RITA Reader Challenge Review

Once and For All by Cheryl Etchison

This RITA® Reader Challenge 2017 review was written by Beth R. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Best First Book, Mid-Length Contemporary category.

The summary:

The Rangers of the 1st/75th fight hard, train hard and play hard. They are physically strong and mentally tough, disciplined and courageous. But all their military training hasn’t prepared them for falling in love.

Rule #1: Military and matrimony don’t mix.

But if there’s one person Staff Sergeant Danny MacGregor would break all his rules for, it’s Bree—his first friend, first love, first everything. Maybe he likes playing the hero. Maybe he’s trying to ease ten years of guilt. Either way, he’ll do whatever he can to help her.

Wish #1: A little bit of normal.

Bree Dunbar has battled cancer, twice. What she wants most is a fresh start in a place where she can find a new job, and where people aren’t constantly treating her like she’s sick. By some miracle her wish is granted, but it comes with one major string attached— the man who broke her heart ten years before.

The rules for this marriage of convenience are simple: when she’s ready to stand on her own two feet, she’ll walk away and he’ll let her go. Only, as they both know all too well, things don’t always go according to plan…

Here is Beth R.'s review:

This book about a marriage of convenience almost works. I enjoyed it the first time through, but it didn’t benefit from a second reading.

I usually don’t like modern day marriage of convenience plots. I just don’t find it believable that someone would require their child or grandchild to marry someone to inherit the family corporation or a trust fund. I’m all for suspension of disbelief, but my logical brain balks when it has to stretch too much on that score.

But this marriage of convenience seemed plausible. Aubrey (Bree) and Danny were high school sweethearts. Danny flunked out of college during their first year and left without telling Bree. He joined the army and hasn’t spoken to Bree for ten years.

Bree finished college and started a career. Two bouts of cancer later, she’s low on savings and living with her parents. Danny comes home on leave and runs into Bree. No one had told him she was sick, and he’s shocked. Bree tells Danny how frustrated she is living at home, where everyone hovers over her. She can’t afford to move out, so Danny offers to marry her. Bree will get his military health insurance, a place to live with a husband who is rarely around, and a fresh start. When Bree gets healthier, she can find a job and they can divorce. What woman wouldn’t say yes?

Bree moves to Savannah to live with Danny. She takes the bed, and he sleeps on the loveseat. Danny has a spare bedroom. Can’t they buy him a bed? Maybe a couch with a foldout bed? A futon? No, because then Bree couldn’t feel guilty about the sleeping arrangements and invite him to sleep with her.

As in every marriage of convenience story, the forced proximity heightens Bree and Danny’s attraction to each other. Sexy times ensue. No surprise—Bree and Danny come to love each other again. Neither of them will talk about it, because the deal was to divorce once Bree found a job. Surely the other person’s feelings could not have changed!

Bree continues to get healthier. She is offered a job a couple of hours away, but she doesn’t talk to Danny about it. Danny plans a romantic weekend to reveal his feelings and ask Bree to agree to a real marriage. The weekend is interrupted when Danny’s unit has to leave on a mission overseas. Before Danny gets a chance to propose for real, he has to go. Bree tells him that she plans to take the job. Danny urges her to wait on divorcing him, so she can get death benefits if anything happens. Which it does. Danny is injured in combat. Will Bree stay and make their marriage a real one?

For a first novel, this was good. The dialogue was conversational, not stilted. The marriage of convenience concept seemed believable enough; a 28-year-old cancer patient wanting a fresh start and health insurance could well agree to a temporary marriage with her old flame. The supporting characters, especially Danny’s friend Ben and Ben’s wife Marie, were well developed and interesting. The author took the time to explain military terminology, which I appreciated.

I just couldn’t get over my urge to slap Bree and Danny. Bree’s had a rough time, but she feels so guilty about everything. She appreciates being able to eat cold pizza for breakfast once she moves in with Danny, because she always felt she had to eat what her mother made for her.

It was the little freedoms like that she missed. Not that her mother would have stopped her from eating what she wanted, but in the end the guilt she would’ve endured wasn’t worth the price of admission.

Danny has been in a holding pattern since he joined the Army, apparently saving himself emotionally for his return to Bree.

He was that guy in his company. The one with the reputation. The one they’d all tell stories about for years to come. The one who rarely spent more than one night with the same woman, let alone a full week.

I had a problem with the characters’ immaturity. I could believe Bree’s lack of maturity, to some extent. Her adult life has been dominated by cancer, and she had no choice but to live with her parents while she underwent treatment. But Danny’s quick transformation from king of the one night stands to wanting to make his marriage to Bree real did not work for me. I needed to see more growth from him within the book to believe that he was willing to make that commitment.

