Books › This Matter of Marriage
This Matter of Marriage
First published 1997 · 517 pages
A cozy, low-stakes romantic comedy about looking everywhere for love only to find it right next door.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like wrapping yourself in a familiar, comforting blanket on a rainy Sunday afternoon. It delivers a steady, breezy experience anchored by the classic friends-to-lovers trope, where the joy lies not in shocking twists but in the inevitable, heartwarming realization of what is right in front of the characters. The tone is earnest and lighthearted, balancing the relatable anxieties of aging and dating with gentle humor and optimistic warmth. The prose is straightforward and dialogue-driven, making it incredibly easy to slip into the lives of these neighbors. It will thoroughly delight readers who crave low-stakes, nostalgic contemporary romance where genuine friendship slowly and sweetly blossoms into lasting love.
- Mood
- cozy
- comforting
- hopeful
- breezy
- Tone
- earnest
- lighthearted
- warm
- humorous
- optimistic
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- friends to lovers · the search for partnership · biological clock anxieties · finding love next door · letting go of the past
- The writing
- Accessible, dialogue-heavy, and straightforward, prioritizing emotional warmth over stylistic flourish.
- The arc
- Moves from anxious, goal-oriented searching to the comforting realization that love was right next door all along.
- Who it's for
- Readers looking for a gentle, low-stakes 90s contemporary romance with a classic friends-to-lovers dynamic.
Content notes
- divorce
- dating anxieties
About the book
The alarm on Hallie's biological clock is buzzing. She's hitting the big three-O and there's no prospect of marriage, no man in sight. Hallie, an organized, goal-setting kind of person, gives herself a year to meet Mr. Knight...In Shining Armor. But all her dates are disasters. (There's the cheapskate and the sex fiend and...well, never mind.)Too bad she can't just fall for her good-looking neighbor Steve Marris—who's definitely not her type. Anyway, Steve's busy trying to win back his ex-wife, Mary Lynn, who's busy getting married—but not to Steve. Life would be so much simpler if he could fall for someone else. Like...Hallie. They're friends, though—and sometimes friends become lovers. Sometimes friends become more.
Description from Open Library.
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