When it was time to sit down and start book 5 of the Hope Ranch series, I knew that Jade and Tommy were going to be a tough couple to get together.
If you’ve been following along with this series, Jade started out as someone who is incredibly hard to love. She’s bitter. And angry. And selfish.
That started to change in Hope for Freedom, and the changes continued in the time break between the end of Hope for Freedom and the start of Hope for Family.
When we reach the start of Jade’s book, she’s already grown a lot. But there was still the question of how to get her together with Tommy.
Tommy is a divorced dad who is struggling to get his ex to abide by their custody agreement. Given that Jade grew up not knowing her father, she’s sympathetic to his plight.
And so, when it becomes clear that Tommy appearing to be in a fake relationship might help him, she agrees. But she has some caveats.
Her caveats are really mine.
See, I struggle some with the fake relationship trope because of all the lying. I mean, yes, Christians still lie. We’re still sinners even though we’re saved by grace. And yet, I have trouble sometimes with it seeming like it’s okay in fiction for Christians to whistle a happy tune while actively sinning. Even if the sin is something “small” like a “harmless lie for a good cause.”
I wouldn’t let my kids get away with it, so I probably shouldn’t let my characters.
So Jade decides that she’s willing to pretend to be in a relationship with Tommy, but only for his ex and his daughter. They have to be on the level with everyone at the ranch.
Her policy of truth makes it tricky, too, when their fake relationship takes a sharp right turn and they start talking marriage of convenience.
I probably can’t get into too many more details, because I really would love you to go read the book. So instead, I’ll leave you with a short excerpt.
“Are you okay?” Jade reached for the cabin door and pulled it open. “You’re acting weird.”
“Of course I am.”
It was a mutter under his breath that she probably wasn’t supposed to have heard, but it made Jade chuckle. She hung up her coat and pushed her boots beneath the bench. “Have a seat and tell me what’s up while I put water in the microwave.”
Tommy shucked off his coat and shoes, and padded sock-footed to the kitchen table. He sat and clasped his hands.
“Spill it.” Jade smiled to soften the words as she filled a glass measuring cup with water and stuck it in the microwave.
“Okay.” He paused and cleared his throat. “I’m not sure where to start.”
“Let’s start at the very beginning. It’s a very good place to start.” She ripped open the packets of cocoa and dumped them into mugs as the song from The Sound of Music drifted into her brain. Great. That was going to take a month to get back out.
“Right. So Mel—my ex—got it in her head that I was seeing someone.”
Jade glanced up sharply and gave him a look. “Magically?”
Red crawled up his neck. “No. I said something to that effect. She was baiting me. I fell for it. Now I’m in a jam.”
Jade pushed buttons on the microwave then turned and planted her hands on her hips. “And I’m the only likely prospect at the ranch. So I’m supposed to, what, throw myself into your arms and swoon?”
His chuckle was weak. “Maybe we can skip the swooning?”
She shook her head. She should let him talk rather than interrupting, but seriously, the guy seemed incapable of staying out of his ex’s traps. “She’s really got your number, doesn’t she?”
He covered his face. “I did well up to that point. And since.”
“I guess that counts for something.” The microwave beeped and Jade turned to get the hot water. She took a minute to fix the cocoa and to gather her disorganized thoughts. She carried the cocoa over to the table, slid one in front of Tommy, and sat with hers. “What are you asking for, exactly? Seriously, be specific.”
Tommy picked up his cocoa and sipped. “I guess just pretend you’re in a committed relationship with me for, like two, three months tops?”
How do you feel about fake relationships? Or marriages of convenience?
I’ll choose one commenter on Saturday to win an ebook of Hope for Family. And if you don’t win (or you don’t want to wait ;) ), you can get your very own copy on Amazon or read for free in KindleUnlimited.
Elizabeth Maddrey is a semi-reformed computer geek and homeschooling mother of two who lives in the suburbs of Washington D.C. When she isn’t writing, Elizabeth is a voracious consumer of books. She loves to write about Christians who struggle through their lives, dealing with sin and receiving God’s grace on their way to their own romantic happily ever after.
not a fan of fake relationships etc. I do understand there can be reasons it could be plausible in cases for protection. or for the sake of a child.
I love a good marriage of convenience story! Although I don’t think it’s very realistic, most relationships in books aren’t realistic anyway.
I love a marriage of convenience because often they come together in the end (in books).
I can handle a marriage of convenience– barely — but like you I dislike fake relationships, especially if the people involved are supposed to be Christians. I’m looking forward to reading Hope For Family. It’s arrived, but I haven’t had a chance to sit down with it yet. Lol.
As a tried-and-true romantic, I love the marriage of convenience trope, but in a setting where one or both of the characters are believers, it minimalizes the sanctity of the institution of marriage, one of God’s greatest gifts, and I struggle with that. I LOVED your excerpt and what a beautiful cover!
To me fake relationship and marriage of convenience are not the same. Marriage of convenience can be honest and not so very long ago most marriages were arranged and still are in some countries. I enjoy the commitment between them and seeing the couple develop their relationship. For a writer it would be a great way to get an awkward couple together.
They have to be done just right for me to like them. I feel like often they’re done to try and make someone else jealous and that I don’t tend to love.
Definitely agree most marriages of convenience stories aren’t super realistic, but I do try to make my couples realistic and there are many indies I read who do as well. Although I always tell my boys to marry their best friend…and not every book is friend to more, but I do end up going there a lot. :)
Yes! They definitely have a bigger incentive to make it work when vows have been exchanged.
Oh yay! I hope you enjoy this MoC!
Thanks!
And you know what? That’s a conversation my characters have, because I agree 100%! Marriage is so important – i couldn’t let them treat it flippantly.
Oh they’re definitely different! I’m sorry if it looked like I implied they weren’t. In this book they just happened to progress from one to the next.
And yes! It definitely used to be a very real thing and is today in some cultures.
I love both tropes and can’t wait to read this book!!
Yay! I hope you love it! (And I’m secretly looking forward to you messaging me when you get annoyed ;) )
I enjoy Marriage of Convenience . As others have said, in Historical fiction or certain circumstances this still occurs and I like seeing the characters dig deep to make it work. Fake Marriages, to me, generally have less pure motives. I usually read the blurb carefully before hitting the “Buy” button. If the title screams “Fake Marriage” (for sex, revenge, spite) I give it a pass, for the above reasons – questionable motive.
Oh for sure. I don’t think I’d read (or write!) A fake marriage. That just seems…off.
They’re tricky tropes to get right in a Christian setting, for sure. I’ve done one of each and the balance is super tricky… and it’s hard to know if you’ve nailed it (as an author) until feedback starts rolling in!
I loved this story. :)
You know, I legit never considered the lying aspect of fake relationships before. To me, it’s always just been a fictional trope. I never thought of it as a real-life thing. Looking at what it really is, and you’re right …. it’s totally a sin. I think I’ve never considered the lying aspect before because I’ve always seen it as a make-believe thing. In my 40 years of life I’ve never known a single couple to actually do this. But now I’m going to have to rethink all those stories I’ve read that have used this trope. Thanks for the thought-provoking post! 🤔
I like to read Marriage of Convenience because whether we like them or not they do exist for some reason or another. I especially like them when the couple gets along so good and they end up really falling in love at the end. Have a Great rest of the week and stay safe. (not entering the ebook giveaway, but Thank you)
I haven’t read the series, but this one is tempting me to get all of the books
Yay! And yes…so hard to know until readers weigh in.
I loved yours as well :)
I’ll be honest, I never really gave it a ton of thought until I decided to write one and was researching others and started to notice complaints in reviews.
I think for sweet/clean, maybe it’s less of an issue, but I do think as a Christian author and as one whose books are faith based, it was convicting so I needed to deal with it.
Oh yes, they definitely need to fall in love at the end!
Oh yay! If you do, I hope you enjoy them!
I’m not a big fan of fake relationships but I enjoy marriage of convenience as they are interesting to watch unfold.
They sure can be!
I enjoy different twists in my reading!
Ha. Yes. I think we probably all agree with that.
I read a LOT of MoC stories growing up, since I read a lot of Betty Neels books before CF ever became a “thing” so I don’t have a problem with those. A fake relationship is totally different, to me, and I’m not a big fan of those. I don’t like to see Christian characters lying and doing things non-Christians would do. To me, that kind of glorifies the wrong things. Alexa Verde has done some really great MoC, and so have a few others. It depends on how all of them are handled, and in Alexa’s books everyone knows it’s just a marriage of convenience, but everyone also knows that the main characters are already over half in love with each other, or one is already in love and the other has no clue.
I like reading Marriages of Convenience and also pre-arranged marriages as it is interesting to see how it works out, considering there is usually very little knowledge of each other before hand.
I’m going to have to check out Alexa’s books – I’ve fallen behind with hers :)
Arranged marriages are kind of fun to read but those are I think even harder to pull off in CCR.
I really enjoy reading marriage of conveniences.
I never really thought of fake relationships as a lie. I love a good fake relationship because I know in the end, they will get together and make it true. I would never do it myself. Hmm, I’ll have to think about that more. I do love marriages of convenience, too, and there’s nothing deceptive about that unless they’re acting like they’re in love before they realize it. I like the marriages of convenience I’ve read recently where they both still believe in the institution of marriage and don’t believe in divorce. If they’re in it for the long haul, then that’s good enough for me. (I loved Toni Shiloh’s An Unlikely Proposal with just this idea!)
I agree. I can see when you are that bit older and especially in church circles if you are not married by 30 you are considered having something wrong with you. I can see a couple of friends going to events together so people stop with the when you going to get a boy friend etc. Or to just have someone to talk to. Being one of the few singles at events can be lonely as you tend to be over looked a lot.
I can also see it working where there is someone who is getting to pushy or constantly trying to get a girl or even boy to go out with them. I had a situation where a guy was best friends with my best friends boyfriend and he wanted to go out with me and they tried to set up a date. My friend was super sensitive and alerted me to what was going to happen so I could have other plans. I could see having a close male friend who was understood the issue stepping up to make it look like there was a something going on but it was just friends. (does that make sense)
PS I think it works much better in Historical fiction.
I enjoy the marriage to convenience and fake relationships tropes, but I can see your point about Christians being willing to lie and that making you uncomfortable. I think when I’ve read these in the past that the people involved have usually been either non-Christians or new Christians and the whole situation led them into a deeper understanding of and relationship to God. But I do agree with you that Christians really need to guard against choosing sin so easily over trusting God.
Totally makes sense!
Yay! :)
I definitely agree that they have to be in it for the long haul in a MoC — otherwise it’s all just going to fall apart. Of course that’s true of any marriage :)
Your last line — in fiction and in real life :)
I love, love, love a marriage-of-convenience troupe! They don’t happen too much in contemporary fiction though, which in my thinking, would be hard to pull off. But I have read a few & enjoyed them.
As for fake relationships, I’ve only recently read a few of those. Surprisingly, I enjoyed them a lot. One was a rumor that spiraled out of control before the couple could straighten everyone out about the relationship (that was funny!), one was fake engagement to get matchmaking moms (or grandma’s) off their back, and one was to get a nagging mom off the “you’re getting older and need to marry”. Each one of these was funny and contained many hilarious situations that the couple had to deal with. In the end, you know true love blossomed :-)
That’s a hard one. I have a difficult time writing them as well, just because I do hate the lying aspect of it. Of course it shows our characters as being human – something we all are. I think the major thing when reading these books is reading that they don’t want to be lying, but feel like it’s the lesser of two evils (lying for the sake of taking care of their child, etc).
I can’t wait to read Jade’s book! It sounds really good!
I think they work fine in books but in real life, not so much.
I like these books when it ends up in a very loving & even marriage type relationship.
If they’re well written and make sense for the plot, then I’m okay with them as long as they don’t cause harm and there’s a HEA in the end.
As for a marriage of convenience, those happen and aren’t lies–each person should know what’s in it for her/him and it shouldn’t be against one’s will.
You didn’t imply and I didn’t assume that. Some books do have them as the same thing though, I skip them as not a fan of fake relationship fiction or real life, sorry I wasn’t clear.
I haven’t read very many fake relationship or marriage of convenience stories but I enjoy those plots because they’re so different from most books I read.
Just finished reading Hope for Family yesterday. LOVED it! And you do very well in making the fake relationship turn into something real. Great job!
I would imagine there are so many different scenarios that could be interpreted as a “fake marriage” so it’s hard to say how I feel about them unless I knew more about the situation.
Wow, this discussion has really caught on with lots of discussion. I notice that a number of people are concerned about ‘lying’ being part of a Christian book, but in a Christian story the characters don’t all have to be Christian in the beginning – having a non-Christian in the story makes for a good conversion story. Blessings to all
Beautiful Cover!!!
I love both – fake relationships and marriages of convenience.
There were a lot of marriages of conveniences in the past. Many times, couples learned to love each other through the years. My feeling is that friendship is the start to any love and relationship. It is interesting to read and watch fake relationships. The truth always comes out. The consequences are always worse than telling the truth. I am not sure it is in the best interest of the child to fake a relationship.
Thank you for sharing your gift of writing. God bless you. There were a lot of marriages of conveniences in the past. Many times, couples learned to love each other through the years. My feeling is that friendship is the start to any love and relationship. It is interesting to read and watch fake relationships. The truth always comes out. The consequences are always worse than telling the truth. I am not sure it is in the best interest of the child to fake a relationship.
As a die-hard romantic, MoC stories appeal to me because the marriage becomes a place where the commitment demonstrates the willingness to love. Companionship and provision become friendship and team work. These become the kindling and spark for compassion and passion to burst into a fire, warm for a lifetime. Commitment for its own sake combined with isolation and disinterest make my heart ache. While both are possible, the first is the trope I want to find in a CCR story.