To Have and to Hoax by Martha WatersMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
I received an ARC of this book.
This book sounded wonderful and I was very excited to read it! What an interesting premise--a husband and wife who are estranged and find themselves in a competition to one-up the other in an attempt to force the other one to admit to still having feelings for the other one... Sound complicated? I expected a funny, farcical, laugh-out loud story about 2 adults who should know better and yet can't help themselves. That wasn't quite what I got, however.
I did like the fact that the book started with the first meeting of our two main characters, and then jumped ahead several years. The reader knew that our hero and heroine had made a love match and enjoyed their marriage for a full year before a horrendous fight caused a Cold War between the two. The real cause of the big fight, and why the characters were mad at each other was not truly revealed until half-way through the book, however. For a large portion of that time, it looked like they were fighting over how much time the husband spent at work. To me, it felt like a very silly reason to not speak to one's spouse for 4 years.
That in turn made the behavior of the two main characters feel immature and childish, instead of funny and irreverent. When the real cause of the fight was finally revealed, I thought, "Oh, that does make sense. No wonder she has been so mad at him!" But it was kind of too little, too late--I had already read half of the book and formed my opinion of the characters.
The "games" that the two characters played with each other began to get tedious, as well, as the book progressed. How did the heroine think she was going to recover from a terminal illness? It seemed a little heartless and ill-conceived. Perhaps a rare infectious disease, or a head injury just like her husband? I began to find myself bored with their actions, instead of amused.
The side-plot of the hero's relationship with his father also didn't deliver. Much of the action of the book apparently hinged on how they related to each other, and yet the reader was "told" (in a very off-hand manner) about their problems instead of "shown." And the reader was not told enough to really make it a salient point.
This book could have been great. But it just failed to deliver for me. I found myself skimming towards the end, just waiting for the two characters to get over themselves and say "I'm sorry. And I mean it. And I won't get mad at you again tomorrow."
This book did feel like the beginning of a series, and I enjoyed the secondary characters enough to come back to see what will happened to them. I am not sure that I would recommend this book to lovers of Regency Romance however, as it left me disappointed and dissatisfied.
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I did like the fact that the book started with the first meeting of our two main characters, and then jumped ahead several years. The reader knew that our hero and heroine had made a love match and enjoyed their marriage for a full year before a horrendous fight caused a Cold War between the two. The real cause of the big fight, and why the characters were mad at each other was not truly revealed until half-way through the book, however. For a large portion of that time, it looked like they were fighting over how much time the husband spent at work. To me, it felt like a very silly reason to not speak to one's spouse for 4 years.
That in turn made the behavior of the two main characters feel immature and childish, instead of funny and irreverent. When the real cause of the fight was finally revealed, I thought, "Oh, that does make sense. No wonder she has been so mad at him!" But it was kind of too little, too late--I had already read half of the book and formed my opinion of the characters.
The "games" that the two characters played with each other began to get tedious, as well, as the book progressed. How did the heroine think she was going to recover from a terminal illness? It seemed a little heartless and ill-conceived. Perhaps a rare infectious disease, or a head injury just like her husband? I began to find myself bored with their actions, instead of amused.
The side-plot of the hero's relationship with his father also didn't deliver. Much of the action of the book apparently hinged on how they related to each other, and yet the reader was "told" (in a very off-hand manner) about their problems instead of "shown." And the reader was not told enough to really make it a salient point.
This book could have been great. But it just failed to deliver for me. I found myself skimming towards the end, just waiting for the two characters to get over themselves and say "I'm sorry. And I mean it. And I won't get mad at you again tomorrow."
This book did feel like the beginning of a series, and I enjoyed the secondary characters enough to come back to see what will happened to them. I am not sure that I would recommend this book to lovers of Regency Romance however, as it left me disappointed and dissatisfied.
View all my reviews
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