A Book Hits Home with This Therapist

I just finished a book that is all about where romance meets therapy. I finished Denise Hunter's The Convenient Groom in about 6 hours total today. This book was an absolute must-buy simply based on its premise (that, and I'm a complete sucker for the heroine-and-hero-have-to-get-married type books).

Here's a blurb from the author's website:

Dr. Kate has it all-a radio talk show, a nationally-syndicated column, and a publisher who is paying for a lavish wedding to coincide with the release of her first book, Finding Mr. Right-For-You. But when her fiance jilts her the morning of the wedding, her life begins to crash around her. Who, after all, would want a relationship book by a counselor who can't even hold her own engagement together?

When Lucas Wright realizes what has happened, he offers to marry Kate and save her public image. Kate's heart-and her pride-have been deeply wounded. Are Lucas's handsome smile and utter devotion enough to convince her that her marriage is more than she had ever expected?

I was all over this in the store. She's a high-profile therapist--you have to be if you are called Dr. First-Name--and her specialty is relationships. She gets jilted, a PR nightmare for someone like her. Enter selfless (or is he?) stand-in. Awesome reading.

One of my favorite parts was the beginning of each chapter starting with an excerpt from Dr. Kate's book, Finding Mr.-Right-for-You. Each quote was very therapy-sounding, and many were even along the lines of what I've told clients! Of course, the quote always played into the chapter content, so after reading the quote, I would push on through the chapter, dying to know how it would play out.

I also loved the character arc for the therapist. Being one, I can easily see how we might tend to lean toward the misconception that we know everything there is to know. :) I also can totally identify with the idea that we can't let our own human weaknesses show on the outside. (I mean, what would my clients think if they knew their therapist had also suffered from depression?) Therapists are kind of like pastors. We go through the same stuff everyone else does, but for some reason, everyone thinks we don't. (I know I've thought my pastors were just one under the Trinity in holiness and perfection....but they have all put their underwear on one foot at a time like we all do.) So therapists have learning curves, too...perhaps harder than average, as we're working against all our book knowledge of human behavior instead of just hanging it all out there blindly. Make sense?

Denise is an excellent writer...I had never read any of her work before. But you can bet I'll be grabbing up her first Nantucket Love Story when I have a chance.

Thanks for reading my review...pick this book up!