The Un-Arranged Marriage - Laura Brown

The Un-Arranged Marriage

By Laura Brown

  • Release Date: 2022-03-28
  • Genre: Romantic Comedies
4 Score: 4 (From 36 Ratings)

Description

Mark Goldman has never gotten along with Shaina Fogel. Ever. Even when they were in diapers, their bestie mothers wanted them to grow up and get married. Not happening. Mark prefers his quiet, reserved life. But a family wedding is about to change everything Mark thought he knew about his archnemesis.

A week of wedding events with Mark Goldman? Shaina would rather have a week of root canals. Maybe the guy is hot, but for their entire lives, he’s never once acknowledged that she's hard of hearing. So it comes as a massive surprise when she discovers that Mr. High-and-Mighty and Annoyingly Sexy simply didn’t know she couldn't hear him. And now she needs his help.

When it’s revealed that the weeklong wedding events are actually a weeklong competition—for a dream vacation—Mark and Shaina do the unthinkable: they decide to work together. And the second the animosity begins to fade, something even more electric takes its place. Only now it’s not just an attraction between enemies. And nothing could be worse than the fact that their mothers might have had it right…

Reviews

  • Author really gets it.

    5
    By book drunker cc
    This was the first book so well written that described what it’s like being hearing impaired and wearing hearing aids. I’ve dealt with this with family and friends who just don’t get it. And why I always feel left out of so many moments in my life. Good job!
  • Frenemies for Sure

    5
    By Kay 7072
    Mark and Shaina almost made an art of hating each other for over 30 years, especially since their respective mothers wanted and expected them to marry each other. Bad move to push them. After much competition between and among family members, much reflection about feelings softens hearts to deeper feelings of love for a happy well-earned ending.
  • Complications

    2
    By yuanidiot
    Very slow, took forever to get into. Was a bit boring.
  • The Un-arranged Marriage

    4
    By egganer
    Loved Mark and Shaina! I,too, am hearing impaired so I identified with feeling less than because I don’t always understand what people are saying to me. I am an excellent lip reader and get frustrated when people who know me try to carry on a conversation with me without looking at me. We get frustrated with each other! I interrupt people doing this and say, “look at me” so I can understand what you are saying. My husband of 32 years still can’t remember that he has to look at me when talking to me! I loved Mark for making an effort to speak in a level that she could understand. I did not give 5 stars because of the open door intimacy.
  • The Un-Arranged Marriage is a fun, sexy, opposites attract RomCom that you don’t want to miss!

    5
    By Jill LAWF
    I absolutely adored this book. I fell in love with Laura Brown’s writing a couple years ago when I picked up Matzah Ball Surprise, and she has been an automatic 1-click for me ever since! The Un-Arranged Marriage is an enemies to lovers, opposites attract, RomCom that kept me entertained from page one until the end. Mark Goldman and Shaina Fogel grew up together. Their moms were BFFs who started planning their kids’ wedding from the time they were babies. Unfortunately, while the Goldmans and Fogels were more family than friends, the same could not be said for Mark and Shaina. They were like oil and water and rubbed each other the wrong way. That is until they were “forced” together as adults for the wedding of Mark’s baby sister. Then the fun begins! Laura Brown has a gift for portraying her characters as “real” people. Her characters are people I can genuinely picture bumping into in real life. They have flaws, make mistakes, and ultimately grow as the book goes on. I loved watching Mark and Shaina as they got over their hang-ups from the past and, for the very first time, started to actually get to know one another. And they definitely had chemistry! Once they gave in to it, I knew the result would be HOT — and I was correct! One of the things that I most admire about Laura Brown’s writing is how well she incorporates diversity in her romance novels. In the Un-Arranged Marriage, Shaina being hard of hearing, Mark being demisexual, Mark’s cat… these are just a part of who they are and who they have always been. Mark and Shaina are also both Jewish. The main characters in a romance novel being Jewish is not something you often find in romance novels. And to see it in a book that is not a Holocaust book or a holiday book (i.e., Hanukkah) is even more rare. Too often, diversity can feel like a prop in a story instead of just another part of the story. This has never been the case in any of the books I have read of hers. She portrays it in a very authentic way—the fact that this is an “Own Voices**” book definitely helps in the realistic depiction. And THIS is why Laura Brown is an automatic 1-click for me! The Un-Arranged Marriage is a fun, sexy, opposites attract RomCom that you don’t want to miss! Check out Laura Brown’s Instagram posts to see the inspiration behind this own Voices novel!

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