What do you think?
Rate this book
The Perfect Husband
With her father's fortune rapidly dwindling a way, Lady Lillian Temple comes up with a scandalous scheme to wed the dashing Lord Melwin, but her plans go awry when she ends up with the haughty Lord Anthony Wendover, who is forced to marry her to salvage her reputation. Original.
249 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2001
20 people want to read
About the author
Jeanne Savery
53 books18 followersJeanne Savery has lived and travelled in Great Britain with her spouse, an American Professor of British Politics. An American herself, she is descended from the English (via her father) and the Scots (via her mother).
She first read the Regency Romances of Georgette Heyer while living in Sidcup, Kent. She reread them while living in Whitstable, Kent. The dialogue was charming, but the detail was forbidding: No mistakes! That's the watchword.
For library research, she amassed (and read) a library of diaries, letters, memoirs, yearbooks, etc., from the era. For field research, she (and her spouse) repeatedly crisscrossed the island of Great Britain. Their two daughters fondly recall a family jaunt (with bed and breakfast) in August, 1973: London to Pembroke to Chester to Carlisle to Stirling to Edinburgh to Hawick ... to London.
She published her first Regency Romance in 1991. Since then, she has published more numerous novels and novellas.
She has received the Reader's Choice Award and been awarded the Holt Medallion. She is a member of Novelists, Inc. and Romance Writers of America.
She first read the Regency Romances of Georgette Heyer while living in Sidcup, Kent. She reread them while living in Whitstable, Kent. The dialogue was charming, but the detail was forbidding: No mistakes! That's the watchword.
For library research, she amassed (and read) a library of diaries, letters, memoirs, yearbooks, etc., from the era. For field research, she (and her spouse) repeatedly crisscrossed the island of Great Britain. Their two daughters fondly recall a family jaunt (with bed and breakfast) in August, 1973: London to Pembroke to Chester to Carlisle to Stirling to Edinburgh to Hawick ... to London.
She published her first Regency Romance in 1991. Since then, she has published more numerous novels and novellas.
She has received the Reader's Choice Award and been awarded the Holt Medallion. She is a member of Novelists, Inc. and Romance Writers of America.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 10, 2012
This one was disappointing. It started out okay, but slowly became a bit tedious to the point I started skimming an awful lot. I’m trying to think of the things I liked. I liked the idea for the story. I started out liking the characters. That’s about it.
I guess part of the problem was I had no idea this was part of a series (White Tiger series). A lot of times it doesn’t matter in what order you read the books, not the case here. There were SO many past characters and so many characters overall it was hard to keep everyone straight. The author tries to remind us of what happened in previous books, but all that did for me was distract from Libby and Tony’s story. Maybe since I didn’t read the previous books (and probably won’t), I just didn’t feel any connection to any of the characters or their stories.
There was a lot of scene jumping going on, which may rank up there with my favorite pet-peeve of POV-jumping. One paragraph the couple would be at a dinner party, the very next paragraph they were somewhere entirely different. What is the point at having Libby/Tony go to these parties if we don’t even get to see them in action. They were supposed to pretend theirs was a love-match, but we never got to see that. We only saw them when they were with his friends who knew their true story. I would have liked to see them pretending to fool the ton. Since so much of the story was spent with them being at one place or another, I felt that Libby and Tony’s relationship took a huge backseat to everything else. In fact, I felt their characters were totally ignored and at times hardly present, especially towards the end.
My other big complaint is that the villain of the story had absolutely nothing to do with Libby or Tony. In fact, there wasn’t much conflict between the two or anything else for that matter. The only thing they had to overcome was how their marriage came about. While it’s implied that they spend a lot of time together and are traveling around to visit Tony’s friends, we hardly ever see them together. When we do have them together their interactions are boring. They don’t have much in common, despite the fact that we’re constantly told otherwise. Tony also has way too much interest in fashion and what Libby wears. He just came across as too much of a “dandy” who didn’t really do too much besides going to social functions. Libby totally lost herself during the story. She started out kind of feisty and became a dud along the way. Between the two, there was very little chemistry and no wooing whatsoever. The only thing they had in common was fashion, dancing and enjoying social functions.
