A review by sarahcophagus
His at Night by Sherry Thomas

3.0

Incredibly silly premise. Lying about your own intelligence to all of your acquaintances and loved ones for 13 years sounds exhausting. Feels like there are at least a dozen smarter and simpler ways to seem unassuming in order to spy effectively. The cartoonishly evil uncle was perfectly menacing and his threat always looming was really well done. You could really feel Elissande’s desperation to get out from under his thumb. I wasn’t too on board with their love connection until after Elissande and Vere were married. Before that, we’re pretty much just told that they think the other one is hot (we’re told Elissande looks like Vere’s dream girl), but they’re otherwise lying to and manipulating each other into getting what they want out of them. And even when after they’re married and it’s finally time to put their cards on the table and atone for the ways they’ve both screwed up with each other, that’s when the external drama re-emerges and shifts focus away from dealing with any of that satisfyingly.