Molly Harrigan’s younger married sister announces that she’s pregnant on Molly’s own thirtieth birthday. To top that off, her best friend announces that he is engaged to a witch of a woman on the same day; no wonder Molly’s dream of being married by thirty seems far-fetched now, without a single bachelor in sight who just might someday become Mr. Molly Harrigan.

And so, with the help of the wedding fund provided by her wedding-obsessed grandmother, Molly cooks up what she looks at as a brilliant scheme to become a hitched woman. She hires an escort from the newspaper for a year to pretend they are getting married. She’s not actually going to get married. All Molly really wants is to experience the joys of the events leading up to the altar that all of her friends have experienced. Included in the escort’s pay will be the engagement party, meeting of the parents, a bachelor party, and, of course, meeting the best friend.

Brad Lawson is the best friend. Brad and Molly have been pals since their rowdy college days and tell each other everything as best friends are wont to do, but of course Molly can’t tell Brad that she has hired a fake fiancée - who just happens to be gay, as Molly later finds out.

Justin Blake is the escort, an out-of-work actor who thinks Molly is crazy to come up with this scheme - who wouldn’t? He decides to go along with it anyway because, hey, it could be fun.

As romances go, someone eventually finds out that they are attracted to someone other than who they were dating, and the sparks fly as secret longings are revealed. Surprisingly, the two main characters do not have sex, just a fiery kiss. But that does not lessen the book’s appeal; if nothing else, the lack of sex adds to its appeal.

What follows is an amusing read you don’t want to miss. Especially if you’re still single at thirty. Sawyer truly captures the essence of what it means to turn thirty and still be single and all the lonely stuff we do, like talking to the cat, sitting in front of the tube with a pint of Ben and Jerry’s, and coming home to a blinking red light on your answering machine hoping it’s the guy you just went out on a date with asking you to marry him.

Five stars!