Groomed for Marriage by R Shannon

★★★★★ Delightful find! I happened upon this book while searching for "clean" romance novels, and I was delighted to find it written from a Catholic perspective! I'm reading the second book now, very much enjoying the series. ★★★★★ Excellent story writing. I read Groomed for Marriage in one day. A great story that could happen to any young woman. The story was fast moving and full of lessons about life. I enjoyed the writing style . . . SUMMARY: Colleen is married to handsome and successful Jacob Kessler. Things are wonderful for about nine months. She then detects changes in his behavior. Her mom explains away these changes as her husband's work ambitions, but are they? Ryan Mallardi is a young private investigator trying to get his relationship with Angelica on track for marriage, but things keep going awry. Unexpected truths begin to seep out during his counseling sessions with Fr. Liam. Will Ryan be able to save the relationship and get it back on track to marriage? Fr. Liam and Mike Mullens, his brother, are scheming to convince his wife Maria to move up north so the brother's can be together again. Will the guys be successful in their secret campaign? Will they all get what they want? Or will the Hand of Fate enter the scene and rearrange things? TRIGGER WARNING: There seem to be a theme or two in the book that trigger some women who see cooking and/or traditional marriage as some sort of abuse or at the very least, problematic. So if you don’t like Catholicism, priests or women who cook or do other “traditional family things”, this may not be the ebook series for you. THEMES: YA and Adult Catholic/Christian Family Saga Mystery Romance - Psychological Drama Romance Religious Mysteries ★★ ABOUT THE RYAN MALLARDI PRIVATE INVESTIGATION SERIES ★★ Each of the books has enough background information about the characters to read as stand-alone stories. However, the main character arcs continue to grow and change throughout the books, so the series is best experienced if read in order. Each book has a mystery that resolves at the end of the book. There are no cliffhangers with the exception of Ryan getting a phone call in Book 3 about what case he will be investigating in Book 4. The series contain the following: psychological mystery secret and double lives murder mysteries missing persons secret burials murder for inheritance or suicide