Review: Cute Cover, Derivative Story--Nothing Original Here!
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 06 4, 2013
I understand that many good stories are reworkings of other great stories. How many times has the Cinderella story been told and retold? But there has to be a reason for retelling it with new twists or a modern spin or why retell it? So it is with "Legally Wed.".First of all, it latches on to the "marry me so I don't get deported" genre, which was already done to perfection in "The Proposal." If you're going to mess with perfection, you better expect tomatoes to fly!.Second, if you're going to do a "deportation" story line, at least mention the deportation throughout the book. Nowhere in the book are there any "funny scenes" with the deportation officer where they try to pretend they know things about each other that the other than has to pretend is true by doing something inane to "prove" the other spouse's lie..Third, if you're going to write a love story, give us a plausible reason why the two characters who are "thrown" together might possibly fall in love. The whole book is a very lame love story with Mia, the female lead, a 34/29 year old (the author can't decide which) who's not worried that she's not married even though she wants to start a family b/c she's a "career woman"; then there's Max (how cute, Mia and Max) who is (you won't believe this!) "the most gorgeous man she's ever laid eyes on"--how original! He's a confirmed bachelor with a gorgeous, 10 ft. ceiling apt. overlooking the Thames; he dates super-stick, leggy, blonde, super-models, but somehow, when he finds out he must marry Mia to prevent deportation, finds himself "lusting" after her and possibly "falling" for her. We are given NO plausible explanation why, after a life of easy debauchery, he would find size 12 Mia to be his "Snow White," other than she "had curves in all the right places," and "silky smooth skin.".Fourth, there is no real plot other than them moving in together as part of the ruse, them  planning their fake wedding, and them going to work to "fool" their co-workers after the wedding. Even the wedding itself, we are told that "they wrote their own vows" because they didn't want "any of those old cliches." Yet, the lazy author can't even bother inventing these amazing vows for her characters and putting them in the book..If you are dying for a "fall in love over work" romcom, either re-watch "The Proposal," or the all time classic, "His Girl Friday" with Rosalind Russel and Cary Grant. Leave this fodder alone, or glance at the cute cover...that's the beginning and ending of everything worthwhile in this book. Sorry.