Mari Jane Law’s Love in a Hurry follows two people trying to build a new life while time feels painfully short. Miranda Morton is thirty-nine, raising her son Oscar with his two dads, and hoping for a partner and another baby when a perimenopause diagnosis adds urgency to her plans. Father Kieran Quinn is questioning a priesthood shaped by his mother’s expectations and longing for a family of his own. Their meeting through a support group for disaffected priests starts a romance full of attraction, awkward conversations, and inventive attempts to get closer. It’s an unusual setup, and Law makes good use of the practical complications: finding work, arranging childcare, and negotiating a household where everyone has an opinion.

Miranda is easy to care about because her longing for love comes with such specific fears. Her childhood in care has left her anxious about food, shelter, and being abandoned, so even an exciting relationship can feel like a threat to the security she’s worked hard to find. Law gives that anxiety everyday expressions, from hidden sweets to Miranda’s reluctance to leave her live-in job. The food details are especially effective, connecting baking with care and eating with comfort. I also enjoyed watching photography offer Miranda a way to recognize her own abilities. Kieran’s tenderness has appeal, too, particularly when he listens to her history and takes her concerns seriously. Their relationship grows through ordinary acts of attention as well as physical attraction, which makes their enthusiasm for each other feel convincing.

Judith, Miranda’s sharp-tongued employer, gives the book some of its most affecting material. Flashbacks to her younger years reveal an interfaith marriage, devastating bereavements, and the gradual accumulation of loneliness and resentment. Those sections change how we understand her possessiveness and make her present-day behavior more complicated. Law also shows how easily family members can hurt one another while insisting they know what’s best. The shifts between this painful history and the broad comedy are pronounced, especially around the cupboard escapade and Kieran’s prostate troubles. Sometimes the repeated misunderstandings and elaborate descriptions of bodily reactions slow the story down. A few horse jokes about Miranda’s appearance also wore thin for me, given the lasting damage of her childhood bullying. Still, the characters’ need to feel wanted gives the various storylines a strong connection.

The book reminded me of Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary in its self-conscious heroine, anxieties about appearance, and ability to turn romantic embarrassment into comedy. Miranda’s busy inner commentary has that familiar mix of hope, panic, and quick comic associations. Law brings her own interests to this territory through religious expectations, later-life fertility, and a family made up of people choosing to care for one another. Luke and Gavin’s involvement adds affection and friction, particularly as they adjust to Miranda having a relationship of her own. I found that expanding circle of attachments the book’s most satisfying feature. Love in a Hurry is a warm and sometimes unruly romantic comedy whose appeal lies in watching people learn to give each other room, reassurance, and a place to belong.

Pages: 432 | ASIN : B0HFNNM6LH