Review: Great Debut!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 10, 2013
I don't think I am making this a habit, but I found another new author with great potential. Hayson Manning's debut story, Wife in Name Only, is an emotional romance story and definitely worth reading. I was drawn in by the back cover summary of how one can renew love when you think it is gone and died. Plus the story took place on a tropical island, which is a great fantasy of mine to go there one day. How can you resist a tropical paradise? Zoe Hughes runs a honeymoon resort on the island of Tonga and needs help from her estranged husband Rory. She needs to convince a wedding magazine that she and her husband are the epitome of a happy couple that operate a resort and needs him to come to Tonga and act like they are in love. He agrees thinking that this publicity will be good for his cutthroat image he's gotten in the business world, and what better way than an appearance with his wife. It will be a quick trip in for 48 hours and then he plans to bring his wife home.Zoe left her husband and her life in LA a year ago very unhappy with her marriage. Rory had changed from the man she married and didn't like what he'd become. She felt stifled by it and needed a big change. She's happy on her island and isn't the same woman she once was and never plans to return to LA. Rory doesn't understand the new woman she's become and he sees that as soon as he's off the boat. What hasn't changed between them is their physical attraction to one another and boy is it combustible! The quick trip took a sudden twist when a threatening storm extended his stay 10 days on the island. Without any guest either it was just going to be the two of them.Over the course of each day Rory's edges soften a bit and Zoe sees the man she fell in love with. She even begins to think that maybe she can make him see it himself, but he still wants to make business his first priority. I loved their conversations and their dialogue because she lightened the mood between her and Rory to playfulness. Her happy music and singing ABBA songs was too funny and drove him a little nuts, but that was Zoe being true to herself. Once she realized she fell in love again could she convince Rory that her island was the best place for him too? The added danger of a native inhabitant finally showed Rory what Zoe means to him and how he needed her in his life.The author had me thinking a lot about this couple and how it would feel to have something so simple go so wrong and how it to get it back. This story made me think about what and who are the most important priorities in my life. The story itself was a bit predictable but it was the way she wrote it that made me feel the tentative steps of love renewing itself between the two main characters. And when Rory has his epiphany you shake the book and shout "it's about time!" I love my happy endings and this one definitely couldn't have been better especially with them together on their paradise island.Review copy provided for an honest review.