Not Quite a Husband (The Marsdens)

I usually enjoy this writer but this book left me cold. Did not help that I have little knowledge of India’s geography so the endless names of locations and their inhabitants were hard to retain with no storyline to gel them together. Characters were neither charismatic nor interesting- when there is no one in a book i care about, the book cannot hold my attention no matter how much I want it to. This might this author’s only work to hit the donation bin without a second read.

I have to tell you this book continued to end up on the bottom of my reading pile while on vacation. It was the last book in my vacation stash and so one rain day I picked up. It was amazing and romantic and what a great adventure. I did laugh and even cryed... Leo and Bryony marriage had ended and she left the country but after years of seperation he hunts her down remotest corner of India where she working as a doctor. Her father is ill and she needs to return to England. While in Bryony and Leo travel home they get caught in a war and slowly fall in love all over again. Great Book - a nice way to end a vacation... Here are some of the books I read while on vacation; Sleepless in Scotland (The MacLeans), Surrender to the Devil, Double Play (Berkley Sensation), Don't Tempt Me and Start Me Up.

What a ravishing book! Sherry Thomas returns to the theme of estranged lovers and sets her story along the Hindu Kush in British India. Golden boy and society darling Leo Marsden has come in search of his erstwhile wife, misfit Bryony Asquith, a physician believed to be more at home with the study of diseases than with people. The story of their love and the mistakes and misunderstandings that destroyed it unfold on their perilous journey back to England. The wounded girl and the boy who has loved her all his life heal and learn to trust again. Thomas writes gifted, complex, proud, sometimes prickly heroines. If you've ever had your heart ripped from your chest and mauled, only to be made whole again and reformed into something stronger, you'll connect with them. Thomas had me weeping more than once along the road with Bryony. Not Quite a Husband left me bereft at the end because there was no more. I wanted it to go on forever.

I will say that I agree with a previous review regarding the fact that this book sometimes seemed like two books - both a romance and a history lesson. However, despite this I loved, loved, loved this book. The heroine and hero were such unique characters, and I enjoyed their gradual "unveiling" by the author. Yes, the heroine seemed unusually unfeeling, but because the author had introduced her in the prologue with such skill,I trusted that her seeming heartlessness would be explained in good time. And was it! I so enjoyed Bryony! Learning about her childhood broke my heart. Nothing so dramatic as being beaten or kidnapped. Just the small and all too common story of a beautiful, thoughtful little girl being ignored or emotionally abandoned by everyone she loved. She put up very high walls and no one but Leo had the inclination to scale them. One thing I particularly loved was when it became clear that the hero was, in fact, in Serious Pursuit of the heroine - despite her unfeeling behavior. It became clear that not only did he love her now, but had always loved her. (Leo is my new crush!) And when she beat him in chess, it became clear that they were truly meant for each other. I laughed, I cried, I savored every minute of the romance. I admit, my eyes did start to glaze over a little with the historic, and geographic descriptions of the Hindu Kush. Until I realized that their journey was taking them to the Swat Valley - the very valley that is under such heavy fighting with the Taliban in the Pakistan border area today! From the moment I realized that, I read these pages with greater interest. History does repeat itself, and we are making some of the same discoveries that Leo and the British made over a hundred years ago. So, a fabulous romance and a timely history lesson. That's why I read historical romances.