The Paper Marriage

I worked at Barnes & Noble and kept passing this book on the shelve, thinking "I need to pick that up and see what it's all about". Well, wow! The characters are compelling, the scenery all to easy to imagine and the romance between Ann and Tom is slow-building and that much sweeter because of it. Pick it up...read it...love it like I do.

This was the best romance novel that I've read this year. The characters are realistically complex and the plot is engaging. It's a difficult book to put down.

Susan Kay Law's latest novel, The Paper Marriage, is for anyone who understands John Lennon's words, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." Sometimes you swing for a fast ball and totally miss the change up when it arrives. Tom Nash, the former Twins pitcher, understands that. Ann McCrary doesn't. The fast ball she aimed for was a long-term marriage and children with her childhood sweetheart, sharing a home and the architectural firm they started together. The change up was the auto accident that left her husband in a coma. At least in the batter's box either you're out or you immediately get ready for the next pitch. In Ann's case it has been twelve years since that fateful changeup, twelve years of faithfulness to a man who doesn't know she's there. Twelve years until Tom Nash moves in next door, followed by his teenage Goth daughter Mer. In spite of the blown shoulder that ended his baseball career, he delivers another change up to Ann. Mer, raised by her gold-digging baseball groupie mother, comes from Chicago for the summer to live with the father she barely knows. Tom is clueless on how to make up for everything he missed in his daughter's life and how to accept her for who she is. It's the people and canines in Ann's life - her aging hippy mother; her in-laws, the perfect couple until Martin finally decides he wants to live again and Mary, so faithful to her son, has to find a new life for herself; her dog, Cleo, and Cooper the mutt next door (and the puppies); her neighbors; the denizens of the nursing home; and especially Mer and Tom --who finally convince her she can move on, that she can maintain her loyalty to her husband and find a life of her own at the same time. The Paper Marriage tells a story we can all identify with, full of intriguing characters who live their lives in spite of the change ups.

Twelve years ago, John McCrary was in a nasty car accident that left him comatose. His wife Ann had him placed in Cedar Ridge where he has lived ever since in a deep coma. Ann believes not only has John's life been placed on pause so has hers; still she and her therapy dog Cleo visit her husband every evening at 6:30 to insure he receives proper care at the nursing home although her mother-in-law Mary is there diligently everyday as she expects a miracle to occur as well as her daughter-in-law standing by her vow of in sickness, etc. When Ann's neighbor Mrs. Hillerman moved into assisted living, her house was sold within a day to former baseball star Tom Nash. He moves in almost immediately accompanied by his angry purple haired sixteen years old daughter Mer who will spend the summer with him in the burbs. He is clueless about life in the suburban jungle and what to do with a teen girl, whose self-absorbed mother like the former All Star pitcher neglected her. As Tom and Ann become acquainted starting with brownies and perversions and coaxed by Mer, they fall in love. However, in spite of encouragement from her mom and discouragement from John's mother, Ann takes her vows to her husband seriously. THE PAPER MARRIAGE is a deep contemporary relationship drama that focuses on complex personal issues. The story line contains an obvious serious undertone re when does a person move on in his or her life without neglecting or forgetting an incapacitated loved one. With some humor to lighten the mood a bit, readers will appreciate The Paper Marriage with tears glistening throughout this powerful tale. There is a final spin between Tom and John that will leave no one dry eyed. Harriet Klausner