Overall, it just felt like there were too many different characters with too many side stories going on. Not near enough character/relationship development with our supposedly main characters Libby and Tony. I think if the author had focused on their story and only briefly included the past characters it would have been a much more enjoyable book. I mean, imagine reading a book where the author tries to include all her previous characters and updates on their stories. How can a new relationship ever survive that much overshadowing?
Content: Clean. There were a couple brief/mild love scenes (the first, was very short, non-descriptive and close to the PG side. The second was behind closed doors).
I guess part of the problem was I had no idea this was part of a series (White Tiger series). A lot of times it doesn’t matter in what order you read the books, not the case here. There were SO many past characters and so many characters overall it was hard to keep everyone straight. The author tries to remind us of what happened in previous books, but all that did for me was distract from Libby and Tony’s story. Maybe since I didn’t read the previous books (and probably won’t), I just didn’t feel any connection to any of the characters or their stories.
There was a lot of scene jumping going on, which may rank up there with my favorite pet-peeve of POV-jumping. One paragraph the couple would be at a dinner party, the very next paragraph they were somewhere entirely different. What is the point at having Libby/Tony go to these parties if we don’t even get to see them in action. They were supposed to pretend theirs was a love-match, but we never got to see that. We only saw them when they were with his friends who knew their true story. I would have liked to see them pretending to fool the ton. Since so much of the story was spent with them being at one place or another, I felt that Libby and Tony’s relationship took a huge backseat to everything else. In fact, I felt their characters were totally ignored and at times hardly present, especially towards the end.
My other big complaint is that the villain of the story had absolutely nothing to do with Libby or Tony. In fact, there wasn’t much conflict between the two or anything else for that matter. The only thing they had to overcome was how their marriage came about. While it’s implied that they spend a lot of time together and are traveling around to visit Tony’s friends, we hardly ever see them together. When we do have them together their interactions are boring. They don’t have much in common, despite the fact that we’re constantly told otherwise. Tony also has way too much interest in fashion and what Libby wears. He just came across as too much of a “dandy” who didn’t really do too much besides going to social functions. Libby totally lost herself during the story. She started out kind of feisty and became a dud along the way. Between the two, there was very little chemistry and no wooing whatsoever. The only thing they had in common was fashion, dancing and enjoying social functions.
Overall, it just felt like there were too many different characters with too many side stories going on. Not near enough character/relationship development with our supposedly main characters Libby and Tony. I think if the author had focused on their story and only briefly included the past characters it would have been a much more enjoyable book. I mean, imagine reading a book where the author tries to include all her previous characters and updates on their stories. How can a new relationship ever survive that much overshadowing?
Content: Clean. There were a couple brief/mild love scenes (the first, was very short, non-descriptive and close to the PG side. The second was behind closed doors).
May 11, 2019
2019 bk 148. Book 4 of the White Tiger Series. It took 3 or 4 reads before I came to the point of looking forward to reading this book in the series. The first time I read it, I did not like Libby at all. But as I matured and read more non-fiction titles about the regency period, I now understand how trapped Libby was by conventions and the laws of the day - and how desperate she was. To put it bluntly, she compromised herself by getting into the bed of one of the men at a houseparty, little realizing that the men had switched bedrooms late in the evening. Upon discovery, Sir Anthony Wendover (Tony), does the right thing, agreeing to marry her if she will agree to put at least a good external face on their marriage. He had always wanted a perfect marriage - like that of his parents. She needed financial stability and to help her younger brother. With the help of Sahib the tiger, the pair find their way to love within their forced marriage. I now consider this one of the better written of the series.
August 14, 2013
This book is probably one of the worst books I have ever read. The settings constantly shifted, there was no chemistry between the characters, and Tony and Libby/Lily had no real development in their relationship. I wouldn't even give this 1 star if I didn't have to. Plus the exclamation marks were used on every single friggin' page! (see I can use them too!!!) Really, not every "important" sentence needs an exclamation mark.
March 10, 2010
An enjoyable read. I had a hard time keeping all the Lords and Ladies straight. I am enjoying this 18th century type of book.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews