A review by addieisreading
The Girl with the Make-Believe Husband by Julia Quinn

3.0

"The loss of hope versus the certainty of truth. It’s not an easy judgment to make.”

It had everything to be one of my favourite historical romances written for entertainment that I'd read this year but, at the last 20% of the book the ball hits the crossbar, and we never see the score. Or rather: we see it, but we (me) do not feel the euphoria of having finished it.

What I mean is that the beginning was it for me. The plot was on point, the main character's dynamic worked really well, there was a reason for things to be happening, and the characters were really smart despite making dubious decisions—at least they were aware of how suspicious the situations surrounding them seemed.

Spoiler

When Edward started to doubt this whole situation, I felt blessed. Cecilia was postponing her responsibility in telling the truth for too long and him having the possibility of discovering it by himself felt like poetic justice, even more, but then he started to be cruel and ignore her even in her pain and I started to wonder how the hell didn't see notice he had his memories back). The ending—which the chase and the romantic scene at the ship—wasn't as satisfying as I thought it would be because there were a lot of issues unsolved and the author decided to rush through that part.

Spoiler

The fact that Edward didn't work through his trust issues and relied solely on the fact that he loved Cecilia even before the memory loss (which was really cute and well-planned in the story) was such an annoyance! No matter how cute the scene was if it left a bittersweet taste of—ok, they love each other, but do they trust each other? And the author wants to make that a happy ending? Hmmm... Let's say that, had it been a drama instead of a romance, that would make more sense.

Not to mention the writing, which is just acceptable—it describes what it must and delivers good dialogues, nothing more.

All in all, I admit that the only reasons why I enjoyed this reading were the cute moments between them and the fact that I've brainwashed myself to believe that the story was another one, one more developed.