Marrying Mallory

Author:         Diane Craver

Genre:           Inspirational Romance Novel

Format:        Ebook

Purchase:    Desert Breeze Publishing


From the Publisher: 
Is Mallory Harrington jinxed because her name means luckless? Things have gone wrong for Mallory since she was a small child. All she ever wanted was to have a complete family and live happily ever after. It appears she has it all when she marries Toby Harrington and they have a son. Unfortunately, their marriage ends when Toby has an affair with his law partner. After their divorce, Mallory feels guilt that she couldn't forgive Toby for his affair. As a Christian, she should be able to forgive him for his sin.

Mallory decides to do something for herself, and get a surgical procedure that she's always wanted. What she doesn't expect is her instant attraction to her surgeon.


Sometimes faith is about accepting what can’t be changed and grabbing what God offers her. Life must go on.

My Review: 

This book was a change for me in that it was an inspirtational romance.  The main character, Mallory, is a complicated woman.  She is smart and very devoted to her faith and her family.  At the beginning of the book, Mallory is dealing with feelings of guilt and inadequacy.  She feels like she has failed because her marriage is over.  She acknowledges that her husband cheated on her, but she still feels like she failed because she couldn't forgive him for his infidelity.  She doesn't believe that God would ever want her to have another chance at love or marriage due to her failure.  She also feels inadequate because she believes that her outward beauty is marred because she feels that her nose is too large and that her face is not proportionate.  She finally feels that she has an opportunity to at least fix her outward appearance.

Mallory has 2 very good girlfriends, Elizabeth and Heather, who both tell her that she looks fine and that the blame for her marriage failure is not hers but rather falls at the feet of her ex-husband, Toby. 

Mallory's solution to her physical appearance is to have plastic surgery, to shorten her nose.  She is a teacher by trade and has done her research and selected the surgeon she wants to use and makes an appointment to visit him.  She keeps her plans secret from her son, Josh, and from her ex-husband Toby, who she seems to be on friendly terms with.  The surgeon is Dr. Seth Whitman, who is a well reputed physician and is also a person who shares her Christian faith. 

When Mallory meets Dr. Whitman, she is instantly at ease in his presence and he is attracted to her beauty.  They end up drinking coffee and then she invites him to dinner to set him up with one of her friends.  The more time that Mallory spends in Seth's company, the more comfortable she is with him as a friend.

We finally meet Toby, Mallory's ex, and it soon becomes apparent why the marriage failed.  Toby is an extreemly self centered person and you get the feeling that the indiscretion that he admitted was not his only indiscretion.  You find out later that your feelings that Toby was not trust worthy and didn't appreciate what he had in Mallry, were right from the start.

The question soon becomes will Mallory allow herself to be happy?  Will she recognize that perhaps God wants her to be happy and that she is not destined to spend her life alone.

The secondary characters in this book are very well written, I truly liked Mallory's friends and at some points even liked them more than Mallory, who sometimes was too guilt ridden and sometimes a little bit "preachy".

Eventually Mallory does come to the realization that she can forgive Toby for his indiscretions and betrayal and that God has indeed granted her a second chance at happiness.

Overall, this is a very sweet story and suitable for both the YA and Adult reader.

My Rating:  4 Out of 5 Crowns