Helpful Score: 19
In my very humble opinion, Sherry Thomas is golden. Well, not just that, I think she truly has the Midas touch; everything she writes is golden. Not surprisingly, Not Quite A Husband has become my next keeper. And not just because it was written by Sherry Thomas - which pretty much guaranteed it a spot on some obscure shelf in my house anyway:P
What I love about this story in particular is that there's so much more to it than seems initially apparent. This is a very deftly woven second-chance/action/adventure & road romance about a couple whose brief & troubled marriage ended in an annulment about 4 years previous to the opening of the first chapter. The prologue deals very briefly with the dissolution of the marriage, and the rest of it unfolds throughout the course of the book in a series of concise and well-placed flashbacks. Leo Marsden (the hero) is in India to fetch his former wife Bryony Asquith (the heroine) home to England at the behest of her sister. Her estranged father has supposedly suffered a stroke, and Bryony's sister Callista, who maintains regular contact with Leo, has asked him to find her and bring her home so that her father can see her one last time before he passes away. Bryony is something of a globe-trotting physician, currently running a clinic in the Rumbur Valley, in the Northwest corner of India (actually Pakistan today). She is suspicious of her sister's request, as Callista is in the habit of spinning tall tales of imminent death and impending doom, in her long-standing and rather humorous attempts to reunite Leo and Bryony. Despite her initial misgivings that Leo is an unwitting pawn in yet another of Callista's hare-brained schemes, Bryony finally consents to go home.
Once their trek across treacherous (and in this case very hostile) mountain terrain is underway, Leo & Bryony become caught up in the events surrounding the Swat Valley Uprising of 1897 - which is part of the territory they have to cross on their journey. The stage is then set for the removal of the extraneous barriers to a second-chance romance for the H&H.
This story is much faster paced than Thomas's two previous works: Private Arrangements and Delicious, but the emotional depth readers have come to expect from Thomas is definitely still there. There are a lot of misunderstandings and communication issues between this couple, and those have led them down a very difficult and painful road. They both still love each other very much, and that becomes quickly apparent, but finding the ability to be candid with each other regarding their feelings and past mistakes is something that just doesn't seem possible without the breaking down of a few barriers. Thomas handles that deftly with external forces & the hostile setting, and it works. Really well. Where I initially had some difficulty in warming up to Bryony, once she begins to drop some of her formidable defenses and open up to Leo, she becomes a very sympathetic character, and I genuinely felt her pain.
Leo has made at least one very serious mistake of his own, and the revelation regarding the impact that mistake had on his & Bryony's marriage is an integral part of his character development, and his eventual understanding of the seemingly cold & emotionally aloof woman he was married to.
His humanity - the fact that he made this mistake and his grief when he realizes that it, and not his former wife's cold & unfeeling nature, ultimately destroyed his marriage - is part of what I loved about him. What might be perceived as somewhat disturbing character flaws in the hands of anyone less gifted than Thomas, is part of what makes Leo and Bryony more interesting and dimensional characters. By the second half of this book, I was fully immersed in their story and rooting hard for their HEA.
Thomas fans are sure to note the absence of her customary secondary romance, and may perhaps feel it lacks the depth of her previous books. As one of the few who, after reading Private Arrangements and Delicious, wondered what those stories would have been like had they not contained the secondary romances, I can say that this book is just as good, IMO, but different in a way that I'm not sure I have the vocabulary to express. The only way I know how to say it is that in regard to her secondary romances, what might seem like filler fluff or even a pesky distraction from the love story you're really interested in reading, is actually something more like another layer of something interesting sprinkled on top of an already tasty dish.... and I can't help the food analogies - Delicious did it to me:P
What it boils down to is that I would (and do) highly recommend this book to everyone, and that most especially includes everyone who found PA and Delicious somewhat lacking - perhaps even a little tedious - due to the frequent side-tracking of the secondary romances.
Ultimately, I think there's a lot here to recommend Not Quite A Husband to a wider audience than her work has otherwise appealed to. It's a relatively quick read; I think some readers could do this book in half the time I did and still get as much out of it. It's got that fairly fast-paced action/adventure romp thing going on, which is a departure from some of the angstiness of PA & Delicious, and it's also an older heroine/younger hero story, which I know a lot of romance readers enjoy as well. An aside to that is that they've known each other since childhood, and there's an added element of sweetness due to those circumstances and regarding Leo's feelings toward Bryony, but I'm not going to spoil that for anyone - you'll just have to read it yourselves:P
I gave it a an A- on my own personal ratings scale due to a couple of minor quibbles I had. The last chapter felt a little unneccesary to me. There are minor tie-ins to Delicious throughout the book, and snippets of a lovemaking marathon thrown into the last chapter that I really didn't think added much to wrapping up the story. Personally, I think she should have skipped that chapter and gone straight to the epilogue, but I also think there are a lot of people who are going to enjoy it. Without the little references to Delicious, this book would have made an excellent stand alone novel, and that's the best argument I could have made to the author for leaving them out - I'm more than a little tired of series books:P There was also a bit of a dangling plot thread regarding Bryony's inability to have children that was never fully elaborated on or explained, but other than noticing it, it really didn't detract much from my overall enjoyment of the story.
Grade: A-
Sensuality Rating: R
What I love about this story in particular is that there's so much more to it than seems initially apparent. This is a very deftly woven second-chance/action/adventure & road romance about a couple whose brief & troubled marriage ended in an annulment about 4 years previous to the opening of the first chapter. The prologue deals very briefly with the dissolution of the marriage, and the rest of it unfolds throughout the course of the book in a series of concise and well-placed flashbacks. Leo Marsden (the hero) is in India to fetch his former wife Bryony Asquith (the heroine) home to England at the behest of her sister. Her estranged father has supposedly suffered a stroke, and Bryony's sister Callista, who maintains regular contact with Leo, has asked him to find her and bring her home so that her father can see her one last time before he passes away. Bryony is something of a globe-trotting physician, currently running a clinic in the Rumbur Valley, in the Northwest corner of India (actually Pakistan today). She is suspicious of her sister's request, as Callista is in the habit of spinning tall tales of imminent death and impending doom, in her long-standing and rather humorous attempts to reunite Leo and Bryony. Despite her initial misgivings that Leo is an unwitting pawn in yet another of Callista's hare-brained schemes, Bryony finally consents to go home.
Once their trek across treacherous (and in this case very hostile) mountain terrain is underway, Leo & Bryony become caught up in the events surrounding the Swat Valley Uprising of 1897 - which is part of the territory they have to cross on their journey. The stage is then set for the removal of the extraneous barriers to a second-chance romance for the H&H.
This story is much faster paced than Thomas's two previous works: Private Arrangements and Delicious, but the emotional depth readers have come to expect from Thomas is definitely still there. There are a lot of misunderstandings and communication issues between this couple, and those have led them down a very difficult and painful road. They both still love each other very much, and that becomes quickly apparent, but finding the ability to be candid with each other regarding their feelings and past mistakes is something that just doesn't seem possible without the breaking down of a few barriers. Thomas handles that deftly with external forces & the hostile setting, and it works. Really well. Where I initially had some difficulty in warming up to Bryony, once she begins to drop some of her formidable defenses and open up to Leo, she becomes a very sympathetic character, and I genuinely felt her pain.
Leo has made at least one very serious mistake of his own, and the revelation regarding the impact that mistake had on his & Bryony's marriage is an integral part of his character development, and his eventual understanding of the seemingly cold & emotionally aloof woman he was married to.
His humanity - the fact that he made this mistake and his grief when he realizes that it, and not his former wife's cold & unfeeling nature, ultimately destroyed his marriage - is part of what I loved about him. What might be perceived as somewhat disturbing character flaws in the hands of anyone less gifted than Thomas, is part of what makes Leo and Bryony more interesting and dimensional characters. By the second half of this book, I was fully immersed in their story and rooting hard for their HEA.
Thomas fans are sure to note the absence of her customary secondary romance, and may perhaps feel it lacks the depth of her previous books. As one of the few who, after reading Private Arrangements and Delicious, wondered what those stories would have been like had they not contained the secondary romances, I can say that this book is just as good, IMO, but different in a way that I'm not sure I have the vocabulary to express. The only way I know how to say it is that in regard to her secondary romances, what might seem like filler fluff or even a pesky distraction from the love story you're really interested in reading, is actually something more like another layer of something interesting sprinkled on top of an already tasty dish.... and I can't help the food analogies - Delicious did it to me:P
What it boils down to is that I would (and do) highly recommend this book to everyone, and that most especially includes everyone who found PA and Delicious somewhat lacking - perhaps even a little tedious - due to the frequent side-tracking of the secondary romances.
Ultimately, I think there's a lot here to recommend Not Quite A Husband to a wider audience than her work has otherwise appealed to. It's a relatively quick read; I think some readers could do this book in half the time I did and still get as much out of it. It's got that fairly fast-paced action/adventure romp thing going on, which is a departure from some of the angstiness of PA & Delicious, and it's also an older heroine/younger hero story, which I know a lot of romance readers enjoy as well. An aside to that is that they've known each other since childhood, and there's an added element of sweetness due to those circumstances and regarding Leo's feelings toward Bryony, but I'm not going to spoil that for anyone - you'll just have to read it yourselves:P
I gave it a an A- on my own personal ratings scale due to a couple of minor quibbles I had. The last chapter felt a little unneccesary to me. There are minor tie-ins to Delicious throughout the book, and snippets of a lovemaking marathon thrown into the last chapter that I really didn't think added much to wrapping up the story. Personally, I think she should have skipped that chapter and gone straight to the epilogue, but I also think there are a lot of people who are going to enjoy it. Without the little references to Delicious, this book would have made an excellent stand alone novel, and that's the best argument I could have made to the author for leaving them out - I'm more than a little tired of series books:P There was also a bit of a dangling plot thread regarding Bryony's inability to have children that was never fully elaborated on or explained, but other than noticing it, it really didn't detract much from my overall enjoyment of the story.
Grade: A-
Sensuality Rating: R
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