Customer Reviews

the ideal husband

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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

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

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!

What can I say? I like Susan Anton books! She gets into the history fairly accurately and interestingly, as well as writing a good love story.

Leah of Pecham and Geoffrey Hamelin meet on a ship when they're both returning home to Cornwall. Leah, unsure of her welcome because she ran off with a man who seduced her with promises of a grander life. Geoffrey, to stop his father from forcing his sister into a marriage she might not want.

Things change when they are shipwrecked and Geoffrey saves Leah and makes sure she is safe in a boat before he, himself, is gravely injured. Because of the way he saved her, Leah is mistaken for his wife, even though all Leah knew about the unconscious Geoffrey was his first name. But she couldn't do anything less than take care of him until he's well enough to go home. But that's before they reached her house and before Geoffrey woke up with no memory, believing he and Leah are truly married.

Although I've seen books by this author plenty of times, this is the first time I've read her. From beginning to end, this was a great book. One that should not be missed.

Mad

I highly recommend this book along with all of Shari Anton's others. She has a great style that flows nicely and makes for a fun and easy read.