The Ideal Wife

Don't understand all the negative reviews. It's pretty much a typical romance, quick read not much thinking involved.

This is a boring book about an immature young lady who is a liar and a bland, bad in bed, dull hero. I got this book for free and its obvious why. Forget wasting you money, don't waste your time.

I have every book by Mary Balogh. I wasn't interested in reading this book and it stayed on the tbr shelf for a while. I should have left it there. It was a huge disappointment. I couldn't even finish reading it. The characters have no substance. The plot was a sleeper. Balogh just didn't write it believable. The heroine talks so much (and during the love scenes too) that it becomes overwhelming. I just kept thinking "okay I understand that she is talkative, let's move on."

Also the hero is supposed to be a great lover? It didn't read that way. The first couple of love scenes are all about him taking his pleasure and the heroine (like I said earlier) TALKING.

The way that this book develops is just to fast paced. The conflict in the book is sloppy. He wants an ideal wife, she seems to be. Wait, No shes not, but I don't care. This all happens in the first 100 pages. It is like everything is pushed.

I always look forward to my favorite authors new releases. This book just made me frustrated because I wanted it to be better. Unfortunately NOT.

This came in a glossy new cover, and I ordered it from the library, but half way through I checked the publication date and saw that my suspicions were correct - it was originally written in 1991. I now also realize it's been padded because the original book was far shorter.

I found both the characters and the situation very irritating. The Earl of Severn, all because he cannot say no to his mother, proposes to a woman who he has just met, having totally mistaken her character. And the annoying Abigail, normally chatty and silly, stays quiet and sensible because she hates poverty and wants security. Well, who can blame her.

But Miles is not hero material - what sort of man of 30 would find himself managed into a marriage he didn't want all because he could not say know to his mother. And he's crap in bed, and he's condescending. I imagine that eventually Abigail tells him that she's never come and the sex gets better but I couldn't be bothered to stay with it and find out, and gave myself permission to put it down.

I am sounding snarky, aren't I?! But I wouldn't want to befriend either character and didn't find them or their situation at all interesting. It felt like a very early novel, Mary Balogh has written far, far better books than this. I hate it when they sneak in old novels like this, because you expect a certain level of sophistication in the writing, and that's unfair for a 17 year old romance, but you don't know it's 17 years old initially - sounds like the big confusion you get in romances, which stop the lovers from acknowledging that they love each other. If the publishers stopped trying to fool me, I might love their reprints better!

The writing is good. I liked Abby and Miles except in the bedroom. There I was very disturbed. Ok, we've all been there--I totally get the reality of it taking a little while for her to overcome her inhibitions and be able to find fullfillment. The part that really bothered me was that her husband, who was falling under her spell, didn't seem to notice or care that she was left unfullfilled 2x a night for the first week of their marriage. He didn't try to talk to her, question her or draw her out or even care that she lay under him like a board as long as he got what he wanted. The worst was the night they had an argument and he decided to skip the preliminaries and get the deed done quickly so he wouldn't keep her awake. She felt nothing while he did he business. I would kill my husband if he ever tried! Not my idea of romance! If you ignore the bedroom scenes the book was great. Unfortunately I like the whole package for my romance.