The Ideal Husband [Mass Market Paperback]

Shari Anton (Author)

Book Description

Series: Warner Forever | Publication Date: October 1, 2003

Having been saved by handsome Geoffrey Hamelin, Leah of Pecham takes the injured man home, where her dishonor will become a thing of the past as she passes Geoffrey off as her husband. Original.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

While reluctantly traveling home to Pecham, lovely Leah meets Geoffrey Hamelin, who sees her to safety when their ship goes down in the English Channel. Refusing to abandon the gallant stranger who saved her life, Leah plucks an unconscious, badly wounded Geoffrey from the sea. When everyone mistakes them for husband and wife, Leah decides to take advantage of the situation by bringing Geoffrey home with her to help salvage what is left of her tattered reputation after she ran off with an unfaithful scoundrel. No one expects Geoffrey to survive, but he awakens, albeit with no memory of who or where he is. Leah decides to tempt fate by continuing her deception, but she can't help wondering what will happen to her when her new husband regains his memory. With superb characterization and polished prose, Anton crafts a thoroughly entertaining love story between two captivating protagonists. John Charles
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Forever (October 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446612286
• ISBN-13: 978-0446612289
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1 x 6.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,213,492 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Shari Anton's publishing career began in 1997. Since then she has written several historical romances for Harlequin Historicals and Grand Central Publishing. Ms. Anton lives in Wisconsin, loves to ride on the Harley, and visit Civil War battlefields, medieval fairs and historical societies. This award winning author is a member of Romance Writers of America and Wisconsin Romance Writers of America (WisRWA), Novelists, Inc., and The Authors Guild.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A delightful historical romance, October 1, 2003

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Ideal Husband (Mass Market Paperback)

Sir Geoffrey Hamelin heads home after spending four years in France to attend his sister's wedding. He meets on the ship Leah of Pecham also going home after causing a scandal by running off with a lover who deserted her. When the ship catches fire near Dover, Geoffrey protects Leah and manages to get her a seat on one of the small rescue crafts. However, he is injured not long afterward and she rescues him only to find he probably will die.

Not wanting to leave him, she takes him to her father's home, but adopts the pretense that he is her husband after hearing a peasant say so. At her family home, her brother Odo is upset with the return of the prodigal daughter because he wants everything his father owns and plans to destroy his sibling to achieve his goal. Geoffrey recovers, but has amnesia and believes his savior is his beloved wife. As he and Leah fall in love, she knows there can be no happy ending once he recovers his memory and recognizes her as a scandalous fraud.

THE IDEAL HUSBAND is a delightful historical romance starring two courageous wary lead protagonists. The fast-paced story line will grip the audience from the point when Leah helps her seasick fellow traveler until the climax. Though Odo is obviously short for odious, fans will appreciate Shari Anton's warm tale of love with honor arriving when least expected.

Harriet Klausner

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars what is the Ideal husband??? hum...cracking good tale!, November 24, 2003

By 

Deborah MacGillivray "Author," (US & UK) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Ideal Husband (Mass Market Paperback)

The Ideal Husband - according to Shari Anton - is one who is not a husband a'tall!! She gives us a old fashioned historical tale of two people born of England, returning from France. They have a lot in common. They both left England and went to France to follow a dream, both are going home after years, knowing their fathers would not welcome them.

Geoffrey Hamelin first sees Leah of Pecham on board the ship. He thought her beautiful, mysterious for travelling alone in a time when women did not travel alone, and rather tragic. He would have liked to speak to her, however, the Channel was pitching a fit and it kept him hiding below decks and tossing his cookies. On their last day, he is on deck fighting to keep his stomach level when she approaches him. He is fearful he will embarrass himself so he rebuffs her, but she is warm, gentle, understanding and refuses to take offence.

Suddenly, there a big swell, a cracking sound and the ship is going down under them. He risks his life to save her, and nearly dies in the process.

Leah, is going back to face her father who would not welcome his ruined daughter. She followed her love to France only to find out he was a jerk, so she must now go home in shame. She would rather not, but she lived in a day and time when women had few choices.

She is touched that the stranger offered his life to save her, so she will not leave him to die uncared for. Believing he will die, she is determined to take him with her to Pecham. In her repayment for his saving her life, he also gives her another chance to "save" it. By claiming the dying man is her husband, she can return home a "married" women instead of a fallen one.

Only, he recovers and....well you have to read the rest of this very lovely historical romance in the old style. Glad to see they are coming

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good read but perhaps a little formulaic, January 9, 2006

By 

Helen Hancox "Auntie Helen" (Essex, England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Ideal Husband (Mass Market Paperback)

I bought this book having read an Amazon review which recommended it. Although not precisely disappointed, I had hoped the book would be better than it was.

The basic premise - woman pretends she is married to mortally wounded man in order to regain her lost honour, but then he recovers and thinks they are married as he has lost his memory - is a good one. This book is set in mediaeval times which makes it unusual and a little more fun. However, I found that the central characters weren't very roundly portrayed. Leah is beautiful (of course!) and very caring but also remote; Geoffrey is tall, dark, handsome (of course!), strong-willed and honourable. No surprises here. There's a side-plot about smuggling and an evil brother who may or may not have murdered his father, but the main purpose of the book is to set out the deception of the fake marriage and build up the suspense until Geoffrey discovers he's been tricked and he isn't really married to Leah. The way this denoument was portrayed didn't entirely work for me and the happy ending was perhaps a little too easy.

Although this sounds overly negative, I did enjoy the book, some of the period detail, and the fact that we saw the flaws, as well as the good points, in the characters. But I couldn't escape the fact that it felt very like lots of other books in places - too formulaic - and the Americanisms were also jarring (although it was an American edition of the book). If I have to read another "gotten" in a Regency/Mediaeval English Romance I might scream!