This book was commendable in that it dealt with some tough topics in a direct but sensitive way, including cancer and the risks facing those in the military. I enjoyed it enough to read the second book in the series. This was a quick, mindless read (in spite of the weighty subject matter). It has a five star rating on Amazon and a 3.95 on Goodreads. It just wasn’t my catnip.


Once and For All by Cheryl Etchison received a B- in a previous RITA Reader Challenge Review.

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Once and For All by Cheryl Etchison

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  1. Kareni says:

    This sounds like a book I’d enjoy. Thanks for your review, Beth R.

  2. Nicole says:

    Agreed. I rarely find modern day marriage of convenience tropes to work. Military situations like these are some of the few times where they almost make sense to me, but I feel like the kind of contortions authors have to do to make them make sense could been avoided.

  3. I want to say, this is a completely believable marriage of convenience trope – a little less so since the Affordable Care Act, but I was a military lawyer until the mid-2000s and saw many, many marriages that were started for health insurance or continued only for health insurance, even when the people were living in separate residences. This crossed all ranks, all races, all ages – I saw 60 or 70 yr old retirees, officers, young enlisted people, everyone. That’s what happens when civilians can’t get decent health care. I had commanders come in for advice, saying a young soldier was getting married probably just to give someone health insurance and could they withhold permission, etc.

    In fact, lots of military members used to threaten their spouses with loss of health insurance if they reported abuse. At the time federal law made it a crime to possess a weapon or ammo if you were convicted of misdemeanor DV – aka, the Lautenberg Amendment, and you can’t be in the military if you’re prohibited from possessing a weapon. (Not sure if it’s still in force – I think so). So guys would say “If you report me, I’ll get kicked out, and then you and the kids won’t have insurance …” SMACK. The problem was so bad that the army had to change the rules and let spouses and kids keep insurance for a pretty long time after they reported DV – it was a really tough situation, and some pretty awful stuff was happening b/c women would do anything to keep insurance for their kids.

    From Statesidelegal.org (a good link with lots of general DV info, if anyone reading this has a need or has a friend with a need):

    Can I stay in military housing?

    If you are not the servicemember, and you and your partner live in military housing, you will have to leave. You will have 30 days from the day you and your partner separate to move. It does not matter if your partner moves out (for example, to the barracks), you will still have to leave military housing within 30 days.

    [** editorial comment from Anna: doesn’t THAT suck????]
     
    Am I eligible for other military benefits as a spouse of a service member because of abuse?

    You may be entitled to the Transitional Compensation Program (TCP), which includes cash payments to you, TRICARE health insurance and commissary/exchange privileges. TCP can last for 12 – 36 months. To be eligible, your servicemember spouse must have been on active duty for at least 30 days. He or she must be administratively discharged from the military under the reason of “dependent abuse.” You cannot reunite with your spouse or marry someone else while receiving TCP.

    [*** This is the change that came in to remove the threat of “no health care” that was stopping women from reporting.***]

    Sorry to be so serious – but yep, this marriage of convenience premise works. (And as a lawyer, I really REALLY hate the ‘because grandpa’s will says I have to get married’ trope – NOPE, not legal. Completely unenforceable clause. See one of those in a will, get a lawyer, not a spouse.)

  4. JayneH says:

    I couldn’t get over the spare bedroom with no bed either!! Great review.

  5. Karen H near Tampa says:

    For what it’s worth, I have 2 spare bedrooms and neither has a bed and they are unlikely to. One is my library/exercise room and the other is our home office. Family and friends know they have to find someplace else to stay if they want to vacation near us in Florida.

  6. Louise says:

    @Karen H:
    Well, yeah, but the premise here is that you’ve got someone sleeping in your bed. If someone moved in, and you felt morally obliged to give them sole use of what was formerly your own bed, wouldn’t ordinary common sense demand that you get yourself something decent to sleep on?

  7. kitkat9000 says:

    I feel like a broken record adding my opinion to those already posted regarding modern MsOC. Though overall this particular premise appeals to me, the same stumbling blocks do not.

    I can’t help but think this story would have had a greater emotional impact if both characters had had beds, used their words and then STILL connected. Unnecessary contortions avoided and, because actual words were used, necessary emotional growth achievements may be unlocked.

    Much better story (to me)… any recs?

  8. Anonymous says:

    I do think health insurance is an under-utilised device for a modern marriage of convenience story. Even with premises that don’t involve the military or cancer, it just makes so much more sense than any of the other contrivances I’ve seen authors try. (Speaking as someone who occasionally wishes she could marry someone for the health insurance.)

  9. Ms. M says:

    I think marriage of convenience can still work, but writers need to expand the kinds of characters they write about. People living in states without ACA/Medicaid expansion. Green card marriages. Documented immigrants from traditional cultures. There’s a lot of potential conflict to work with!

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