Audible Book Review: The Girl with the Make-Believe Husband by Julia Quinn

This is nicely romantic although not my favorite by this author.

The Girl with the Make-Believe Husband
A Bridgertons Prequel
By: Julia Quinn
Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor

Series: The Rokesbys, Book 2
Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
Release date: 05-30-17
Language: English
Publisher: HarperAudio
Genre: Historical Romance, Romantic Comedy
My Rating: 4.0 Overall; Story 3.75; Narration 5.0

Publisher's Summary
With her brother, Thomas, injured on the battlefront in the colonies, orphaned Cecilia Harcourt has two unbearable choices: move in with a maiden aunt or marry a scheming cousin. Instead she chooses option three and travels across the Atlantic, determined to nurse her brother back to health.
But after a week of searching, she finds not her brother but his best friend, the handsome officer Edward Rokesby. He's unconscious and in desperate need of her care, and Cecilia vows that she will save this soldier's life, even if staying by his side means telling one little lie.
When Edward comes to, he's more than a little confused. The blow to his head knocked out three months of his memory, but surely he would recall getting married. He knows who Cecilia Harcourt is - even if he does not recall her face - and with everyone calling her his wife, he decides it must be true, even though he'd always assumed he'd marry his neighbor back in England.
Cecilia risks her entire future by giving herself - completely - to the man she loves. But when the truth comes out, Edward may have a few surprises of his own for the new Mrs. Rokesby.
©2017 Julie Cotler Pottinger (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

Review:
Cecilia just lost her (less than caring) father when she receives a military letter that her brother Thomas has been injured. Cecilia sets off across the Atlantic to the Colonies to find her brother. Instead she discovers her brother’s best friend, Edward, in hospital. In order to be allowed to take care of Edward, Cecilia impulsively declares that she is Edward’s wife.

Edward wakes up from a coma and recognizes Cecilia from a miniature that Thomas carried. But he has lost several months of his memory and doesn’t remember the circumstances leading to his marriage to Cecilia. It could be, as Cecilia explains, that Thomas asked him to take care of her and that they were married by proxy.

Cecilia was a faithful correspondent with Thomas and after a time Edward shared in those letters. The pair enjoyed sharing humor and a gentle flirtation through the letters. As Cecilia cares for Edward, their friendship grows. Edward is more than open to accepting her as his wife even as he is willing to give her a chance to prepare for consummating the marriage.

Cecilia knows she needs to tell Edward the truth. He is bound to get his memory back at some point. She just can’t seem to find the right time to speak up. Besides, she has talked herself into experience the brief chance at happiness that she might have. Of course, a day of reckoning will come and how will Edward respond to learning she not only made up the lie initially but continued it to a point of compromising his honor?

I really enjoyed the excerpts of the letters that started each chapter. This fills in the history and letter romance that germinates between the pair. I liked the caring, mostly self-assured, character of Cecilia and loved the strongly honorable character of Edward. It was clear from the title and beginning that the pretend marriage was going to create conflict when it would finally be exposed. I had to keep shaking my head as Cecilia remained silent when she could, and should, have spoken out. In addition to that frustration the author pushed my comfort level with a little too much sexual content; not utterly graphic but certainly sizzling. (As much as I do like Julia Quinn she does have a few books that are heavily sizzling, especially some of her early stand alones.) Although this might not be my favorite of the Quinn novels, I do recommend her historical romance titles to readers who enjoy the genre (especially if they like a little zing).

Audio Notes: Rosalyn Landor, as always, is excellent in the narration performance. She presents good voices that fit the personalities and she adds lovely animation to the story. I always like to listen to Landor narrating these titles on audio.

Source: December 2018 Audible Credit. This qualifies for 2019TBR, 2019Audiobook, 2019Alphabet and Continuing Series goals.