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A review by rosska22
A Husband for Hartwell by Lisa Henry, J.A. Rock
3.0
Wm Hartwell and his best friend's little brother have always existed in relative harmony, if not friendship, exactly. But recently Hartwell's been a tit, and Warry's made friends with an Older Gentleman, and these two things may be connected. But with Hartwell's parents pressuring him to get married, and a blackmailer afoot in Warry's life, the two of them find themselves tangled in a web of confusion and bad decisions.
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Okay. It was good. It was! I liked it. I just...didn't...love it. Hartwell was a right idiot, Warry's the epitome of dumb teenage boy, and nobody in this book talked to anyone else nearly as much as they should have. I struggled with the fact that Hartwell was supposedly 23, but acted like he was like, 40. Whereas Warry was very clearly 19. "I must do everything on my own! No one can ever know! No one can help me! Alas!" Hartwell was a little bit too serious, and Warry a little bit too stupid, Becca started out very fun and then abruptly retreated into a strange aloofness for the rest of the book. I liked Hartwell's good friend Christmas Gale.
The premise of this series is basically, 'It's regency England! But! Wait for it! Gay marriage is legal!' which, is, like, not a bad premise, exactly, but you lose some of the tension of a historical gay romance when it's all pretty easily solvable. I don't know. Hartwell and Warry's case was clear and truly easy to settle if only the two of them had spoken to their families before making rash decisions. Which rather made listening to the two of them whinge about their problems with a stiff upper lip the whole time sort of...draining.
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Okay. It was good. It was! I liked it. I just...didn't...love it. Hartwell was a right idiot, Warry's the epitome of dumb teenage boy, and nobody in this book talked to anyone else nearly as much as they should have. I struggled with the fact that Hartwell was supposedly 23, but acted like he was like, 40. Whereas Warry was very clearly 19. "I must do everything on my own! No one can ever know! No one can help me! Alas!" Hartwell was a little bit too serious, and Warry a little bit too stupid, Becca started out very fun and then abruptly retreated into a strange aloofness for the rest of the book. I liked Hartwell's good friend Christmas Gale.
The premise of this series is basically, 'It's regency England! But! Wait for it! Gay marriage is legal!' which, is, like, not a bad premise, exactly, but you lose some of the tension of a historical gay romance when it's all pretty easily solvable. I don't know. Hartwell and Warry's case was clear and truly easy to settle if only the two of them had spoken to their families before making rash decisions. Which rather made listening to the two of them whinge about their problems with a stiff upper lip the whole time sort of...draining.