This week, I’m delighted to be involved in the blog splash for Jeevani Charika’s novel, A Convenient Marriage. Chaya and Gimhana’s very convenient marriage pleases their parents, but what happens when the promise of personal happiness threatens their perfect arrangement?
Jeev's question to me was, 'what's the strangest thing you've done because of your family?' which made me think of all the holiday, temporary and part-time jobs I’ve done to make ends meet. As soon as I was old enough, I took a Saturday job working in a restaurant doing a bit of food preparation and some waitressing. To discourage customers at the end of the day, I and another Saturday girl would stand at the window pulling faces at anyone who looked as if they might be about to enter. I can’t think why the manageress decided she didn’t need me after all.
Chaya is a young woman torn between her duty to family and her life in the UK. While her traditional Sri Lankan parents want her to settle down into marriage, what they don’t know is that Chaya has turned away the one true love of her life, Noah, terrified of their disapproval.
Gimhana is hiding his sexuality from his family. It’s easy enough to pretend he’s straight when he lives half a world away in the UK. But it’s getting harder and harder to turn down the potential brides his parents keep finding for him.
When Chaya and Gimhana meet, a marriage of convenience seems like the perfect solution to their problems. Together they have everything - friendship, stability and their parents’ approval. But when both Chaya and Gimhana find themselves falling in love outside of their marriage, they’re left with an impossible decision – risk everything they’ve built together, or finally follow their heart?
Buy link: HERE
I’ve worked at a swimming pool and in a make-up factory, I was nearly run over by the actor Patrick Macnee when I was working as a chambermaid (I was emptying a bucket and he was reversing his Rolls Royce), and the first year I delivered the Christmas post I got bitten by a dog. I’ve crunched numbers for Colman’s, earned a crust in a baker’s, cleaned houses that were already clean - and some that most definitely weren’t - and, when my children were small, I took in so much ironing I could tell a man’s shirt collar size at a glance.
There were many years of conventional office jobs too, but all I ever wanted to do was write. My two daughters were grown up when I fulfilled my dream of having a novel published and I’d lost my dad to pancreatic cancer by then, although I can imagine how pleased he would have been for me. As for all the strange and bizarre jobs which helped me to keep my head above water… well, no material’s ever wasted for a writer!
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| Office job years. No, I wasn't actually working as a cowboy. |
A CONVENIENT MARRIAGE by Jeevani Charika
It was the perfect marriage… until they fell in love.
Gimhana is hiding his sexuality from his family. It’s easy enough to pretend he’s straight when he lives half a world away in the UK. But it’s getting harder and harder to turn down the potential brides his parents keep finding for him.
When Chaya and Gimhana meet, a marriage of convenience seems like the perfect solution to their problems. Together they have everything - friendship, stability and their parents’ approval. But when both Chaya and Gimhana find themselves falling in love outside of their marriage, they’re left with an impossible decision – risk everything they’ve built together, or finally follow their heart?
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