A Stranger's Wife and Borrowed Dreams

Today is the first day this week I managed to drive my car to work without experiencing awful back pain. Here's hoping the pain-free car trips continue.

As you might have guessed, I read books pretty quickly. I've read a few more in the past few days: A Stranger's Wife, by Maggie Osborne, and May McGoldrick's Borrowed Dreams.

In A Stranger's Wife, Lily Dale is released from prison under one condition: that she help Quinn Westin in his campaign for governor of Colorado by posing as his wife, Miriam. Lily looks just like the missing woman, but she needs lessons in being a well-bred woman to be completely convincing. She is convincing enough, however, to make Quinn uncomfortable. Lily looks just like his wife, but in many ways she is completely different and irresistable.

I was drawn into the story from the start. What I appreciated most is that the characters are real, with strengths and weaknesses that make them multidimensional. The two main plots--Lily and Quinn's romance and the mystery of Miriam--are both well developed. The distrust issues went on too long for my liking, but A Stranger's Wife is a memorable book: 4 out of 5.

I started reading May McGoldrick's Borrowed Dreams on my flight home from a book signing at Turn the Page bookstore. I made it through the first 50 pages and then set it aside for lack of interest. The heroine seemed too good to be true, and the story gets off to a slow start. Today I decided I wanted to finish the book, and I'm pleased to say that most of Borrowed Dreams is much better than the beginning; this book, too, earned 4 out of 5.

Millicent Wentworth agrees to marry Lyon Pennington not despite his ill condition, but because of it. Millicent's first husband (now deceased) was physically abusive to her, and she never plans to marry again. Lyon's mother convinces her to change her mind, saying that she will pay her first husband's debts if she agrees to marry Lyon. She claims that there is no hope that he will recover.

Lyon does recover when Millicent learns that much of his condition is caused by the overuse of laudanum, and she weans him from the drug. Though Lyon regards her with anger and hostility at first, he soon realizes how much he cares for Millicent. Their scenes made me smile, and I loved Lyon's patience and tenderness.

Next up: Marilyn Pappano's Cabin Fever.

Alyssa