Review of Married to the Manny by Daisy May

by Daisy May

2 stars

"I don't want to leave this country. I don't want to leave my boss."

When the American government finds out Gordon's here illegally, he fears he'll have to leave the precocious nine-year-old girl he nannies - as well as her single, gay DILF of a father. Gordon's always kept his relationship with his employer professional, and now he'll have no chance to change that. Except...

"If you married a citizen, you could get a green card."

Cole makes the proposal out of concern for his daughter. She adores her manny, and Cole doesn't want to shake up her life again. The offer has nothing to do with the attraction Cole's always felt for the sweet Canadian caregiver.

"The entire world has to believe we're in love."

As Gordon and Cole strive to portray a realistic relationship, both of them fight their growing feelings. Will their fake marriage become real enough to convince the immigration office?

With such a great premise – marry for a green card – we had such high hopes for Married to the Manny, but they all fell short.

Gordon is a nanny, a Canadian that is working in the USA illegally.  Immigration finally catches up with him with a deportation notice for 90 days.  He doesn’t want to leave his life and his job, and really loves the little girl he is looking after, not to mention his sexy boss, Cole.  But, Cole has an idea to get Gordon a green card – they get married.

Seriously, how could this book not be great? Friends to lovers, slow burn, all good.  But, it really had some major issues, not little things, but story ideas that almost made this a did-not-finish.  Married to the Manny is a 2 person point of view, but the voices are confusing, we had to go back a few times to figure out who was speaking.  And really with a younger man and an accomplished business man there should be some differences in their voices – right?

There is also the romance of Married to the Manny.  This is not a new story idea, getting married for a green card, but we really miss the slow burn of a romance building.  They both seem to be already in love with each other, and not seeing the signs that the other feels the same way.  They seem to get stuck in their heads.  They are insecure – and instead of one of them taking control they seem to go around and around in a circle.  Even after they finally admit their feeling and fall into bed, the next page that are back to the same angsty thoughts that the other doesn’t reciprocate.  And around around we go. The same goes for their chemistry – or rather lack thereof.  We don’t actually see the attraction building between Gordon and Cole. We didn’t feel the pull of their relationship; rather it felt forced and fake.

There is also some very uncomfortable issues with Cole’s daughter – and we won’t talk more about it as it is a spoiler, but there is uncalled for pressure put upon a 9 year old that as a parent is irresponsible and selfish.  The whole thing left a very bad taste in our mouth.

Unfortunately Married to the Manny just didn’t work for us. With the lack of chemistry, POV confusion and our issues with the role of a child, we struggled to finish this story.