Review: Married by Mistake by Abby Gaines

Title: Married by Mistake
Author: Abby Gaines
Pages: 288
Publisher: Harlequin (2009)
Genre: Romance / Contemporary
Edition: Paperback - Free Gift edition from Harlequin Ambassador program


Perfect for : Personal reading, take it on the plane, sneak it into your purse for those extra minutes you've got throughout the day, or cozy up in the corner of the couch with your favorite blanket and indulge yourself!

In a nutshell: From start to finish I LOVED this book, and I didn't want it to end. The book starts with the filming of a brand new reality show called Kiss the Bride, where brides are all dressed up and ready for their prospective husbands to propose, be officially married and head out on a dream honeymoon! After years of being engaged to Joe, Casey is tired of the ever-changing wedding date and has decided to take matters into her own hands - on tv. . . little does she know that Joe is going to have cold feet, leaving her standing alone in front of cameras, a tv audience, and viewers at home. In an attempt to help Casey and salvage the show, Memphis's most eligible bachelor, Adam Carmichael, is going to step in, propose AND marry her, all the while believing the wedding would be fake. Both Casey and Adam find out that the marriage is REAL, and decide to extend the charade until the marriage can be annulled. . . but can they keep things on a friendly basis during the month it will take to get an annulment, or will things heat up between the pair? I absolutely loved everything about this book. It was refreshing, the characters were well-written, the story moved along at a nice pace, and had a wonderfully happy ending.

Imagine my excitement when I visited the author's site and learned that she wrote extra scenes for the story covering the time between the last chapter and the epilogue!! If you have read the book and want to fill in the gaps, go here to read the extra scenes.

Extended Review:
Characters: Each of the characters added depth to the story. My favorites were Casey, who desperately needs to learn to say no and start living her own life, instead of living to help everyone else; Adam, she is trying so hard to help his business thrive; and Eloise, Adam's step-mother who ends up being one of the loveliest character's I've read in quite a while.

Story-Line: This was a fun, fast-paced romance that had plenty of obstacles as well as touching moments.

Readability: Easy to read and enjoy.

Overall: A quick read that will have you engrossed in the story from page one as sparks fly and lives are changed for better, or for worse!

From the Back Cover:
Do not adjust your set. That really was Casey Greene being jilted by her fiancé on live TV! And that really was Memphis's most eligible bachelor who stepped in to marry her instead.

Millionaire businessman Adam Carmichael wanted only to help Casey save face. He isn't prepared for the news that their "fake" wedding is legal and binding.

While they secretly wait for an annulment, media and family scrutiny forces them to put on their best loving-couple act. Except by now, neither one is quite sure who's acting….
About the Author: (from the author's site)
Abby Gaines wrote her first romance novel while still in her teens. Encouraged by her incredibly supportive parents, she wrote her novel longhand in school notebooks, supplying new pages daily to her biggest fan, her younger sister. When she’d finished, she typed up the manuscript and sent it to Mills & Boon in London—and was shocked when they rejected it.

No trace remains of that original work, and Abby shelved her writing dreams while she studied French, Japanese, German and Spanish for her BA—obviously she was worried there weren’t enough words in the English language to keep her amused. She also struggled through one paper in Economics, by far the most foreign language of them all.

After she graduated, Abby worked in sales and marketing in the computer industry, beginning her career in IBM, where she met her husband, then moving to a small high-tech PR consultancy. When her first child was born, she decided to be a stay-at-home mom, and was lucky enough to be able to build a new career as an award-winning freelance business journalist. Over the next few years, Abby had two more children, completed a post-graduate marketing qualification, and got halfway through a post-graduate diploma in theology before she just plain ran out of time and energy.

She needed a change…and it was about then that Abby’s ambition to write romance resurfaced.

Over the next few years, she cut back on the business journalism. She submitted several manuscripts to Harlequin, all the while attending romance writing classes and conferences, and reading every how-to book she could find. Rejections came thick and fast, and Abby realized that when she’d promised her husband she’d soon be supporting him on her inflated earnings as a bestselling author, she’d been at best over-optimistic…and at worst a stinking liar. To do her bit for the family fortunes, she took on the part-time role of editor of a speedway magazine—about as far removed from business journalism and romance writing as can be. But the speedway job turned out to be a lot of fun, and Abby became just as passionate about the sport as any longtime fan.

After five years of submitting to Harlequin, Abby sold her first book to Superromance in April 2006—and a month later, she sold to Harlequin’s NASCAR series. She’s now sold a total of 12 books, including a novella published in the A NASCAR Holiday 2 Christmas anthology from HQN.

Abby loves reading, traveling and cooking for friends, as well as spending time with her husband and children. She knows how to use a credit card as a lethal weapon, and proves it regularly by putting major dents in the household budget. Abby and her family recently moved back to the city after a few years in the country. Watch out, malls, here she comes!


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