Proposition: Marriage - Menikahlah Denganku

by Eileen Wilks

Satu petualangan yang akan selalu dikenang... Hanya itu yang diinginkan Jane Smith, karena seluruh hidupnya selalu berjalan biasa-biasa saja. Tapi Jane tidak pernah membayangkan ia hampir di culik oleh kelompok gerilya pemberontak pada liburannya kali ini, dan diselamatkan oleh agen rahasia yang paling menawan yang pernah diimpikannya. Jane pun tidak mengharapkan Samuel Charmaneaux, sang agen rahasia yang sekarang sudah pensiun, akan muncul di ambang pintunya dan menawarkan pernikahan. Ia memang sudah jatuh hati pada Samuel, tapi apakah Jane, gadis yang selalu berakal sehat itu, mau menerima uluran tangan si pria misterius yang hampir tak dikenalinya?

Genres: Harlequin, Romance, Category Romance, Contemporary Romance

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Eileen Wilks’ first book, a Silhouette Desire published in 1996, hit the USA Today Bestseller List and was nominated for Romantic Times' Best First Short Contemporary award. Since then, her books have appeared consistently on national bestseller lists. With thirty two books in print and novellas in nine anthologies, she has been a finalist in the prestigious Rita Awards three times, as well as receiving several nominations from Romantic Times, including one for Career Achievement in Series Romantic Suspense.

Each book in her World of the Lupi series gains a larger audience. It was originally sold in the Romance section of bookstores, but more and more you will be able to find copies cross-shelved under Sci-Fi and Fantasy as the popularity of the series grows!

Eileen has lived in the West Texas town of Midland, TX for over 30 years--three years as a young teen, and the remaining years since she moved back here as an adult. When she first started writing over 10 years ago, it hit her like the first drink for an alcoholic . . . or the first kiss for Romeo and Juliet.

She came to writing romance in a roundabout way. Having read and loved science fiction for years, that’s where she first tried her hand when the writing bug bit. Somehow her stories always ended up having a strong romantic subplot, but she hadn’t read a romance since the early 80’s and didn’t think “those little books” were her kind of stories. But when a friend in her critique group began working on a romance novel, Wilks decided she needed to give the genre another try. She asked her friend to recommend some titles--and quicker than you can say “Jayne Ann Krentz,” she fell in love. The genre had been busy growing up while she wasn’t watching. These days, with romances comprising over 50% of the mass market books published in the U.S., there are romances to appeal to almost every taste--historicals, paranormals and contemporaries that range from romantic suspense to romantic comedy, from inspirational to sizzling.

Eileen covered a lot of territory before coming home to Midland, having lived in Canada and Venezuela as well as twelve U.S. cities in five states.

Profile taken from the author's site with her permission.

Reviews

[Estara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is probably the oldest of the four Wilks contemporary romances I read in short order this month. It's from the 90s and it has the most improbably meet-cute and personal problem - the hero is an agent who is ready for retirement (in his middle 30s I think) - and runs into a kind, pocket-venus type of All American Sweetheart teacher on a cruise holiday.

She gets into a dangerous situation and he saves her (on his way to finalizing his last mission) and is attracted to her wholesomeness in such a way that he makes unprotected love to her before he delivers her into safety and vanishes on her.

A couple of weeks later, the heroine who really is a nice, level-headed, kind woman is a) not sure she might be pregnant and b) grieving for the guy as if she had loved him all her life (he surely was her most adventurous risk ever: he didn't stop when she asked him out loud the first time but seduced her into making love with him wholeheartedly - that's another thing that shows the age of this book).

I forgave him when Wilks showed his viewpoint and the desperate neediness he has toward wanting a true-blue American home and sweetheart and family now, wanting to use all his skills but having enough conscience that he handicaps himself while trying to manipulate Jane into marrying him as the father of her possible child (all the while making a place for himself in her family and community).

That this works for me at that short lengths is solely because we get his viewpoint, too. So it is a guilty pleasure as - on the show-not-tell scale - Jane ought to have called the police and be totally scared of this highly competent threat to her free will.

But the inner monologues of both of them, the deft characterisation of what she finds attractive in him, of her family, of his thirst for family ties and normalcy and a future that has constants in it - well, they worked for me. YMMV.

[Michelle Tremblay Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have read this book before but I revisit it every few years. I think it's just a touching love story.

[Gramedia Pustaka Utama · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ini salah satu buku paling romantis yang pernah aku baca..! Mengisahkan Samuel Charmaneaux yang datang ke kota Atherton untuk mencari Jane Smith, wanita yang pernah ditemui dan diselamatkannya pada misi terakhir Samuel sebagai agen rahasia di kota kecil San Tomas. Samuel yang yakin Jane sedang mengandung anaknya after their love-making at San Tomas berusaha meyakinkan Jane agar mau menikah dengannya. Tapi masalahnya adalah bagaimana Jane bisa yakin menikah dengannya bila Jane tidak mengenal Samuel bahkan nama aslinya pun Samuel tidak mau memberitahukannya..belum lagi Samuel juga bersikap all secret bout his dark past..n yang lebih parah..saat Jane bertanya apakah Samuel cinta padanya, dia malah tidak bisa menjawab..membuat Jane terluka. Sebetulnya sih bukan karena Samuel gak cinta, tapi karena perasaan itu masih baru buat dia yang dibesarkan di foster home yang beda2 belum lagi tugasnya gak pernah memungkinkan Samuel utk tinggal menetap dan bersosialisasi, lalu dia juga harus selalu berganti2 identitas sampai dia gak yakin lagi sebenernya mana jati dirinya yg asli karena terlalu seringnya dia "sembunyi". Samuel yang memutuskan pensiun merancang masa depannya yang dia yakini akan membuatnya fells like home di Atherton with Jane and his child, termasuk preparing cover story bout his education and job. Ketika akhirnya Jane setuju menikah dengan Samuel dan terlena dengan manisnya hubungan mereka, ternyata Jane tidak hamil, maka hilanglah harapan Samuel yang mengira bahwa bayi itulah pengikat hubungannya dengan Jane, yang akan membuat Jane mau menerimanya..maka dengan berat hati Samuel pun memutuskan untuk pergi sementara tapi Jane tahu, once he leaves then he'll never coming back..hiks..heartbreaking banget.. =(
Apakah semuanya akan berakhir begitu saja?

[Bubu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ini juga lupa ceritanya (_ _)'