Practice Vows

Practice Vows is a big-city romance about building a life that actually holds. Divorce mediator Talia Mendes keeps other people's promises from collapsing. Carpenter-foreman Jonah Keating makes broken rooms stand again. When their neighborhood decides to save Mosaic Row Hall, the pair co-author a "practice marriage" contract to keep the volunteer crew kind—and accidentally give themselves a scaffold for intimacy: weekly State-of-Us check-ins, a revocable consent menu, and repair protocols that work better than grand gestures. Blending households with Talia's daughter and Jonah's son is beautiful chaos; taking in an infant through foster-to-adopt makes love bigger—and sleep smaller. After a small wedding and a very public work win, success turns into hurry. Talia feels unseen long before Jonah realizes he's mistaking provision for presence. A trial separation—with guardrails—becomes their laboratory for change. When adoption day finally arrives, they've rewritten more than their vows: they've learned how to choose each other in the ordinary. Practice Vows is warm heat, zero cynicism—about consent as romance, repair over being right, and the family you build on purpose. Perfect for fans of slow burn, caretaking tenderness, and marriage-in-trouble arcs with a real HEA.