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A Man to Marry
Cat wasn't interested in a brief fling! She'd been hurt in the past by a two–timing fiance who'd been using her to find out a lucrative secret. She felt she would never trust a man again – until she met her new neighbor, the dark, enigmatic Caleb Reynolds.... The gorgeous bachelor was intriguing, his little son was adorable. Yet Cat couldn't help being suspicious of Caleb's motives. She longed to surrender to his passion, but that would also mean trusting him with her well–guarded secret....
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
About the author
Carole Mortimer
1,314 books913 followersI have written almost 250 romance novels in contemporary and Regency.
I am a USA Today Bestselling Author and recipient of the 2015 RWA Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2014 I received a Pioneer of Romance Award from Romantic Times in the US and in 2012 I was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II for my 'outstanding service to literature'.
I am very happily married to Peter with six sons, and live on the Isle of Man
I am a USA Today Bestselling Author and recipient of the 2015 RWA Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2014 I received a Pioneer of Romance Award from Romantic Times in the US and in 2012 I was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II for my 'outstanding service to literature'.
I am very happily married to Peter with six sons, and live on the Isle of Man
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 25, 2019
Re A Man To Marry - Carole Mortimer does another multi-couple romance in this one. This time we have two heroines, Cat and Kate, who live with their grandmother, Kitty, in a small English town.
Cat, who is our main h, gets a dramatic prologue opener. It starts when she is at her new fiance's apartment and overhears a conversation between her fiance and another woman. It shocks Cat to learn that her new fiance isn't really wanting to marry her, he is just using her to pursue a story that will have international ramifications.
Even the ring that Cat is wearing isn't really hers, it was 'borrowed' by Cat's erstwhile beau from the woman who is his real fiance and who is currently sharing his bed. Cat is hurt, but glad she found out about the deception before real harm was done.
This incident does manage to convince Cat that men are scum slurping sub sewer dwellers and basically should never be trusted again. With that thought foremost in her mind, Cat leaves the borrowed engagement ring on the former fiance's coffee table and the story starts a few years later.
Kate and Cat have a big house divided into separate living spaces for each of our three ladies and their cat Maddie. Maddie is a ginger tabby and she goes wherever she likes in the house, cause cats have no boundaries. Maddie is also an expectant mum and we are all anxiously awaiting the arrival of her kittens.
Kate and Cat run a local nursery school out of their enormous house, which incidentally was also Kitty's former marital home before it was sold many years earlier. There is a big mystery about Kitty, but because I am more anxious about kittens than big plot surprises, I am going to spill the beans now.
Kitty was a very famous Opera Singer back in the day, until her fame brought down the 24/7 attention of the paparazzi and ruined her daughter's lives after her beloved husband died. Cat's mother managed to escape the fame trackers and married Cat's horse jockey dad and now lives in Ireland.
Kate's mother was the younger daughter and got caught up in a lot of tabloid gossip as she tried to live her life. She eventually fell in love with a seriously terrible gold digger type of slime pustule who turned out to be an abusive cheater as well.
Eventually the abuse and constant tabloid pressure drove Kate's mother to suicide and baby Kate went to live with toddler Cat and her parents in Ireland. The death of her youngest child also made Kitty decide to disappear into the sunset and she abandoned her career and hid out as a regular person.
After years of quiet living and after Cat's big engagement blow up, Kitty got a yen to live in her former marital home where she was so happy when her darling hubby was alive. So Kate and Cat and Kitty packed up their stuff and bought the house under a disguise and now they are happy with Maddie and also anxiously awaiting kittens.
They have one male acquaintance named Toby, a very successful artist, who they met in the village and he hangs out a lot. Cat treats Toby like a mischievous little brother and Kate has more mixed feelings that she hides, cause Toby likes to casually sexually harass and proposition both of the women.
Cat meets her bête noire H when Caleb, a very distinguished history professor whose wife recently died in a wreck with their 3 year old son in the car, shows up at Cat and Kate's to see if his now 3 1/2 year old son, Adam, can attend their nursery school.
Adam survived the traumatic car accident, but from the day of the wreck onward, Adam refuses or is unable to speak. The doctors believe it is the result of the huge trauma of losing his mother.
As this is HPlandia and HP h's can not only groom unicorns, but also bond with small children in one eyeblink while shooting spears of fire at the Hero out of their side eyes, Adam is soon happily enrolled in the ladies' nursery school and swilling back juice and cookies like a champ.
