The Marriage Clock: A Novel

Leila is twenty-six, an English teacher, and single. This isn’t a huge problem but for her parents, who, believe that she should be married, or at least with a marriage on the horizon. They’ve begun the process to find her a husband, using the community, bio-sheets, in person family-to-family meet-ups and plenty of pressure to get Leila ‘over” her reservations. But Leila is wanting what her friends (a diverse group) have, without the pressures. Swipe Left or Right, find a match. It’s just her luck hasn’t been all that great. And, to be honest, Leila has her own “dreams” of the perfect match, with a checklist of conditions that MUST be met for her to be interested. The story starts and is quite engaging, but Leila’s death grip on her requirements, along with her interactions with her parents are very immature, reminding me of a pre-teen with some attitude. But, things don’t work out as we would expect, and Leila soon finds herself up against a deadline to find her own match or let her parents make the choice. And through the ups and downs, and particularly to a trip to India for a cousin’s wedding, Leila is learning and discovering more about what is truly important to her, and how her culture and her parents have influenced her choices and her dreams. While the story wasn’t perfect, it was engaging and I wanted to know more – could she find a match, could she even grow up enough to realize that her checklist was one of a little girl, and that seeing the people she was meeting, truly seeing them and getting to know them without working down a checklist of over forty items is the way for her to realize her dreams. Fortunately, with friends and family the story managed to incorporate moments to laugh, cringe and even empathize with the pressures and worries that Leila carried, and made her finding an answer to all of her questions, and having her parents understand the challenges was in the offing, and made this an interesting peek into another family’s way of living and choosing the pathways forward. I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via Edelweiss for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.