Marrying Mallory

Marrying Mallory

Copyright © 2012 by
Diane Craver

Cover Art by Diane
Craver

Marrying Mallory
is a work of fiction. Though some
actual towns, cities, and locations may be mentioned, they are used in a fictitious
manner and the events and occurrences were invented in the mind and imagination
of the author. Any similarities of characters or names used within to any
person past, present, or future is coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or
reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author.
Brief quotations may be embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Dedication

To Bartholomew,

A totally fabulous
and wonderful guy plus a terrific son.

He has made
everything beautiful in its own time.

Ecclesiastes
3:11

LASR REVIEW OF MARRYING MALLORY

Rating: 4.5 Books

Reviewed by Fennel

In his book, ‘Writing the Breakout Novel’, Donald Maas
states, “God works in little ways as well as big ones, so look for small
moments of magic as well as big ones.” He then asks, “Have you ever felt that
something that happened to you was fated?”

Well in Diane Craver’s book, Marrying Mallory, that is the
precept she has used.

Mallory is born with a nose she considers too large and
ungainly for her face, and is fed-up with her students snickering behind her
back so decides to take action.

Consider: if an unseen act of God had not occurred, Mallory
would never have crossed paths with plastic surgeon, Seth Whitman.

A devout and practicing Christian, Mallory is also faced
with coming to terms with accepting that her divorce from her cheating husband
Toby slices right through her religious beliefs. Can she learn to forgive
herself for what she perceives as a betrayal of her beliefs? For all Seth’s
charms, strength and obvious attraction to her, can Mallory learn to forgive
herself and accept reality for what it is?

Not content in stirring the pot of confusion in her
heroine’s mind, Ms. Craver then sets to work on her hero, giving him ethical
and emotional dilemmas enough to floor the strongest of heroes. But Seth’s
Christian faith and staunch friends do not let him down. All he has to achieve,
now, is to undo the author’s masterly character development in her heroine and
convince Mallory they have a future together.

Ms. Craver’s secondary characters all play pivotal roles in
the story without usurping the hero and heroine. Time, place and setting all
enhance and move the plot along and create vivid imagery for her readers. For
those who assume an inspirational romance cannot handle conflict, drama and
suspense, I recommend they read Diane Craver’s Marrying Mallory, for it is all
there.

Chapter One

Her luck was about to change. Mallory Harrington could feel
it in her bones.

In the past, she’d felt cursed at times. Too many things had
gone wrong in her thirty-two years of life. It’d started when her father left.
He never even said good-bye, but at age five she knew he wasn’t coming back. He
hated living in Findlay, Ohio. They couldn’t go with him because her mother
refused to leave Grandma.

As a seventh grader, Mallory climbed a tree to get a
football for the little neighbor boy. After dislodging it from a high limb, she
tossed the ball to him. Mallory started her long climb down, but slipped before
reaching the ground. A barbed wire fence ripped her cheek during the fall. The
jagged opening required thirty stitches.

Then she was robbed of being valedictorian because a few
weeks ahead of graduation, another student’s grades were a little higher. She’d
counted on receiving a full academic scholarship to college. 

When she married Toby Harrington, she finally felt blessed.
Doubly blessed when she gave birth to their son, Joshua. But her happiness
ended the night Toby asked for a divorce.

All she ever wanted was to have a complete family and live
happily ever after. Was she jinxed? The name Mallory meant luckless. If her
mother had realized the meaning of her name, would it have made a difference?
Would she still have named her Mallory?

Don’t be silly. My name didn’t cause my marriage to end.
I’ll get what I want in my life. I’ve already accomplished the first challenge,
which hadn’t been fun. I can’t wait to
share my good news with Elizabeth
and Heather
. She prayed,
Thank you, Lord, for my friends, Elizabeth
Wright and Heather Richards. They are a constant in my life, just like You.

She glanced at her kitchen clock to see if it was time to
meet them and felt a surge of excitement. She couldn’t wait to share her
important news. Five-year-old Josh was at Toby’s so she was free to go to
dinner with her friends. She was glad they’d decided on the nearby Olive Garden
restaurant.

Before leaving her house, she grabbed the paper by the
computer. She stared for a minute at the attractive man with black hair.
I’m
glad I printed his bio and photo to show
Heather and Elizabeth
. As
Mallory held the paper for a minute, she realized that this man would change
her life… if she went ahead with the plan. After folding and putting the paper
in her purse, she headed out, anxious to give her incredible news in person.

At the restaurant’s doorway, the hostess escorted Mallory to
the booth where her friends were already seated. Mallory smiled at both women.
With her sleek, honey-blonde hair and subtle but deftly applied makeup,
Elizabeth looked like she had stepped off a beauty contest runway. She wore a
pale pink jacket with black pants. She liked Heather’s leopard-print chiffon
dress on her, but it wasn’t something she’d wear. “Hi. You two must have gotten
here early. “

“I changed out of my nurse scrubs as fast as I could,”
Heather said. “I need to hear good news for a change.”

