Review: Marrying Mari
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 29, 2013
Set in Manhattan, where a bike messenger finds her life has changed when two bank directors decide she fits the conditions to be partner to them. Mari doesn't have to choose between Ethan and Gabriel, luckily as she finds both sexy, but if she chooses both she will be letting herself in for more than she realises in this adult romance.MARRYING MARI introduces a 400-year old family/business organisation, with origins in the Pilgrim Fathers' days, called The Colony. Sounds something like the Mafia and there is no mention of giving to charitable concerns; it is entirely selfish. In keeping with the rules from their past, these two men in their early thirties need to marry soon and one woman between two men is, weirdly, the acceptable form of mating. Sadly it otherwise is a bundle of stereotypes, from the vastly wealthy background of the men - whose family alone escaped the Depression and Wall Street crash - to the opulent clothes and jewels they buy for the unspoilt younger girl and the formal ball she is required to attend at the Colony. Mari is the daughter of a woman who ran away from the Colony so she may be acceptable to the elders there - or not. Their talk of "keeping the bloodlines clean, unquestioned" sounds unpleasantly right-wing and likely to lead to serious inbreeding and genetic faults. Who would want to get mixed up with people like that? But luckily for Mari, the two men are very good-looking, and her mother didn't marry a Hispanic, so that's all right then.Skipping over the concerns, we do meet an engaging heroine in young Mari. She is working hard in a demanding job to earn enough to continue with her studies, taking semesters towards med school and renting an apartment in Hell's Kitchen. She is made uneasy by the sudden interest from two bank directors, and returns a large tip from them, though she takes no safety precautions when they insist on driving her to their apartment - never even phones a friend to say where she will be. She could have been murdered. She stands up well to a snide matriarch and copes with a family barbecue or a formal ball with equal aplomb. When rumours that she was a stripper are spread to Ethan and Gabriel about her, the old double standard kicking in, she tells them the truth, then departs to let them decide who they want to believe. Overall Mari comes across as a mature 23-year-old capable of making her own way in the world and enjoying her newfound sexuality.