When I picked up The Marriage Contract by Katee Robert and read the back copy, I was little confused as to how an arranged marriage happens in a contemporary and how the consequences of it can be deadly. Since it mentioned a wealthy family, I assumed we were talking about another billionaire book. The cover was awesome though, so I snagged it.
Then I read the first chapter, wherein the heroine, Callie Sheridan goes to spy on her fiance (a marriage her dad arranged, she’s never met the guy), Brendan Halloran. Brendan is hanging out in a strip club, and Callie sneaks into his private room and discovers Brendan raping a woman who has been badly beaten and may be unconscious. Brendan thinks Callie is a stripper and tries to rape her, too, so she shoots the fucker and kills him.
I was sitting at Noodles eating lunch when I read this, and I immediately messaged the other Bitches, “WTF DID I JUST READ. WHAT IS THIS BOOK?”
I was still thinking billionaire at this point. What the back copy fails to point out is that this series is about three major crime families in Boston: the Sheridans, the Hallorans, and the O’Malleys. Not knowing that going in was a little jarring, but I ate the rest of this book up with a spoon. It’s dark and decadent and it could have been squicky but it was not. It was like cake. And I love cake. I sided firmly with red velvet in the SBTB Red Velvet vs Oreos War of 2015
(RHG: OREOS OVER RED VELVET ANY DAY. MAGIC MIKE AND I AGREE. I WILL DIE ON THIS HILL)
(Amanda: Seconded. Oreos).
So now that Brendan’s dead (and BTW Callie manages to cover it up so no one knows she killed him) Callie’s dad decides to not wait for grieving or polite appearances but to switch her future husband over to Teague O’Malley. Callie is the Sheridan heir, and her father wants to solidify their power base by marrying her to someone within one of the other families.
At first Teague is like, “WTF no. I am not a piece of meat,” but then he thinks better of it. He desperately wants out of the mafia (and he wants to be able to take his siblings with him, but he knows that’s not possible). Teague is not a bad person at all and he hates the life he was born into. Teague isn’t the O’Malley heir. If he marries the Sheridan heir then he sort of becomes a defacto Sheridan. He figures this will give him distance from his family so he can escape.
And that’s part of why this book was so good. It’s rare to read a contemporary where the consequences are truly, truly dire. Usually if the hero or heroine fucks up, then they face humiliation or possibly estrangement from family and friends (who are usually douches anyway if estrangement is on the table). In The Marriage Contract the consequences are medieval–if Teague fucks this up, someone will kill him. Even if he runs, the odds of him being found are really fucking high.
For the most part, the second generation of these three families wants out of the mafia life–with the exception of a few characters. The patriarchs are the real bad guys while the adult children are trying to cope, so they come across as sympathetic characters in a world where you wouldn’t expect to find them.
Teague doesn’t count on really liking Callie when they first meet. He’s protective of her but not in a domineering sort of way. She has bruises around her neck from where Brendan tried to strangle her, and Teague is angry that with all her family’s power, she’s not being properly protected. There is also immediate sexual chemistry. At first Teague figures he’s going to go into this thing and try and make the best of it, but quickly he realizes that he really, really likes Callie. He clearly falls in love first.
Callie isn’t happy about the arranged marriage thing, but she has serious horny pants for Teague. And he’s nice. After their first date, he goes down on her in the back of an SUV so she can relieve some of the UST but doesn’t ask for anything in return. He’s that kind of guy. I like that kind of guy.
Callie is trying to legitimize her family’s empire by getting out of crime and into actual business. She’s started up a successful restaurant that now functions outside of their criminal empire. Part of the problem is that now that she’s the heir (her brother died unexpectedly) she’s expected to be more involved in the criminal part of her family. Interestingly, between Teague and Callie, Callie is the one who is more able to handle being the general over a criminal empire. When shit hits the fan, she’s the one strategizing and figuring things out while Teague more or less wants nothing to do with it. His contributions are through his personal relationships with people. Yay for subversion of gender roles!
And the shit does hit the fan because the Hallorans are not fucking happy that Callie is now engaged to an O’Malley. They think she should have married one of the other Halloran brothers and they feel insulted. They also want to know who killed Brendan, and Teague, in an effort to stave off all out mob war, is trying to find that out, which would obviously be pretty bad for Callie.
A lot of this book is Teague and Callie getting to know each other and falling in love amid the crisis brewing around them. They find sanctuary and a sense of normalcy with each other, and I loved that. This book isn’t a romantic suspense, but it does have a lot of action and some violence (and trigger warning for attempted rape). Because Teague and Callie are hiding from that violence, it makes their time together even more precious and poignant.
The only thing I was kind of iffy on was the end, mostly because not everything got tied up nicely. The Marriage Contract is the first in a series, though, so I think a lot of “will the second generation escape the old world mafia shit their dads are involved in” can’t be answered immediately. We also got a snippet of the pairing for the next book–James Halloran/Carrigan O’Malley–and that snippet is so good that I’m going to be stalking Robert’s website for when The Wedding Pact comes out.
If you had told me that I’d really love a book about the children of two Boston mob bosses being in an arranged marriage, I’d have raised a skeptical eyebrow. But I’m so so glad that The Marriage Contract proved me wrong because I enjoyed it immensely.
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See, now, this is why the kind of reviews you guys do are invaluable. You tell me this book has subversion of gender roles, I’m reading it! And you make it sound appealing in other ways even though I never would have picked it up from the cover description.
I was intrigued by this book as well and also wondered about the arranged marriage scenario so gave it a go. Unlike you I did not really get into it. In fact it was a DNF for me pretty earlier on. I tried a few times to pick it back up but I just never got on board so gave it a miss. I can’t recall exactly but I think it all just felt a bit forced and I didn’t really believe the interactions. Maybe I’ll go back and give it another try sometime you make it sound better than I remember.
GIVE ME CAKE OR GIVE ME DEATH.
Thanks for adding that Kat. I have read a few Katee Robert books. One I loved, the other two I didn’t finish though I tried hard. The premise sounds interesting but really on the fence as to whether to spend the money :/
TEAM RED VELVET. Also this book sounds crazy, but in a good way.
Is anyone else bothered by the fact that all the Boston mob families have Irish names? Stereotype much?
Team gingerbread here. How’s that for subversive?
I read that book a while ago and am sorry to say that I wasn’t in love. It was more of a C+ for me. I was very intrigued by the realistic mafia setting (Sopranos!) and the arranged marriage trope (which is one of my favourites in historicals). Callie and Teague were likable. They had were some issues, which they should have just talked about early on, that just got on my nerve. The romance and the writing just did not click for me. But this could be one the occasions where I just don’t get it and everyone else loves it. But I have not felt compelled to read this again, a telltale for a true favorite for me. Just not my jam.
I read Cora Reilly’s Born in Blood mafia series, but those were very dramatic and the heroes were pretty despicable human beings and the heroines very naive, too much for my taste. But I would love recommendations for other mafia themed romances!
Loved this honest review! Now I must go buy the book.
Dawn
Not available in Ireland. Hate that.
TEAM CAKE 5EVER. Oreos are an affront to decency, taste, and family values, and I won’t stand for them. Long live the cake!
Regarding the book, the setup sounds similar to The Arrangement by Bethany-Kris, and I really, really didn’t like that book. I DNFed it before I even got halfway through. I don’t know if I just can’t get past the unrepentant violence in it; or if it’s my personal hangups regarding the expensive gifts (I never understood the appeal of the shopping montage until I watched Chef) that he gives her from the profits of exploiting other people; or what, but I just gave up. It didn’t make me want to throw my Kindle or anything, but it definitely didn’t make me want to keep reading either, and I’ve got a TBR list with over 500 books on it; I don’t have time to waste on books that I don’t want to read.
This does sound different in that the leads are trying to escape the life instead of embracing it, so that’s something. If anyone has read both The Marriage Contract and The Arrangement, can you please tell me if they are different enough to make it worth my while?
TEAM RED VELVET CAKE! I don’t usually like mafia related books but this sounds interesting
As much as I love the review, I can’t read about the mob. But all your cookie are belong to me.
I’m with Darlynn,
The MOB are really, really bad. They don’t just mess up lives, deal drugs on a large scale, and put small businesses out of business with extortionate protection rackets. They also buy off unions, municipal politicians, and police. The end result is a shittier life for almost all normal working people because of the economic drag of organized crime. For a great book about how the internationalization of organized crime negatively affects you (yes you!) read McMafia, by Misha Glenny.
I just can’t get romantical about people who make their money off or otherwise gain from crime. Maybe its because I’m a lawyer (I’m not humourless, I swear), but I just think that even the attractive, nice ones should just be put in jail for a good while, or at least deprived of any ill-gotten gain and subjected to some public humiliation.
Okay. Rant over. I must say that the cover is very hot.
I’m with you on the mafia. I’m a lawyer too, and I’ve had dealings with them too, (you sort of can’t avoid it where I live) and they are deeply unglamourous. A story about people trying to get out of it might be doable.
Having said that, onto the important issue: oreos are the lamest, most pathetic, risible biscuit EVER. They will lose any contest in which they are a participant. Timtams for the win!
Recently saw oreos on our supermarket shelves – like wha? We have TIMTAMS! I bet nobody bought them.
@Des Livres: TIMTAMS ARE AMAZING! I found them once in a specialty grocery store, and I’ve yet to have them again.
Ah TimTams…my very favouritist are rum and raisin timtams. I also like dark chocolate timtams. Caramel timtams were a bit disappointing. They also have white chocolate timtams. Lately they have been getting some famous chef to come up with flavours. I think there is a ?coconut one? I had the chocolate brownie one, and it wasn’t bad.
Right now they have peanut butter tim tams which I have not tried. Apparently they used soy, not peanuts, so as not to hurt anyone with peanut allergies. (??????)
When I was in Bali I got Halal timtams for my family in a pretty tin box with a dancing Indonesian lady on it. It was well received.
@Des Livres: You are killing me over here!
OK, came back to read comments posted after last reading and find people talking about Tim Tams. Can’t speak for anyone else, nor have I tried these yet, but my local Target (White Marsh, MD) had them on the shelves in the front of the store 2 months ago. Whether they’re still available I couldn’t say.
According to Wikipedia, Pepperidge Farms is a sister company and began importing them to the US in 2008. They’re still made in Australia.
As to the book itself, I found it meh at best and skipped portions of it to reach the end. Though curious about the next pairing, in no way did I like this enough to bother trying to read anything else in this series.
Ooh, TimTams how do I miss thee. And Jaffas. Anyway – for UK folks, Penguins are nearly as good but not quite. The very bestest, though, is a Tunnocks Tea Cake (it’s really a biscuit-ish thing, though, not a cake – and do not let anyone fob you off with a not-Tunnocks tea cake. There is no comparison, and even the M&S ones are horrid).
Is it weird that I kind of want to buy this book because the author spells her name like Katee Sackhoff, and I do so adore Starbuck (Kara and Lee, sigh)?
[…] love Boston and I’m intrigued by stories of the mob, so when I saw the glowing review for The Marriage Contract on Smart Bitches Trashy Books I snapped it up. It’s all about what happens when Callie, the newfound heir of one Boston […]