Not Quite a Husband

Not Quite a Husband (2009) Sherry Thomas

Bryony Asquith was was married to Leo Marsden, but their marriage fell about almost on their wedding day, and an annulment was eventually procured.

Bryony, a surgeon who had long expected to be a spinster left England to pursue her career. Leo, a math prodigy, also wandered the world as both a professor of mathematics and a researcher.

First, the synopsis for this book does not give you at all the feeling of the story. It’s a really hard story to read at the beginning. There is a lot anger and bitterness between the two, but despite that both clearly feel an attraction towards one another, and Leo’s coming to find Bryony to take her back to her dying father gives you some hint as to the feelings they still have for one another.

But it’s still very hard to read all that bitterness and anger, and have much sympathy for Bryony, as she’s the one who, on the face of it, caused the failure of the marriage.

That said, the fact that Bryony is obviously very good at her professional (surgery) and that we discover what a loveless childhood she had allows you to slowly want to know what happened between the two.

But it was a difficult story, and if I owned the book rather than borrowing it I probably would have put it down to read later, when my expectations were different, and might have enjoyed it more.

Publisher: Bantam

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