The Ideal Wife
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The Ideal Wife Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥ |
Not as intense as other Balogh stories
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I came across the hardcover edition of this title while doing an online catalog search at my local library. I am a huge Mary Balogh fan--although it's very difficult getting a hold of her older books. I've faithfully read my way through the entire Slightly and Simply series (yes, including A Summer to Remember). I totally loved The Secret Pearl; I even bought a collector's copy of the 1st edition original Signet paperback. When I read the Ideal Wife, I had high expectations. I was very disappointed, and even wondered if it was truly written by the same author.
I admit, though, that this is the very first Signet Regency I've read. Maybe the plots of these shorter stories are supposed to be less intense, less heart-wrenching. In The Ideal Wife, the hero is looking for a "nice, quiet & demure" (or plain/dull/very ordinary) wife just to escape his family's marriage plans for him. Enter the heroine, Abby, a very distant relation, if at all, to ask for assistance in seeking employment, and just like that, he proposes. To a virtual stranger.
I could not find anything to like about Abby. She seems like a shallow gold-digger, who accepts a stranger's proposal just to escape destitution and supposedly to help out her family (she wants custody of her 2 younger stepsisters and also wants to pay off the family debts). Her extremely talkative nature seems forced and unnatural--a bit like Christine from Slightly Dangerous. I totally missed the reason why Miles fell inlove with her, and vice versa. There was zero chemistry between them, sexual or otherwise. Where was the initial, intense connection that is almost a trademark of Mary Balogh stories?
The secondary characters were no help either. A scheming stepmother, a proud and independent brother (Boris) who falls for Abby's best friend, even the hero's lovesick best buddy (Sir Gerald)...the whole lot of them were quite unimpressive. When Abby learned of the real reason Miles married her, she pouted and sulked and acted cold towards him in bed and out, then cut her hair the next day. And what about her own deep dark secret? I don't think it made me like her any better. It was a struggle having to finish the entire book. I'm glad I didn't go out and buy a ridiculously overpriced copy.
I'd rather search out the author's other books...I'm confident I will find more worthwhile titles. She is still one of my all-time favorite...I know romance authors cannot possibly come out with winners all the time! |
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