Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Books I've read this week - A Hint of Wicked

It's been raining so much here (an inch just yesterday) and today the sun came out and it'sin the mid-eighties and like a sauna. What can a girl do but read? Right?!

I won A Hint of Wicked by Jennifer Haymore from Reading with Monie. Thanks again!

Imagine this: You're married to your childhood sweetheart for 4 years and he goes off to war. You get word that he's been wounded and later, that they can't find his body. You're pregnant and after having the baby, you and your husband's best friend go to search for him but he's nowhere to be found. A year goes by with no word. Two years, still nothing and your friend's wife dies in childbirth. Five years, nothing, six..... Finally, after almost 7 years the court declares your husband dead and a year later you marry the friend. Nine months later you're in bed with your husband playing a little 'tie me to the bed' game when the bedroom door flies open and your dead husband bursts in! What happens next? That's the whole idea behind this book.

Jennifer Haymore set her story in 1815. Sophie, her first husband Garret, and their friend, Tristan, all grew up together. The two men are cousins and both fall in love with Sophie. Garret, being the older, spoke up about his intentions to marry her and Tristan stood by and did nothing. Now Garret is presumed dead and Tristan and Sophie have married. She still loves and misses Garret but Tristan does, too, and he understands. Now Garret has returned to reclaim all he left behind, his estates, the child he didn't know he had, and of course, his wife, and he's been betrayed by his best friend who he finds in bed with 'his' wife. Where has he been all this time and why didn't he come home sooner?

This book, while a romance novel, had a much stronger and interesting story than most. Even though it takes place in 1815 it makes you wonder what you would do in similar circumstances. Sophie loves both men but she knows she can't have them both (even though she fantasizes about it). How can she be with one without hurting the other? Like most romance novels, things work out in the end, although maybe not in the way you'd think. I liked this book and recommend it as a good summer read.

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