Review: Not Quite a Wife

Not Quite a Wife by Mary Jo Putney
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Laurel Herbert fell in love with her brother's best friend when they first met and they married in a whirlwind shortly afterwards. After a fairy-tale honeymoon of a year travelling Europe they returned to England where the romance turned to dust after her husband, James, Lord Kirkland, killed a man who had broken into their house with his bare hands.

Laurel fled London and returned to Bristol where she and her brother set up a charitable clinic helping the poor. Despite being a spy master and knowing where Laurel is living, James refrains from seeking her out. Then one day, a decade after their short-lived marriage, while in Bristol on business James is taken ill with a bout of malaria and, whilst incapacitated, beaten and robbed in the street. Two passers-by charitably carry him to Laurel's clinic where she is astonished to see her husband's face. For his part, James thinks he is hallucinating, one thing leads to another and of course Laurel ends up pregnant. James is determined to be involved in his son or daughter's life and proposes a reconciliation, but Laurel initially resists and insists she intends to spend the majority of her time in Bristol while James is in London. But the passion between them can't be ignored and soon they are as much in love as they ever were. But can Laurel get over the fact that James has killed a man?

Honestly, I love MJP as an author but this was a hard read. Laurel is a Methodist but even that doesn't really explain why she ran away from her husband when he killed an intruder. Frankly she was just irritating and poor James had the patience of a saint. Also, this is the sixth book in the series (I've only read one other) and there is a really dire bit in the middle where James introduces Laurel to all his friends and their wives and then one by one each of the wives admits that they too have killed a man - totally ridiculous.

Most definitely not one of her better books IMHO.

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