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Luke is a single father in his thirties. He swore off women 6 yeas ago, after his casual encounter with a groupie left him with a child. The woman died in a car accident and he's been raising her alone since.
Honey, you're a Sutton. And that's no wimpy breed. You take today and cry, but tomorrow, tomorrow you straighten that spine and keep doing your job." Keogh E, & Reidy J (2000). Exploring the factor structure of the Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire (MASQ). Journal of Personality Assessment, 74, 106–125. [ PubMed] [ Google Scholar] Rodgers RH, & White JM (1993). Family development theory. In Pauline G, Boss PG, Doherty WJ, LaRossa R, Schumm WR, & Steinmetz SK (Eds.), Sourcebook of family theories and methods: A contextual approach (pp. 225–254). New York: Kluwer/Plenum Press. [ Google Scholar] h rating: 4 stars. Allie. I liked her. I appreciated her strength and how she was confident in her own skin.
Married individuals have a readily available source of social support and companionship, so it is unsurprising that their overall health, across the life course, is generally superior to that of unmarried individuals ( Hornish & Leonard, 2008). While at least one study found that the benefits to physical health for married individuals could be fully attributed to selection effects ( Horn et al., 2013), other studies have not observed any selection effects ( Jhang, 2018; Joung et al., 1998). While some researchers have not observed gender differences in these health benefits (e.g., Lindstrom, 2009) others have found that men benefit more from marriage because women promote their spouses’ health more than vice versa ( Ray et al., 2009; Umberson, 1992; Umberson et al., 2006). We hypothesized that married individuals would report better health than unmarried individuals (Study 1) and that both men and women would demonstrate physical health benefits as they transitioned to marriage (Study 2).
It turns out that there’s more to their fake marriage than cohabitation and hot sex, they develop a true appreciation of each other, and they fall hard. Lindstrom M (2009). Marital status, social capital, material conditions and self-rated health: a population-based study. Health Policy, 93( 2–3), 172–179. [ PubMed] [ Google Scholar] Teachman J (2003). Premarital sex, premarital cohabitation, and the risk of subsequent marital dissolution among women. Journal of Marriage and Family, 65, 444–455. [ Google Scholar] It is also possible that effects others have reported as possibly caused by marriage are partly based on taking advantage of selection in samples of those married for longer periods of time. For samples early in marriage, many will divorce and not be assessed as being married, or in that marriage that ended, later in life. For samples earlier in marriage such as these, divorce has not yet thinned the ranks of less-well-adjusted marrieds, which also would obscure what may well be longer term, ongoing benefits in mental and physical health following marriage among the couples in relationships that last.Rhoades GK, Stanley SM, & Markman HJ (2012). The impact of the transition to cohabitation on relationship functioning: Cross-sectional and longitudinal findings. Journal of Family Psychology, 26, 348–358. [ PMC free article] [ PubMed] [ Google Scholar]
There are generally two types of marriage costs in the world: dowries and betrothal gifts. The difference between the two is that dowries are paid by the bride’s family to the bridegroom’s family, whereas betrothal gifts are given by the bridegroom’s family to the bride’s family. The cost of marriage varies significantly and shows different characteristics across countries and regions (Rao, 1993). For instance, with rapid economic growth in India and China, the cost of marriage in these countries has been increasing, while it is decreasing in European countries (Rao, 1993). Although the reasons for the increased cost of marriage in certain countries are complex, the following two factors need to be considered: First, an increase in the cost of marriage helps improve an individual’s position in the family (Srinivasan, 2005). In societies in which men traditionally have more power than women, women are normally eager to improve their economic status in the family. Bursztyn et al. ( 2017) report that marriage can give people an economic boost, especially single women who do not want to be seen as ambitious before getting married. Career ambition seems to be an undesirable trait in the marriage market, even though the ability of single women to work is no different from that of married women (Maristella and Aloysius, 2003). Thus, some parents offer a higher value dowry to show that their family is wealthy, helping secure their daughter’s future economic status in the family (Srinivasan and Bedi, 2007). Second, as the gender imbalance becomes more severe, marriageable young people have more difficulty finding suitable partners (Chen and Qiu, 2011). In the past, Chinese young women always asked for the ‘Big Three’ (Li, 2002), which became the basic material standard by which a female chose a spouse. Footnote 1 i'm in the worst mood lately, so literally every single thing annoys me. at one point i remembered being mad at the football club name, thinking who in their right mind would name their club "the washington wolves"?! another time someone said "whyyyy was that so motherbleeping hot?" uhm... do people really say motherbleeping, is that actually a thing? please say no. therefore a lot of things got on my nerves that i usually wouldn't care about. that's the problem with being a moody reader. Luke and Allie are neighbors. Neighbors who don’t get off on the best foot. In fact when Luke and Allie meet they take an instant dislike to each other. Luke is an asshole, lol, definitely judgmental, rude, and rough around the edges. He's been emotionally burned by his daughters mother (yep, he's a single dad, swooooon) and he’s not receptive to woman at all.
