Evening Everyone,

Hope you’re all well and happy to see the weekend approaching. I’ve had such a tiring week; been in London for work two days this week and super busy working from home the other two days so I am very much excited about some down time. The good thing about working in London is I get over 3 hours a day on the train and we all know what that means; reading time!

Book 📖

Thank you to @bookouture for this advanced copy of How to Keep a Husband for 10 Days by @jessicanhatch in return for an honest review. How to Keep a Husband for 10 Days was published on 8th February 2023 and you can get a copy here.

Description 🔖

When Lina’s oldest friends unexpectedly announce they’re coming to stay, she has to think fast. No one knows she and her husband Brown are breaking up, and so she persuades him to act as if they aren’t… After all, how hard can it be to pretend to be married for ten days?

Turns out, a lot harder than she thought. On day one, she strikes so many couple poses that she throws her back out. On day two, she gets muscle spasms from smiling too hard at her husband’s jokes. On day three, she almost has a heart attack when she puts her hand far too high up his thigh at the dinner table. And on day four, when she accidentally grazes Brown’s lips when aiming for his cheek, she almost passes out in the middle of the restaurant.

By day five, Lina is starting to realise there’s a thin line between love and hate. And while she can try to fool her friends, she can’t fool her heart. Was she too hasty calling time on her marriage? Is this more than make believe? And does she even have enough time to find out if Brown feels the same?

General Thoughts 🤔

It kills me to write this review because I really wanted to like this book. The cover was what originally caught my attention because I’m basically a magpie and I get drawn to bright colours. Then I read the synopsis and thought it sounded fun and something I would enjoy. Unfortunately the book wasn’t able to deliver for me. I don’t want to give spoilers, but the plot is obvious and there was no sub plot to keep it interesting, so it felt like it was a story that could have been covered in a handful of chapters.

Characters 👫👭👬

I didn’t hate the characters and they did actually seem like a good bunch of people that I’d quite like to hang out with. Lina was a little highly strung, but her heart was kind and I imagine she’d make a very good friend. Brown seemed like he would be a funny guy to spend time with. Frankie was loving and probably the person I’d have liked to know more about as they seemed like they would have an interesting back story.

Sadly, the plot didn’t provide any of the above the opportunity to shine and show off their personalities. I wasn’t able to get close enough to them to really love them.

Writing Style ✍️

I haven’t got much more to say in this section other than what I’ve already said. One thing that I think could have made me enjoy this more is the addition of much more humour. The concept had the potential to have so many funny scenes included, but there wasn’t enough follow through of this to make me laugh.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖

I had high hopes for this book and was hoping it would have me laughing and make my heart thoroughly warmed. Unfortunately the plot didn’t quite make it for me and I was left feeling somewhat underwhelmed. The characters were great and I wish I had been able to get to know them more via their stories. Hopefully there are plenty of other people who get on much better with this book, but for me it didn’t live up to my expectations.

😍😍😐😐😐