Michele Dunaway, Emergency Engagement : A Convenient Proposal

Emergency Engagement: A Convenient Proposal

Michele Dunaway

Harlequin American, Feb 2005, $4.99, 250 pp.

ISBN: 0373750609

In Chicago, pediatric specialist Dr. Quinton Searle checks on Beth's four year old Carly Johnson who ate some of her mother's cold medicine thinking they were candy. Carly hates hospitals because that is where her daddy died from cancer, but Dr. Searle is nice like Prince Eric rescuing Princess Ariel.

At a bachelor party, Quinton is stunned when the stripper is Beth, making him wonder what type of mother she is. He drags her away accusing her of being a bad example for her daughter. Irate Beth tells this critical moral majority member to leave her alone as he just cost her five hundred needed dollars needed as an apartment deposit. Later he learns her real job is at Luie's Deli. At about the same time, his upper crust St. Louis mom calls to push Susie Phelps on him when he attends his sister's wedding. Desperate to keep mom off his back and to make up what he cost Beth, he offers to pay her to pretend to be his fianc e; she being even more desperate agrees. As they become better acquainted, they fall in love encouraged by a little matchmaker who wants Eric and Ariel together.

The description of the working poor in which coffee is a luxury hooks the audience as everyone will empathize with the plight of Beth. When the tale switches from struggling to survive in a pretend engagement it loses some of its social stinging, but still entertains the readers. Beth is a terrific protagonist who provides Quint with a touch of reality while her daughter is a precocious matchmaker. This threesome supplemented by a strong support cast makes EMERGENCY ENGAGEMENT a fine tale.

Harriet Klausner