“Hurry, sit,” Elizabeth said. “I bet I know what you want to
tell us. You got that teacher award, didn’t you? You deserve it. I don’t know
how you stand teaching junior high students. They’re such a high maintenance
group.”

“I didn’t get the teaching award. It went to a high school
science teacher.” She noticed Heather’s new haircut. “I like your short hair
with bangs. It’s very cute on you. I have two things to tell you. Here’s the
first.” She twirled around before sitting beside Heather.

Elizabeth fingered a silver button on her jacket. “It’s
about time you bought new clothes for yourself. You look great in that skirt
and top.”  

Awesome
. Her blue skirt and v-neck top passed
Elizabeth’s approval. Her friend had a good eye for fashion. If she ever
stopped being a speech therapist, Elizabeth should consider a clothing career.

With a pleased expression, Heather said, “Oh, I get it. You
lost the rest of your weight.”

She nodded. “I finally lost the last five pounds.”

“So that’s a total of fifteen, right?” Elizabeth asked.

“Yes and…” She paused. Now she was afraid to tell them.
Maybe they wouldn’t be excited for her. She was so proud of herself that she’d
made the appointment and wanted to share it with her best friends. But looking
at their happy faces, she wondered if they would be disappointed. They might
think she was being superficial.

Heather searched her face. “What’s wrong? You went from a
big grin to a frown. If you won the lottery, I won’t be jealous. Just don’t
give any of your money to Toby.”

“Geez, don’t get me started,” Elizabeth said. “Promise you
aren’t going to talk about your ex-husband.”

She was saved for the moment because the waitress came to
take their order. Toby had nothing to do with her big decision, but still her
friends might disagree with what she wanted to do. She had a sinking feeling
they wouldn’t approve. After the waitress left, she pulled the paper out of her
purse and handed it to Elizabeth. “This guy’s going to change my life.”

“He’s hot. I can’t believe you never told us about him. I’m
glad you decided to date.” Elizabeth passed the sheet to Heather.

Mallory shook her head. “I’m not dating him. I’m interested
in what he can do for me.”

While looking at the photo, Heather frowned. “I know this
surgeon. He’s Dr. Whitman.”

She exhaled deeply. “I’ve decided to have surgery but
decided to lose weight first. Today I called and made an appointment to see Dr.
Whitman. He’s supposed to be the best plastic surgeon for rhinoplasty. I didn’t
want to see him until I lost my weight. I was afraid if I went in being
overweight, he’d think I also needed liposuction.”

Elizabeth’s perfect eyebrows shot up. “I seriously doubt
he’d have thought that you needed liposuction.”

So far, so good
. Inserting body image in that way had
been brilliant. Elizabeth latched on the weight issue first instead of nose
surgery. She grinned. “It was a great motivator since it got me to lose some
excess baggage.”

Heather said, “I don’t understand. You don’t need to have
plastic surgery.”

“I agree.” Elizabeth patted her arm. “I like your nose.”

She stared at her friends’ faces. “You two are lucky having
small noses, but you know I’ve always hated my nose. I had to get a nose like
my dad’s. He looked fine with a bigger nose, but being a female I want a
smaller one.”

 “But you’re already pretty,” Elizabeth said. “You were
Halloween Queen our senior year.”

Mallory laughed. “Right. I didn’t get Homecoming Queen, but
got plenty of votes to be Halloween Queen. My big nose reminded everyone of a
witch.” 

Heather shook her head. “No way. You looked gorgeous riding
in the convertible in the big parade in Findlay.”   

Since their drinks had arrived, Elizabeth sipped her iced
tea. “Hey, your mom told us how a photographer asked if you could be a model
for his agency.”

“I was nine. My nose was still small.” She smiled. “You two
aren’t going to change my mind. I’ve wanted this since high school.”

“Have you ever watched
Discovery Health Channel
or
Dr.
90210
?” Heather asked.

“No. I don’t have cable, remember?” How could Heather
forget? She teased her a lot about only getting a few channels. She was glad
now she didn’t have that expense.

“Well, they show how they make incisions. Then you can see
how they cut pieces of bone and cartilage. But the scary thing is what the
patients look like after surgery. Their faces are all badly bruised, and
there’s swelling for several weeks after surgery.”

“Oh, no. You don’t want your nose to be swollen for my
wedding.” Elizabeth said, looking worried. “And Heather’s right. I saw a
gruesome episode where they did nose surgery and it was so awful that I had a
nightmare.”

The server stood by her side, holding a hand grinder. “Do
you want grated cheese on your salad?”

“Yes, please.” After Mallory told him that was enough
cheese, she turned to Elizabeth. “Your wedding isn’t until August. That’s four
months away.”

“Yes, but you hate to take time off from teaching, so I’m guessing
you’re going to do it when school’s out for the summer. Then it’ll be closer to
my wedding.”

“I’ll ask the doctor if I’ll be presentable enough to be a
bridesmaid in an August wedding.”

“At least we know there will be a marriage.” Heather
sprinkled salt on her salad. “I can’t believe I called off two weddings.”