From the shelf: "The Stranger I Married" by Sylvia Day

While I was lounging on the net just to find good recommendations (via Good Reads), my cousin Ate Sandy gave me a bunch of e-books..as promised (yey~). And because reading has always been my first love, I was ecstatic and tried it at once.

Sylvia Day's "The Stranger I Married"

First up was Sylvia Day's novel "The Stranger I Married". The book would be classified as a historical-romance novel with a hint (or dash) of erotica. Okay~ so I was awakened (?) to that particular genre because of my curiosity on the 50 shades bandwagon months before (I think I read the trilogy about around May) ~more on my 50 shades infatuation later (that would be another post)

The story revolves around the lives of Lady Isabel Pelham, a widow who fulfills her sexual desires on different paramours but never willing to give her heart again and the dashing, rogue a.k.a. ladies man Gerard Faulkner, Marquess of Grayson who changes mistresses similar to changing clothes. Grayson offered her a marriage of convenience saying that this way he could get out of the other ladies' delusions of marriage and she could do whatever she wanted without letting her men fall in love with her. He, married but ecstatic that his love Emily would bear his child and she, left alone.  It was the perfect setup since they agreed to stay as friends. Not until he heard the devastating news about Emily that made him disappear without a trace for 4 years...that's where the story starts.

My opinion? All stories on marriages of convenience (most of the time) would eventually drag into someone getting hurt, and this was no exception. The only redemption is how the characters would settle their differences and clean out their issues. In this case, Pel (Isabel)'s issue was that she was afraid to give her heart and be vulnerable in front of someone else again after what her late husband did to her. Grayson was afraid to repeat everything and lose someone he cares about..again. I think the story lacked of conversations between Pel and Grayson out of the bedroom (though the steamy scenes were described enough) about them talking about serious stuff. But I guess the turning point about the issue on children did satisfy me. I loved the Abigail - Rhys side story which was like a spin-off on the main protagonists story.

I would recommend this book if anyone is looking for a one-time thing, sort of a past time. This was a simple read and I sort of breezed through it. But still, it was entertaining.

"The Stranger I Married" gets ★★★ (3/5)

Till the next read...