitchard

532 pages

This is not about a May/December romance, really, but I'd call it June/October, with our protagonist, a woman named True, as the older party. True is a successful businesswoman in Cape Cod who meets and marries Hank, a southern restauranteur in his early 30's, on her 43rd birthday. They get married within a matter of weeks.

I don't mean to be a party pooper, but I really thought getting married so fast was a stupid move on both of their parts, and jerky, considering that they didn't even tell True's 10 year old son until after the fact. I think if you want to be dumb and get married on a whim if you don't have a kid, fine, but you should be a lot more careful if you do.

But, I guess if they weren't so impetuous, there wouldn't be a story to take up the rest of the book. Because True and Hank really get to know each other after their wedding, all kinds of difficulties develop which might have ended the relationship if they had been dating rather than married. Hank and Guy, True's son, really develop a bond that turns out to be stronger than Hank's bond with True.

Mitchard seems to specialize in and is very good at writing about unconventional families. She does that here, not only with Hank, True, and Guy, but with True's circle of friends and coworkers, as well.