The Husband Trap by Tracy Anne Warren
Apr. 2nd, 2006 11:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jmc_bksPicked this up at the train station bookstore on a couple of weeks ago, because I forgot my commute book. Hate it when I do that, because the bookstore does not have the best selection -- it's heavy on Feehan, MacGregor/Kenyon, etc., with not much variety when it comes to midlist authors. And heavy on the American history and politics when it comes to non-fiction, so there isn't much to choose from in my eyes. Not that history and politics are bad, but the store's selections tend to be of the "What's Hot in Political/Historical Publishing Today" vein. Looking for anything not on the NYT Best Seller list is problematic.
Sorry about that, back to the book at hand: The Husband Trap. Since I was bookless, I decided to look for a historical to read for AngieW's March challenge. [I tried a bunch of historicals in March; I'm a little glad the month is over, because there are a bunch of contemporaries and other popular fiction waiting in the growing TBR mountain.] This cover got my attention, mostly because it's different -- pink and silver vertical stripes, with an oval in the center featuring the hero and heroine. While the colors aren't bad, the position of the couple in the oval looks a little off. He's about to dislocate her shoulder, holding her arm that way. But it isn't bad enough to make the Smart Bitches' Cover Snark.
The book opens at the altar, with Violet marrying Adrian in Jeannette's place. She has apparently been secretly in love with Adrian since first seeing him. He likes her as herself, but chose her sister for a variety of reasons, including his belief that she would make a better duchess, was more poised, comfortable with public life, etc. He is absolutely not in love with her and not interesting in loving his wife, any wife. He's having doubts though, based on rumors about her fast behavior and her own temper tantrums prior to the wedding. So he's pleasantly surprised by his new, mellow wife who fits in to his country life. Eventually, though, they have to return to London, where Violet is less happy and tension arises between them. Jeannette's lover appears, thinking that Violet is Jeannette -- big shock there, since she's pretending to be, right? Problems ensue. You can probably guess what those problems are, can't you? Think of Whitney, My Love and you'll be on the right track.
I liked the idea of this book, in part because it seemed like a reversal of Jessica Benson's The Accidental Duchess, which I liked, so it came home with me. But after getting about half way through the book, I set it aside to read Finding Serenity. Because this book seriously caused me to lose my serenity. Okay, up front, as a twin, identity is a serious matter for me. I love my twin, the Biochemist. But it is hard to live with someone who looks like you and sounds like you and be called H/J interchangeably by people, even people who love you. I don't think it is accidental that she and I chose completely different colleges and careers. No one in our circle of colleagues can ever confuse us.* I can't imagine having a twin who was favored inexplicably by our parents to the point of being ignored or blamed for her faults. So I totally sympathized with Violet. I even understood why she didn't want to tell Adrian the truth...for a while. But practically speaking, did she think she could keep the secret forever? If her sister was selfish and inconsiderate enough to leave him at the altar**, wouldn't she decide one day that she wanted to be a duchess after she got tired of doing whatever? Ugh. And Adrian! He got what he wanted (a compliant bride) and it turned out to be better than he expected. But he whined and complained and felt betrayed when he learned who she was. He wasn't as awful as Clayton Westmoreland in Whitney, mostly because she had lied to him, so he had a right to be mad, but I wanted to give him a head slap and tell him to get over it.
Other major problem for me, among myriad smaller problems: the ending was pretty abrupt. I don't need an epilogue with 2.5 children gamboling at the h/h's feet with affectionate servants looking on benevolently, in fact, I usually prefer not to read such an epilogue. But some wrap up or explanation of the fall out of the announcement of the sister switch to the public would have been nice. Instead, the first chapter of the next book (sister Jeannette's book) was included. Yes, we can see she'll be punished and then redeemed, but how did Adrian and Violet extract themselves from the social mess that the revelations would have caused. Violet, and Adrian to a lesser extent, worried about how to deal with it and what would happen, and in the end the problem was ignored. Grrr.
Ultimate grade: C-/D+, depending on how charitable I'm feeling when I add this book to my reading spreadsheet.
* Except one of the guys she worked with in college. I ran into him in Baltimore one day. He walked up to me and asked why I was in the law library in Baltimore, wasn't I going to grad school for chemistry out in Michigan or Wisconsin or someplace cold? Uh, wrong person. He laughed when I explained -- he knew she had a twin sister, but hadn't really connected it. And didn't think we would look that much alike. We don't really, especially if we're standing next to each other, although we're obviously sisters. But when acquaintances see us separately, they can't distinguish between us. This isn't so much a problem now, because our personal styles are totally different.
** Just to be clear, I don't think calling off a wedding is selfish, especially if you have doubts. But waiting until the morning of the wedding, when the crowd is waiting at the chapel, yeah, that's just wrong. And if you've been bumping uglies with someone else, well, you should've called it off way, way before then. If it is an arranged marriage of convenience and you know that going in, changing your mind at the last minute and humiliating your spouse-to-be and your family who have already spent the marriage settlement is pretty selfish too.