Adam is also keenly interested in Maddie, cause who wouldn't be interested in a friendly and cuddly ginger tabby who is bringing a kitty bonus of kittens?
Caleb is entirely a different matter tho, as Cat and the reader shall see. He and Cat have some fierce fiery sparks bolting between them, but savvy HP Voyagers know that this seeming antagonism is just a front for the massive amounts of Lurve Force Mojo that are about to be unleashed between them.
In between short observations about Lilley, the local postmistress who is the source of all gossip and speculation in the small village, while Toby and Cat and Toby and Kate having jealous Toby dustups about the intrusion of Caleb into their lives, Caleb manages to get himself invited into Kitty's inner circle by explaining that his great grandfather built Kitty's house and it is an architectural marvel.
Since Kate and Cat are at great, great pains to protect Kitty from having her true identity revealed, there is a LOT of antagonism and speculations about what Caleb's motives really are. Cat has been singed before and she isn't about to be burnt again.
But Caleb is more concerned with Adam's speech problems and he is overwhelmed by the blinding eye flashes and sharp tongue of the very assertive Cat. Caleb is mostly coming around because he is really, really liking Cat.
When Maddie has four kittens and there are two ginger tabby ones, (tho it is kinda hard to tell on newbie kittens,) a black, white and ginger one and little black one with white paws. Adam is really excited about the kittens, cause he gets to give one a forever home.
But things take a really dark turn when Cat tells him he can pick one when they are ready to be removed from their mother and Adam gets really upset and runs off.
Cat has to meet with Caleb later to explain that Adam must have heard an argument between Caleb and his dead wife and the reason for his trauma is that he believes he is responsible for the death of his mother.
Caleb explains that his first wife only wanted him for his archaeological connections and pretty much hated him otherwise and only had Adam under protest. On the day of her death, the first wife had declared she was taking Adam and moving to an extended dig in Egypt and that she and Caleb should file for divorce.
Caleb got angry that this status seeking, self serving popsie thought she could just waltz off to an isolated dig in Egypt with his beloved child and told her that wasn't going to happen - at least not with her taking Adam and there was an agreement to postpone the discussion until after the wife and Adam got back from shopping.
Cat immediately deduces that Adam must have thought the shopping trip expedition meant that he would never see his dad again and that Adam must have started crying and having a daddy missing moment while the wife was driving.
Considering that really distressed little kids can make driving difficult, Cat assumes that Adam's crying caused the wife to wreck and then she died and now Adam only has his dad and thinks that he is a horrible little kid for making his mum go away.
Caleb practically shouts "Eureka!" and instantly decides Cat is right. To celebrate the moment, Caleb makes a really nasty comment that Cat must think he is a loser for not being able to keep his wife in his bed and then he does the forced roofie kissing moment.
Things are heating up in a Purple Passion kinda way when Caleb calls a halt and Cat takes Caleb's backing off as a rejection. Cat runs off and Adam doesn't go to nursery school for a few days.
Meanwhile, Toby and Kate are having some purple passion moments of their own and Kate isn't finding Toby's pursuit very easy or welcome. Maddie's kittens are doing great though and Maddie is an excellent mum.
Caleb and Adam finally show up again and Adam's speech is RESTORED! Cat is an excellent traumatized little kid whisperer and Adam really likes the little black kitten with white paws. Caleb is now in full pursuit of Cat and she has to have several mopey moments as she vacillates between telling Caleb off or pulling him down to the closest horizontal surface.
Toby and Kate are heating up, but Toby throws a major spike in the works when it turns out that his painting expression was stalled, so he insinuated himself into Kitty's and Cat and Kate's lives for a nefarious purpose.
While Cat was suspecting Caleb of wanting to out Kitty as the famous lost Opera Diva, (which he had no intentions of doing at all,) it was really Toby who wanted to profit off exposing Kitty as the famous singer.
Toby shows up with a really excellent painting of Kitty in her youth, middle age and current aspect and explains that he was going to use Kitty's very recognizable face as the centerpiece of his next big art exhibition.
Everybody is really irked that Toby turns out to be such a slime slurper and Kate is heartbroken. But Kitty announces she is tired of living in England and wants to move back to Ireland.
So after Toby says he won't use the paintings of Kitty and blow her undercover opera diva status, Kitty tells Cat and Kate to start working on her great grand babies, now that there are two eligible men salivating to have a purple passion moment with them.
