Jessica Benson

Yes, Virginia, there is such as thing as Historical Romance Chick-Lit. The book cover should have been a giveaway but, like the heroine of the story, I missed the obvious clue and found myself in very unfamiliar territory.

Gwen has resigned herself to marrying the younger of the identical twins whose stately home neighbours her own, and with whom she's been friends since childhood. It's not until her wedding night that she discovers she is now wed to the older of the twins, who for some inexplicable reason is masquerading as his younger brother. Not being a love match to start with, and the older brother owning the family title, the switch shouldn't have made much difference, particularly as she finds herself unexpectedly attracted to Cambourne, the older brother. Her confusion turns to anger when she realises that her parents are not only aware of the switch, but approve of it.

Gwen, the first-person narrator of the story, puts an immediate stop to any further marital shenanigans and demands to know what's happening. Her husband refuses to explain, and Gwen is forced to consult with her BFFs.

Up to this point in the story, the typical chick-lit recipe of rapid-fire quips coming from a cast of colorful characters amuses and entertains. However, as Gwen begins to make less and less progress in the mystery of the switched brothers, the story begins to stall, and when the real younger brother shows up with a French nymphomaniac Barbie-doll wife in tow, it spirals out of control, eventually crashing to the ground when the two brothers agree, most improbably, to persist in the switch. Flames leap from the wreckage when the two brothers agree to slowly morph their disguises back into their original characters.

The happy ending fails to extinguish the smouldering wreckage. At the end of the story I felt like someone who has just heard a rather pointless joke and is waiting for a punchline that never comes. Awkward.

Gwen may be in a dizzy tangle about what's going on around her, but that's no excuse for the author to leave the reader in the same tangle. Probably, had I the time and patience, re-reading the last two chapters of the book would have uncovered a few more convincing and realistic pointers as to how the masquerade is supposed to play out in the future, but I'm already well into my next Goodreads recommendation and enjoying it too much to revisit old ground.… (meer)

Egh. I am singularly unimpressed with this book. The characters are flat, the reader feels very little emotional connection to them, and the story's dead dull. I found myself confusing almost all the characters and couldn't tell what was going on half the time. The love story feels forced, and there's about as much heat between Tristan and Callista as you'd find on a January day in Alaska. I wanted to like this book, I really did. The prologue was witty and fun, and it got my hopes up. Too bad they were so brutally let down.… (meer)