Unexpected Marriage by Anna Adams, Harlequin SuperRomance #1023, The Talbot Twins

Unexpected Marriage is the second in The Talbot Twins series by Anna Adams. The first installment is entitled Unexpected Babies. Unexpected Marriage is about Caroline Manning, a long time single parent who closed her heart off years ago after her husband left her when her daughter, Shelly was three. A second failed relationship with a Naval aviator who didn't want anything to do with children proved to Caroline that she and her daughter were better off alone. The book is set along the coast, in Leith, Georgia. The town's Navy base while not significant has an underlying thread throughout this story as it did in the first. From Cate & Caroline's parents to the maiden aunt's mysterious choice to remain single all of her life as well as the hero in this story, Matt Kearan. Once again we get to rub elbows with the quirky but loveable Talbot clan, including Cate, Alan, Dan and the twins from Unexpected Babies.

Caroline and Matt are thrown together when their children, Shelly and Jake, find themselves pregnant and wanting to get married. Shelly is 19 and Jake is twenty with aspirations of becoming a doctor. Caroline is heartily against this arrangement, knowing that her own marriage based on her being pregnant failed horribly.

Caroline is 39 in her story. (I'm guessing here because Cate is 38 in her story and this seems to be about a year later based on the age of all the kids.) Her marriage ended about sixteen years earlier and the second relationship she had was with a man she'd been involved with in high school that returned to Leith only to break her heart a second time by seemingly expecting Caroline to choose him over her daughter. And her family. And if there's one thing the reader learns in these books it's that Talbot's don't take well to abandoning family.

Matt Kearan is the father of the young man who has gotten Caroline's daughter pregnant. He is a divorcee who was separated from his son for a while until Jake's mother died and Jake went to live with Matt, a Naval test pilot. Matt has also been separated from his parents for years, farmers who never forgave him for choosing flying and the Navy over farming the family land. He is afraid of losing his son and so seems to be in favor of the two young adults marrying. He also finds as he spends time with Shelly's family that he likes the closeness they share and is a quick favorite of the family when he knows how to control and maintain a fire for a barbecue. He's not a rogue who will leave someone behind nor would he ask someone to choose him over their family. He's a likeable, caring man who finds he wants to find the passion he believes lies dormant and untapped in Caroline.

Shelly and Jake's story was an interesting subplot. The struggle through their decisions, how it's going to effect their schooling and their families. I felt, though, that Shelly was a bit unreasonable and whiny towards her mom. A lot, I suppose, could be blamed on hormones and pregnancy, but there were a few times I just wanted to slap her and say wake up don't you see what your mom sacrificed to raise you! Perhaps that's just the single parent in me speaking. Once Shelly suspected Caroline and Matt might be involved she basically forbade her mother from pursing the man, and wasn't overly kind about it either. I guess I'm glad Shelly didn't have her own story, because I don't know that I would have liked her very much.

With both of the books in The Talbot Twins series, I found myself getting a little frustrated with everyone at times. I understood Caroline's plight and her feelings, as a single parent I understand what it's like to put my child before everything. But there came a point when I wanted to tell her to get real. I was glad when she did realize that with her daughter gone and everyone else around her with someone or happy that she would be alone.

I enjoyed reading Anna Adams' Unexpected Marriage and hope that my few negative comments don't make it seem like I didn't. I would have liked to have learned in this second book if Cate ever regains her complete memory. I realize dealing with characters from a prior book is a sticky situation, you don't want to have them too deeply into another person's story. But I still would have liked to know.

I would recommend this book to anyone who's looking for a sweet romance with some emotional scenes. There's nothing heavy to the book, but it's not light either. But the characters are likeable, their struggles real and the resolution believable. The secondary characters were well thought out and just as likeable, if not more so, as they had been in Unexpected Babies.

©Susan Matthews and phantomroses.com