Caleb declares his love for Cat and proposes after some big time lurve club events. Kate decides to marry the liar and user Toby after he bats his baby blues and looks a little sorry and Adam decides to keep the black and white kitten for his BFF forever.
Kitty does go back to Ireland and Cat and Caleb and Kate and Toby divide the huge house into two separate living areas, where Cat and Caleb celebrate the birth of the first girl for the start of their family and Adam and his new BFF are living it up for the big HEA.
This one was only a two as far as the romance goes, but the addition of Maddie and her kittens were worth a few extra stars. But then I had to take a star off because the little black kitten with white paws did not get a name and we don't know the fate of the other three - tho CM hints that there was no problem finding Maddie's previous kittens good homes.
So that makes this one a three, the romance was okay, Adam was pretty cute and Maddie and her kittens were the best part of the story. Kitty was a nice lady too and overall it wasn't a bad journey to the standard HPlandia HEA.
Cat, who is our main h, gets a dramatic prologue opener. It starts when she is at her new fiance's apartment and overhears a conversation between her fiance and another woman. It shocks Cat to learn that her new fiance isn't really wanting to marry her, he is just using her to pursue a story that will have international ramifications.
Even the ring that Cat is wearing isn't really hers, it was 'borrowed' by Cat's erstwhile beau from the woman who is his real fiance and who is currently sharing his bed. Cat is hurt, but glad she found out about the deception before real harm was done.
This incident does manage to convince Cat that men are scum slurping sub sewer dwellers and basically should never be trusted again. With that thought foremost in her mind, Cat leaves the borrowed engagement ring on the former fiance's coffee table and the story starts a few years later.
Kate and Cat have a big house divided into separate living spaces for each of our three ladies and their cat Maddie. Maddie is a ginger tabby and she goes wherever she likes in the house, cause cats have no boundaries. Maddie is also an expectant mum and we are all anxiously awaiting the arrival of her kittens.
Kate and Cat run a local nursery school out of their enormous house, which incidentally was also Kitty's former marital home before it was sold many years earlier. There is a big mystery about Kitty, but because I am more anxious about kittens than big plot surprises, I am going to spill the beans now.
Kitty was a very famous Opera Singer back in the day, until her fame brought down the 24/7 attention of the paparazzi and ruined her daughter's lives after her beloved husband died. Cat's mother managed to escape the fame trackers and married Cat's horse jockey dad and now lives in Ireland.
Kate's mother was the younger daughter and got caught up in a lot of tabloid gossip as she tried to live her life. She eventually fell in love with a seriously terrible gold digger type of slime pustule who turned out to be an abusive cheater as well.
Eventually the abuse and constant tabloid pressure drove Kate's mother to suicide and baby Kate went to live with toddler Cat and her parents in Ireland. The death of her youngest child also made Kitty decide to disappear into the sunset and she abandoned her career and hid out as a regular person.
After years of quiet living and after Cat's big engagement blow up, Kitty got a yen to live in her former marital home where she was so happy when her darling hubby was alive. So Kate and Cat and Kitty packed up their stuff and bought the house under a disguise and now they are happy with Maddie and also anxiously awaiting kittens.
They have one male acquaintance named Toby, a very successful artist, who they met in the village and he hangs out a lot. Cat treats Toby like a mischievous little brother and Kate has more mixed feelings that she hides, cause Toby likes to casually sexually harass and proposition both of the women.
Cat meets her bête noire H when Caleb, a very distinguished history professor whose wife recently died in a wreck with their 3 year old son in the car, shows up at Cat and Kate's to see if his now 3 1/2 year old son, Adam, can attend their nursery school.
Adam survived the traumatic car accident, but from the day of the wreck onward, Adam refuses or is unable to speak. The doctors believe it is the result of the huge trauma of losing his mother.
As this is HPlandia and HP h's can not only groom unicorns, but also bond with small children in one eyeblink while shooting spears of fire at the Hero out of their side eyes, Adam is soon happily enrolled in the ladies' nursery school and swilling back juice and cookies like a champ.
Adam is also keenly interested in Maddie, cause who wouldn't be interested in a friendly and cuddly ginger tabby who is bringing a kitty bonus of kittens?
Caleb is entirely a different matter tho, as Cat and the reader shall see. He and Cat have some fierce fiery sparks bolting between them, but savvy HP Voyagers know that this seeming antagonism is just a front for the massive amounts of Lurve Force Mojo that are about to be unleashed between them.
