To Have and to Hoax

Honestly, there were good parts to this book. Writing was decent. It kinda goes downhill in the second half though. What I can’t get over at all is the fact that the hero basically has no character development. The heroine is basically a doormat and forgives him for practically everything when I didn’t even get the feeling that the hero changed …. At all. As a result the ending just felt…..meh.

SPOILER AHEAD …
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So the crux of this whole argument between them is that the H think the h trapped him in marriage on purpose (which she didn’t) and won’t believe the h when she says she didn’t. It’s not the initial misunderstanding that I have a problem with it’s just that he doesn’t even try to reconcile with the h till he figures out it wasn’t her, it was his friend. (Btw he also magically forgives the friend so ????? He’s been arguing about this with his wife for 4 YEARSS)

Then the h finds out that he didn’t come back because he trusted her, just because he knew the truth. And then he somehow proves his trust/love by giving away some stables that his father gave him??? Yes that was good but that’s a whole other subplot with his father and honestly had NOTHING to do with the original reason for the argument which was not trusting his wife. So… character development 0/1.

I love Lauren Willig’s books and got this based on her recommendation, but I have to disagree with her assessment here: A laugh out loud Regency rompif you loved the Bridgertons, youll adore To Have and to Hoax! This was not funny at all. It was contrived with obnoxious characters (excepting West). I very rarely DNF a book, especially a romance (I think this was Regency period but it was never actually made clear). I also read them quickly, usually in one night. This one dragged over three days as I hoped it might redeem itself at some point.
Violet and James are toddlers who argue over everything. Okay, some couples like to fight to spice up their relationships, but this was over literally EVERY SINGLE THING. For FOUR YEARS! Though they lived in the same house, saw each other constantly, they still maintained the feud which made no sense to me. Why weren’t they living in separate houses if they weren’t a couple? Even their friends didn’t understand why they were arguing, and honestly, their friends weren’t much better, abetting the couple in their petty revenge. There was no character development or growth, and I’m confident that at the end of the book, by the next page they were on to another stupid argument and another four-year-long squabble. It was exhausting to me as a reader.
Speaking of which, I had pre-ordered the next book in the series but canceled it by the end of the book as based on their behavior in this book, the hero and heroine are going to be a continuation of this same type of bickering. This is a brutal review for me. I’m inclined to like almost all historical romances (and I read a lot of them), and I’m sure other readers liked the story, but if you really want laugh-out-loud Regency stories, I recommend Lauren Willig’s Pink Carnation series rather than this.

My feelings for this book are complicated. I rather liked it at the end, but I spent the first 200 pages rolling my eyes in near disgust. Harsh, I know. And, admittedly, I feel guilty about how strongly I reacted at first. It was just so annoying! My biggest complaint about this book is the repetition. Scenes are described nearly word-for-word over and over again. Thats what got under my skin more than anything. We are beat over the head with The first year was great. The next four years were not. But we still very secretly love each other. It felt like far too much time was spent establishing the was good but now its not plot line, without fully delving into the why. Why were these two people so insecure that one argument devastated their marriage? We learn more at the end, but at the end of the day it was still an incredibly immature misunderstanding. I felt like a lot more depth could have been created within Lord and Lady James if we had been allowed to get to know their inner workings progressively throughout. But, because Waters opted to only reveal at the conclusion, eleven of the eighteen chapters felt like a massive waste. There was no character development to be found.

Instead of falling for these characters, and truly rooting for them, I was annoyed that they were behaving like petulant, hypocritical childrenand I really feel that this was only because I didn’t have the opportunity to understand where they were coming from earlier on. Upon finishing the book, I had a much better idea of what went wrong between them (and it was slightly redeeming), but at that point, I already had a bad taste in my mouth. Its so unfortunate because the story arch itself could have been really enjoyable had it been executed better. The dialogue was probably by far my favorite part of the book, which is also disappointing because there wasnt nearly enough. The witty banter made me believe there was great potential for these characters, but there just wasnt enough of it to take root and bear fruit. Overall, Ill still say, read it. If you can stomach the first 200 pages, it does get better. Not sure Im all that encouraged to read the next book, but this one ended satisfactorily enough that Im not completely disgruntled.

This is a lovely, feel-good Regency romance with sparkling repartee throughout, and a hero and heroine in the cant-live-with-you-but-cant-live-without-you mold in other words, theyre perfectly matched! I was hooked from the very first page and sat up until 3am to finish this, wanting to know how they would settle their differences. Their sparring is entertaining and witty, although at times their one-upmanship threatens to get out of hand, and you wonder why their friends dont just bash their heads together. The prose flows effortlessly, and the author has added plenty of authentic details, making this a treat for fans of the Regency genre. There is a wonderful cast of secondary characters too, and Im already hoping some of them will get their own story (notably the heros brother!). The perfect book to curl up with in these challenging times!

I was surprised by this one as heard nothing about this author but decided to give it a go. It was very enjoyable and I would recommend it to anyone who likes historical romance. On the old DR ratings I would rate it a 4 star. I will definitely look out for more novels by her. I could definitely see how you could go 4 years without talking nursing wounds and not wanting to risk making the effort to change. Although the hero did need a kick at times!

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