Sorry about that, back to the book at hand: The Husband Trap. Since I was bookless, I decided to look for a historical to read for AngieW's March challenge. [I tried a bunch of historicals in March; I'm a little glad the month is over, because there are a bunch of contemporaries and other popular fiction waiting in the growing TBR mountain.] This cover got my attention, mostly because it's different -- pink and silver vertical stripes, with an oval in the center featuring the hero and heroine. While the colors aren't bad, the position of the couple in the oval looks a little off. He's about to dislocate her shoulder, holding her arm that way. But it isn't bad enough to make the Smart Bitches' Cover Snark.
Here comes the substitute bride . . . .
Violet Brantford has always longed for the passionate embrace of Adrian Winter, the wealth Duke of Raeburn. Problem is, he's set to marry Violet's vivacious, more socially polished look-alike twin sister, Jeannette. But when Jeannette refuses to go through with the ceremony mere minutes before it is to begin, soft-spoken Violet finds herself walking down the aisle and taking vows in her sister's place. Soon shy Violet is a high-society wife, trying to keep her real identity a secret while living out the fantasies of her wildest dreams.
Adrian thinks he knows exactly what he's gotten himself into: Jeannette may be flighty and, well a bit self-involved, but she's the picture-perfect wife to carry on the Winter name. Yet this marriage of convenience brings the groom more than he bargained for when he finds his sweet, innocent wife surprising him at every turn. And though he never planned on true love, Adrian is definitely in anger of losing his heart.
The book opens at the altar, with Violet marrying Adrian in Jeannette's place. She has apparently been secretly in love with Adrian since first seeing him. He likes her as herself, but chose her sister for a variety of reasons, including his belief that she would make a better duchess, was more poised, comfortable with public life, etc. He is absolutely not in love with her and not interesting in loving his wife, any wife. He's having doubts though, based on rumors about her fast behavior and her own temper tantrums prior to the wedding. So he's pleasantly surprised by his new, mellow wife who fits in to his country life. Eventually, though, they have to return to London, where Violet is less happy and tension arises between them. Jeannette's lover appears, thinking that Violet is Jeannette -- big shock there, since she's pretending to be, right? Problems ensue. You can probably guess what those problems are, can't you? Think of Whitney, My Love and you'll be on the right track.
I liked the idea of this book, in part because it seemed like a reversal of Jessica Benson's The Accidental Duchess, which I liked, so it came home with me. But after getting about half way through the book, I set it aside to read Finding Serenity. Because this book seriously caused me to lose my serenity. Okay, up front, as a twin, identity is a serious matter for me. I love my twin, the Biochemist. But it is hard to live with someone who looks like you and sounds like you and be called H/J interchangeably by people, even people who love you. I don't think it is accidental that she and I chose completely different colleges and careers. No one in our circle of colleagues can ever confuse us.* I can't imagine having a twin who was favored inexplicably by our parents to the point of being ignored or blamed for her faults. So I totally sympathized with Violet. I even understood why she didn't want to tell Adrian the truth...for a while. But practically speaking, did she think she could keep the secret forever? If her sister was selfish and inconsiderate enough to leave him at the altar**, wouldn't she decide one day that she wanted to be a duchess after she got tired of doing whatever? Ugh. And Adrian! He got what he wanted (a compliant bride) and it turned out to be better than he expected. But he whined and complained and felt betrayed when he learned who she was. He wasn't as awful as Clayton Westmoreland in Whitney, mostly because she had lied to him, so he had a right to be mad, but I wanted to give him a head slap and tell him to get over it.
Other major problem for me, among myriad smaller problems: the ending was pretty abrupt. I don't need an epilogue with 2.5 children gamboling at the h/h's feet with affectionate servants looking on benevolently, in fact, I usually prefer not to read such an epilogue. But some wrap up or explanation of the fall out of the announcement of the sister switch to the public would have been nice. Instead, the first chapter of the next book (sister Jeannette's book) was included. Yes, we can see she'll be punished and then redeemed, but how did Adrian and Violet extract themselves from the social mess that the revelations would have caused. Violet, and Adrian to a lesser extent, worried about how to deal with it and what would happen, and in the end the problem was ignored. Grrr.
Ultimate grade: C-/D+, depending on how charitable I'm feeling when I add this book to my reading spreadsheet.
* Except one of the guys she worked with in college. I ran into him in Baltimore one day. He walked up to me and asked why I was in the law library in Baltimore, wasn't I going to grad school for chemistry out in Michigan or Wisconsin or someplace cold? Uh, wrong person. He laughed when I explained -- he knew she had a twin sister, but hadn't really connected it. And didn't think we would look that much alike. We don't really, especially if we're standing next to each other, although we're obviously sisters. But when acquaintances see us separately, they can't distinguish between us. This isn't so much a problem now, because our personal styles are totally different.
** Just to be clear, I don't think calling off a wedding is selfish, especially if you have doubts. But waiting until the morning of the wedding, when the crowd is waiting at the chapel, yeah, that's just wrong. And if you've been bumping uglies with someone else, well, you should've called it off way, way before then. If it is an arranged marriage of convenience and you know that going in, changing your mind at the last minute and humiliating your spouse-to-be and your family who have already spent the marriage settlement is pretty selfish too.
