Reviewer: Megan Duncan
Title: Marriage by Design
Author: Lynn Michaels
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0-3454-7601-8
Release Date: July 2006
Genre/Sub-genre: Contemporary Romance
Year/Setting: Current/U.S.
Overall Rating: 4.25
Sexual Content Rating: Sensual
Language (Profanity) Content Rating: N/A
Violent Content Rating: N/A
Lynn's Website:
lynnmichaels.us/index.html
Mia Savard is thirty, recently dumped by her model boyfriend and the top designer of her father’s bridal design company, Savard Creations. And she hates it. She is tired of making gowns for everyone else when she is still single herself. Mia has been trying for years to get out of the bridal line and into couture, but her father won’t hear of his best bridal designer leaving her post. Tired of his threats to fire her when Mia doesn’t follow his rules again, she quits. But before she can walk out the door with her head held high, disaster strikes Savard. It seems someone has stolen one of Mia’s designs and all fingers point to Savard’s rival, Heavenly Bridals.
Enter Joe Kerr. Head of Joseph Kerr Inc. Private investigations. Mia’s father, Lucien Savard has hired Joe to find out who stole Mia’s design and also hopefully bring down his archrival Oren Angel, head of Heavenly Bridals. But the investigation gets complicated as things heat up between Joe and Mia. Joe has been suspicious of Mia from the get go just from the simple fact that she had quit minutes before word got out that the design was stolen. And after questioning the Savard staff it has come out that Lucien has been threatening to fire his youngest daughter for years and it has just come about now that Mia finally leaves? Hmmm…
This leads Joe to suspect Mia all the more but Mia’s curiosity and investigation of her own- not to mention their attraction to each other- leads Joe to look at others who work under her father. However her fascination with the TV show Law and Order and desire to mimic the show in the investigation annoys him and could interfere with the budding side of their relationship.
The romance between Joe and Mia is sweet and subtle. They try and hold off because of the investigation but it slowly builds until they can’t resist any longer and the result leaves you smiling and thinking it could not have worked out any other way. The result of the investigation is not really surprising, the characters tell you by their behavior who is innocent and who is not so it is not really at all unforeseen to find out who stole the design which unfortunately takes the suspense out of the mystery.
All in all, I’d have to say Marriage by Design was a pleasant read and a sweet romance. The book is complete with abundant humor and a fine plot, but some of the characters could have been sketched better to fool the reader a bit.
Megan
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