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Overall Pace of Story: Good. I never skimmed and I thought it flowed well. I did, however, feel like the ending was a little rushed.
The purpose of this paper was to examine group differences between married and unmarried individuals, as well as within-person changes in physical and mental health in the transition to marriage. First, we tested whether married and unmarried individuals differ significantly on measures of overall health, alcohol consumption, psychological distress, and life satisfaction (between-subjects analyses; Study 1). We then tested for within-subject effects using mean levels and trajectories for the same variables over six waves of assessments, spanning 20 months, which included a transition to marriage (Study 2). China is the only country in the world with a family planning policy. The policy encourages couples to ‘marry and have children at a later age and have fewer and healthier children’, with the aim of reducing the number of births and control overall population levels. For the past three decades, the policy has achieved its objectives of keeping China’s population levels under control. The policy also accounts for traditional Chinese beliefs by allowing couples in rural areas and belonging to minority ethnicities to have a second child if their first is a daughter. This reflects the more deeply rooted preference for sons in rural areas and among minority ethnicities. However, the one-child policy has also created a series of problems, such as a gender imbalance, labour shortages, and an aging population. As the policy was introduced in the 1970s, most people born since then have no siblings. Now aged in their late forties, these products of the one-child policy must take care of as many as four elderly parents as well as their own children. The introduction of the all-inclusive two-child policy will reduce the pressure on such couples. Kurdek LA (2005). Gender and marital satisfaction early in marriage: a growth curve approach. Journal of Marriage and Family, 67, 68–84. [ Google Scholar] Seriously, I could go on and on and on about this amazing book, but if you love sports romances, angst, well-written characters, strong heroines and the fake marriage trope -- this is going to steal the number one spot in your heart. YOU NEED IT.Curran PJ, Muthen BO, & Harford TC (1998). The influence of changes in marital status on developmental trajectories of alcohol use in young adults. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 59, 647–658. [ PubMed] [ Google Scholar] Let me start by saying that my favorite thing about Sorensen's writing is how SMART it is. Her writing is so witty, so heartfelt, and so thoughtfully produced that every sentence pulled me deeper and deeper into the story. I could see the world, feel the characters -- hell, even taste the cupcakes shoved into Luke's pretty boy face. Sorensen has a way of pulling you into her worlds with ease, making it feel not as if you're reading a book, but as if you've closed your eyes and leapt into a dream world that you never want to leave. It's magical! Chen Y, Qiu Z (2011) How high housing prices affect household savings rate and property inequality. Econ Res 46(10):25–38 Separation: Yes They are separated shortly (few weeks?), but there was no mention or suggestion of other partners during this time. The Bombshell Effect is proof that Karla Sorensen can write humor, heart, and angst in a harmony that should be illegal. I didn't just love this book, I inhaled it, making it a permanent piece of who I am -- and I'll never let it go.
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