In between short observations about Lilley, the local postmistress who is the source of all gossip and speculation in the small village, while Toby and Cat and Toby and Kate having jealous Toby dustups about the intrusion of Caleb into their lives, Caleb manages to get himself invited into Kitty's inner circle by explaining that his great grandfather built Kitty's house and it is an architectural marvel.
Since Kate and Cat are at great, great pains to protect Kitty from having her true identity revealed, there is a LOT of antagonism and speculations about what Caleb's motives really are. Cat has been singed before and she isn't about to be burnt again.
But Caleb is more concerned with Adam's speech problems and he is overwhelmed by the blinding eye flashes and sharp tongue of the very assertive Cat. Caleb is mostly coming around because he is really, really liking Cat.
When Maddie has four kittens and there are two ginger tabby ones, (tho it is kinda hard to tell on newbie kittens,) a black, white and ginger one and little black one with white paws. Adam is really excited about the kittens, cause he gets to give one a forever home.
But things take a really dark turn when Cat tells him he can pick one when they are ready to be removed from their mother and Adam gets really upset and runs off.
Cat has to meet with Caleb later to explain that Adam must have heard an argument between Caleb and his dead wife and the reason for his trauma is that he believes he is responsible for the death of his mother.
Caleb explains that his first wife only wanted him for his archaeological connections and pretty much hated him otherwise and only had Adam under protest. On the day of her death, the first wife had declared she was taking Adam and moving to an extended dig in Egypt and that she and Caleb should file for divorce.
Caleb got angry that this status seeking, self serving popsie thought she could just waltz off to an isolated dig in Egypt with his beloved child and told her that wasn't going to happen - at least not with her taking Adam and there was an agreement to postpone the discussion until after the wife and Adam got back from shopping.
Cat immediately deduces that Adam must have thought the shopping trip expedition meant that he would never see his dad again and that Adam must have started crying and having a daddy missing moment while the wife was driving.
Considering that really distressed little kids can make driving difficult, Cat assumes that Adam's crying caused the wife to wreck and then she died and now Adam only has his dad and thinks that he is a horrible little kid for making his mum go away.
Caleb practically shouts "Eureka!" and instantly decides Cat is right. To celebrate the moment, Caleb makes a really nasty comment that Cat must think he is a loser for not being able to keep his wife in his bed and then he does the forced roofie kissing moment.
Things are heating up in a Purple Passion kinda way when Caleb calls a halt and Cat takes Caleb's backing off as a rejection. Cat runs off and Adam doesn't go to nursery school for a few days.
Meanwhile, Toby and Kate are having some purple passion moments of their own and Kate isn't finding Toby's pursuit very easy or welcome. Maddie's kittens are doing great though and Maddie is an excellent mum.
Caleb and Adam finally show up again and Adam's speech is RESTORED! Cat is an excellent traumatized little kid whisperer and Adam really likes the little black kitten with white paws. Caleb is now in full pursuit of Cat and she has to have several mopey moments as she vacillates between telling Caleb off or pulling him down to the closest horizontal surface.
Toby and Kate are heating up, but Toby throws a major spike in the works when it turns out that his painting expression was stalled, so he insinuated himself into Kitty's and Cat and Kate's lives for a nefarious purpose.
While Cat was suspecting Caleb of wanting to out Kitty as the famous lost Opera Diva, (which he had no intentions of doing at all,) it was really Toby who wanted to profit off exposing Kitty as the famous singer.
Toby shows up with a really excellent painting of Kitty in her youth, middle age and current aspect and explains that he was going to use Kitty's very recognizable face as the centerpiece of his next big art exhibition.
Everybody is really irked that Toby turns out to be such a slime slurper and Kate is heartbroken. But Kitty announces she is tired of living in England and wants to move back to Ireland.
So after Toby says he won't use the paintings of Kitty and blow her undercover opera diva status, Kitty tells Cat and Kate to start working on her great grand babies, now that there are two eligible men salivating to have a purple passion moment with them.
Caleb declares his love for Cat and proposes after some big time lurve club events. Kate decides to marry the liar and user Toby after he bats his baby blues and looks a little sorry and Adam decides to keep the black and white kitten for his BFF forever.
Kitty does go back to Ireland and Cat and Caleb and Kate and Toby divide the huge house into two separate living areas, where Cat and Caleb celebrate the birth of the first girl for the start of their family and Adam and his new BFF are living it up for the big HEA.
