Another book that was redeemed by a good ending.
Not Quite a Husband by Sherry Thomas
(2009, Victorian)
Grade: 4
Three years after their frustrating marriage ended with an anulment, Leo Marsden has arrived in India determined to bring Byrony back to England. They never seemed to fit together – Leo was society’s darling, Byrony defied everyone to become a doctor – but the secrets of their marriage, and its failure, went much deeper…
This book started out with great frustration. The author seemed to be trying to make her characters hard to understand, and sometimes the misunderstandings between them made me want to throw the book with frustration. It seemed like the author was deliberately withholding important information for literary reasons, which isn’t something I particularly enjoy. But I kept going, because the writing was good and the characters were interesting, and eventually my patience was rewarded. The book improved dramatically in the second half. The characters started talking to each other, and the backdrop of India was interesting (although I always compare books set in India to M.M. Kaye’s books, which are hard to measure up to). By the end, I did feel emotionally involved with these characters, despite the gaps in the characters’ backgrounds. I was left feeling a bit conflicted – did the good parts of the book overcome the bad parts? Just barely.
Sherry Thomas is an author who has been growing on me. I couldn’t finish her first book, I found Delicious promising but disappointing, and this one was good but not great. I’m hoping I enjoy her next book more. Maybe I’m a simple-minded reader, but I get frustrated by too many “twists” like having the author withhold important information from the reader and guess what the characters are trying to say. Those may work in some fiction, but I think it hurts a romance, where the reader expects to make an emotional connection with the characters. It’s hard to make an emotional connection to a character when the author is trying to keep the character’s motives and background a secret from the reader.
Karen Wheless
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