The Marakaios Marriage by Marito Ai

 

I was such a liar to myself last weekend. I was like, "I'm going to read SO MANY BOOKS," and then I basically read nothing and spent the whole time proofreading my WIP and drinking wine and obsessing over the imaginary people I'd already decided would hate it. Because this is what it is like being a writer with anxiety.

Anyway, I finished this book earlier this week but I've been so busy I forgot to review it which literally like NEVER happens, so you know that the world is basically ending if I don't review something ASAP (and if you read the news, which I don't suggest you do, you'll know it basically is), but at least I fucking published that book and now I feel like I can breathe again, and what am I going to do in all my "copious" free time... but write reviews of other people's works? I know right. The struggle. It never ends.

So THE MARAKAIOS MARRIAGE is an adaption of a Harlequin novel by the same name, with art and storyboarding by Marito Ai. Ai is one of my favorite mangaka and prior to this, everything I've read from her has been 4- or 5-star worthy. I don't know how these books get assigned, if the manga artists get to pick what they work on or what, but everything she's worked on has been just the right blend of angsty and romantic and I SWOON.

I've already forgotten the names of the people in this book, but CEO and Normal Woman were married and are now separated pending divorce. CEO's mother has terminal cancer and doesn't know they're separating and it's her name day so he wants Normal Woman to come to Greece with him to celebrate and perpetuate the ruse that they're still together because it's very important to lie to people with cancer who have made peace with the world because-- you know-- cancer.

So NW and CEO go to Greece and she immediately has a panic attack at dinner. And then CEO finds out that he's kind of been a douche and NW fell in love with him but not his lifestyle and he's always been too busy to listen to her every time she tried to talk about how he was making her uncomfortable. Obviously, he feels really bad about this like a normal human being would and is like wow, I was a jerk. I love you. So I will step down and no longer be CEO. Now I shall be Ordinary Man and we shall live our humble life together while you support us with your professorship. THE END.

I honestly felt like this was a bit anticlimactic. Loved the fact that the heroine was in STEM and that the book was so casual with the anxiety/panic attack rep. It wasn't really milked for drama either and I thought it was a refreshing change that the miscommunication wasn't a big misunderstanding so much as just them not really talking things out until it was too late. That felt more realistic than a lot of the manufactured hammy drama that normally comes my way in these books. But the story and the characters just felt so blah to me. Especially considering the other works I've read from this author.

So I give it a three. It was entertaining but not memorable. 

3 out of 5 stars