Miranda is dying to have another child. She has a son through sperm donation by her gay male friend, who is married to his male partner. In Love in a Hurry by Mari Jane Law, Miranda is thirty-nine years old and has been informed by her doctor that she is perimenopausal. So, she needs to get moving on finding a husband if she is going to have another child. Since she is a virgin mother, she thinks her best hope is a priest, one who is seeking to leave the priesthood. Kieran is a Catholic priest who would have loved to be married with children if not for his mother ‘forcing’ him into the priesthood. He has just joined the Catholic Priest Support group, which helps priests leave the priesthood. As luck would have it, Miranda and Kieran meet, and they are immediately attracted to one another. Will the match work?

In Love in a Hurry, Mari Jane Law tells a story filled with humor and pathos. Her take on religion and its effect on the characters’ relationships creates a laugh-out-loud plot and truly enjoyable characters and their individual situations. The characters, Miranda and Kieran, both have painful pasts where they had to live according to others’ decisions. But these heavy topics are handled with a light touch through tongue-in-cheek quips. I can almost see the thought bubbles above their heads where they mentally share what they would really love to say if they had the nerve. The back-and-forth between the past and present keeps the action moving forward quickly as the characters grow into their new lives.

Sometimes the path chosen for you isn’t the one that will ultimately make you happy. Love in a Hurry by Mari Jane Law brings together three people whose lives haven’t gone quite the way they expected. Miranda Morton is thirty-nine, a single mother, and worried that perimenopause may be closing the door on her chance to have another kid. She wants more than motherhood, though. She also hopes for a husband and the kind of connection she’s never had. When she learns that her employer’s son is starting a support group for Catholic priests considering leaving the ministry, Miranda wonders if she might meet someone looking for the same things she does. Father Kieran Quinn is forty-two and questioning the road he took years earlier, especially since becoming a priest was more his mother’s dream than his own. He longs for love, marriage, and children, but knows pursuing that kind of future would mean walking away from the only adult life he’s ever known. When they meet, there’s an immediate attraction, but his vows are only one of the obstacles standing between them. Miranda's sharp-tongued elderly employer, Judith Gold, also has strong feelings about Kieran and Catholicism that are rooted in a painful past of her own. With all three facing choices about what they hope for in the years ahead, will they be brave enough to change the direction their lives are taking?

I thought Love in a Hurry by Mari Jane Law had such an interesting idea behind it. A priest who probably never truly wanted to be a man of the cloth considering leaving the priesthood for a woman, love, and possibly a family isn’t something I come across very often in romance novels. There’s also a bit of that forbidden-fruit appeal since Miranda and Kieran are attracted to each other while he’s still a priest. They, along with Judith, are pretty dynamic in their own right, and each has a past that helps explain their decisions. Surprisingly, Kieran was my favorite. That's only happened with a male character a handful of times, so I wasn’t expecting it. I really felt for him. He’d spent so much of his life following a path someone else chose for him, and I enjoyed watching him begin to question what he wanted for himself. Judith also added another layer because she could be frustrating one minute and make me curious about what shaped her the next. Law balances the humor with some much more serious subjects, which keeps the plot from feeling too heavy. Anyone looking for an unconventional love story with complicated characters and the thrill of a relationship that’s a bit off-limits should give this one a try. Dolly Parton said, "If you don't like the road you're walking, start paving another one." That idea fits this book so well, making it a great pick for readers who enjoy stories about people realizing it’s never too late to choose a different future.