This one was only a two as far as the romance goes, but the addition of Maddie and her kittens were worth a few extra stars. But then I had to take a star off because the little black kitten with white paws did not get a name and we don't know the fate of the other three - tho CM hints that there was no problem finding Maddie's previous kittens good homes.
So that makes this one a three, the romance was okay, Adam was pretty cute and Maddie and her kittens were the best part of the story. Kitty was a nice lady too and overall it wasn't a bad journey to the standard HPlandia HEA.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 16, 2013
Gee, this didn't really feel like a Carole Mortimer book. I didn't feel a lot of chemistry between Cat and Caleb, and it wasn't very compelling. Caleb doesn't have the appeal of Mortimer's typical heroes. He was cute and had an adorable scholarly vibe that I liked. It was appealing that he wasn't taking no for an answer when Cat was not amenable to dating him. He was persistent and won her over.
Overall this wasn't bad. I liked the small town vibe, and I am a sucker for a hero who is a good dad (especially a single parent father). I liked that little Adam was actually in the book a fair amount. He was a cute kid, so it was good to see him recovering from the angst of losing his mom. Cat was a nice woman, but she didn't strike me as very memorable. I didn't care much for the big secret that Cat and her roomie Kate were keeping about Kate's grandmother. I didn't think it was that big a deal. I mean, it was sad what happened to parties involved, but as far as tension, it didn't make for an exciting conflict in this book.
Overall, a decent book, but it lacks the zing and the intensity that I look for in Harlequin Presents books. Small town charm and a slow-building romance is good, so I can't rate this lower than a three. Just not enough here to appeal to me. Definitely an average read.
Overall this wasn't bad. I liked the small town vibe, and I am a sucker for a hero who is a good dad (especially a single parent father). I liked that little Adam was actually in the book a fair amount. He was a cute kid, so it was good to see him recovering from the angst of losing his mom. Cat was a nice woman, but she didn't strike me as very memorable. I didn't care much for the big secret that Cat and her roomie Kate were keeping about Kate's grandmother. I didn't think it was that big a deal. I mean, it was sad what happened to parties involved, but as far as tension, it didn't make for an exciting conflict in this book.
Overall, a decent book, but it lacks the zing and the intensity that I look for in Harlequin Presents books. Small town charm and a slow-building romance is good, so I can't rate this lower than a three. Just not enough here to appeal to me. Definitely an average read.
April 14, 2018
"A man to Marry" is the story of Kate, Cat and Kitty who live with their cat who has kittens. No, Im not joking!
Basically, two of our heroines Kate and Cat live with their grandma Kitty in their remote town, until two males Toby and Caleb enter their lives.
Yes, this is technically supposed to be the novel of Caleb and Cat, and how Cat and Kate taking care of Caleb's son Adam brings the former closer- but the story of the rest of the characters is equally intriguing and hence this felt like a slow burn anthology romance.
The hero, in contrast to usual CM hero is a kind academic, not jaded or mean, mildly jealous and unusually courteous. He is flirty and understanding and occasionally humorous. The heroine too is burned by love before, but isnt a big cynic. The son is cute and the secondary h/H keep you hooked too! There is minimal push and pull and ends in a HEA for all.
Overall, a good read.
Safe
3.5/5
Basically, two of our heroines Kate and Cat live with their grandma Kitty in their remote town, until two males Toby and Caleb enter their lives.
Yes, this is technically supposed to be the novel of Caleb and Cat, and how Cat and Kate taking care of Caleb's son Adam brings the former closer- but the story of the rest of the characters is equally intriguing and hence this felt like a slow burn anthology romance.
The hero, in contrast to usual CM hero is a kind academic, not jaded or mean, mildly jealous and unusually courteous. He is flirty and understanding and occasionally humorous. The heroine too is burned by love before, but isnt a big cynic. The son is cute and the secondary h/H keep you hooked too! There is minimal push and pull and ends in a HEA for all.
Overall, a good read.
Safe
3.5/5
June 21, 2015
3.5
Cat, Caleb e Adam, non potevano che diventare una bella famiglia!
Cat, Caleb e Adam, non potevano che diventare una bella famiglia!
October 21, 2023
Cat wasn't interested in a relationship/been there/done that. Then she met Caleb Reynolds and his adorable son, Adam.
June 22, 2020
Some good secondary characters and more involved back story than some.
Read
October 19, 2020i felt sad about achaild like cat .but love the name cat and kitty and calb and kat but why t must be kkkkk
February 19, 2010
In this book, I like the choice of names =) Kate, Kitty, Cat :)
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews