The Perfect Wife

TEST

Back in the Gilded Age, American Society gathered to meet, show off, and choose their mates at a place that was as exclusive and rule-bound as Almacks in the regency period. That place was Newport, Rhode Island. A Perfect Wife is set in Newport and several historical figures play roles in this fascinating novel.
Anne Foster is quite rich and well-connected. She is also quite impossible. Anne is fat – not pleasingly plump – fat. Anne is also badly dressed, has bad hair and acts like she has no sense. All she does is simper foolishly and giggle, especially when Henry Owen comes near her.

Henry is tall, slim and breathtakingly handsome. He is moderately prosperous from a shipbuilding business he owns and is to come into a very large fortune when he turns 30, but until then his grandfather controls the fortune and refuses to release it. Henry desperately wants the money in order to buy and rescue his old childhood home of Sea Cliff which is falling prey to erosion and decay. A clause in the trust allows Henry to get his fortune before the age of 30 if he marries. Since Sea Cliff will fall into the ocean before then, Henry woos and marries Anne with no intention of being a husband to her. On the wedding day he leaves her, ostensibly in order to go on an emergency trip. Three weeks later, he serves her with divorce papers and leaves her a social outcast.

Two years later Anne has been transformed. She has lost a lot of weight, dressed her hair in a flattering style and learned to choose becoming gowns – in short she is a Beauty. For all her new looks, Anne is still an outcast. Society will not receive a divorced woman, but they will still receive the now very rich Henry. Anne and her one loyal friend Beatrice cook up a plan for revenge on Henry. Anne will make him fall in love with her now beautiful self and break his heart as he broke hers.

But things don’t go quite the way Anne planned. Newport’s trumvirate of Society dowagers, Mrs. Fish, Mrs. Astor and Mrs. Vanderbilt, decide that she is acceptable after all, and Anne becomes a belle. Then, when she does meet Henry, she finds him sorry and bitterly ashamed of his past actions. Against her will, Anne falls in love with Henry again.

A Perfect Wife stood out for me for several reasons. First and foremost was the setting. Newport was a place that was every bit as elegant, snobbish and filled with rich and pleasure seeking people as anywhere in regency England. It is a setting perfectly suited for stories, and I wish more romance writers would take advantage of it.

Another reason this book is so memorable is the characters. Anne will break your heart at the beginning. To see this homely, badly dressed fat girl so happy and so in love, while you know that Henry has no plans to make a true marriage with her will wring tears from all but the hardest hearts. When we see Anne later, she may be a beauty but she still has more than a few traces of the ugly fat girl in her and can’t bring herself to believe that Henry really loves her – not her appearance.

I suppose I could have hated Henry, but Goodger does a great job of showing us why he acted as he did and his bitter regret at the consequences to Anne. Their rekindled love story was incredibly sweet and moving, as is the secondary love story between Anne’s friend Beatrice and Henry’s friend Alex. There are several Misunderstandings in the book, but they are not Big ones – in fact, the misunderstandings between Anne and Henry are very natural given their past history and serve to advance the plot.

There is a mystery sub-plot threaded throughout the book that involves Henry’s grandfather and his refusal to release the money that would allow Henry to buy Sea Cliff. The mystery unfolds in entries given from Grandfather’s diary and the final twist is one that truly surprised me.

Although, I have rated this Warm, there is only one love scene, but it is a wonderful combination of sweet and sensual. Anne is a total innocent and Goodger gives an excellent description of how this shy and innocent woman is awakened to love and desire. Henry too, is shy and humble in the face of the love he feels for Anne. I’ll admit to more than one tear when I came to that part.

A Perfect Wife goes on my short list of good American historical romances for 2000. Do yourself a favor and give it a try – you will find a sweet and tender love story in a setting that should be utilized more often.

Reviewed by Ellen Micheletti

Grade: B

Sensuality: Warm

Review Date: 03/08/00

Publication Date: 2000

Recent Comments …

  1. excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.

guest

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments