What Are You Reading Wednesday

[shipperx]

What Have You Just Finished Reading?
Sherry Thomas' "Not Quite A Husband":  An estranged British couple is caught in an uprising against the British in turn of the (19th to 20th) century Pakistan (though that area was part of India at that particular time).

I felt a bit 'blind' re: the locale and the political conflict of this one.  I don't know much about it, and I didn't feel that the book told me more than the very basics.  Plus, I didn't think  the locale was described well enough to 'see it' in my minds eye.  (As a kid, I remember reading 'Merlin's Keep' and being enthralled with 19th Century Tibet. I've retained some of that fascination ever since.  This book didn't bring that sense of place).  However, I did like the developmental stages of the characters' estrangement with their long term marital problems and the emotional minefield that the story navigated.  The situation effectively prevents them from running from one another (as they would've if not prevented from doing so) and forced them to depend on one another such that they actually have to reveal, discuss, and face their issues, which they never would have done otherwise.  So, while I would've liked more background, I did like the central emotional arc.


What Are You Reading Now?
The Leopard Prince by Elizabeth Hoyt


What Are You Reading Next?
Haven't thought that far ahead. 

Comments

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

It's called India throughout the novel, which is accurate because during the time period of the novel it was part of India. But the area where it is taking place is today part of Pakistan (knowledge gained from watching a documentary on HBO about the India/Pakistan border being one of the most volatile and potentially dangerous borders in the world.)

From Wiki:

Relations between India and Pakistan have been strained by a number of historical and political issues, and are defined by the violent partition of British India in 1947 {...}

After the dissolution of the British Raj in 1947, two new sovereign nations were formed—the Union of India and the Dominion of Pakistan. The subsequent partition of the former British India displaced up to 12.5 million people, with estimates of loss of life varying from several hundred thousand to a million.[1] India emerged as a secular nation with a Hindu majority population and a large Muslim minority while Pakistan was established as an Islamic republic with an overwhelming Muslim majority population.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Ah, thanks. Didn't know that. For some reason - I remember it being around Cairo - but again, I'm probably confusing it with Meredith Duran's Duke of Shadows, which I read around the same time.

They do blur together a bit. ;-)

Still enjoying Wicked Intentions. The hero reminds a lot of Spike though, not that that's a bad thing - Spike is clearly my go-to archetype (I have weakness for this type of character)...there's even a paragraph regarding the hero's inability to feel empathy until he begins to fall for the heroine and cares for who she cares for. And he's a poet. With mother issues.

I'm guessing the writer and I share hero archetypes...looking forward to Winter's book, I rather like him in this novel.