Review: 2  stars.  I was impatient.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 12, 2013
WIFE IN NAME ONLY by Hayson Manning.The best part of romance novels is watching a couple meet and fall in love.  That's usually 80% of a book.  Then there's a separation - usually.  This book starts in the middle of a separation.  It's hard to write romance this way.  We missed the best part.  Most of this story is watching tension during the separation.  They each think the other is hot.  They have sex because they can`t resist each other.  The main plot is who will change or compromise so they can be together - if that happens.  She's living her dream running a resort on an island.  He's doing his Donald Trump thing in Los Angeles.Who will like this?  Readers wanting to escape for a while - as if they are living on an island with beautiful places to walk and swim.  Many fruits.  Good food.  Afternoon naps in hammocks.Me?I was impatient.  Too drawn out with ordinary conversations.  I can't remember much of what they said to each other.  She takes him different places to show him things.  Not much happens with the relationship, and not much happens with the characters.I was annoyed with the secondary bad guy plot - too formulaic.  CAUTION SPOILER:Local bad guy Toma hates Zoe because she made him look bad.  He attacks her.  Instead of putting him in jail, the locals tell him to leave the island and promise not to return.  (I'm shaking my head on that one.)  Of course he returns and attacks her, again.  Rory is so enraged that he beats Toma to the point of killing him.  So Zoe has to urge Rory to stop fighting so Rory won't go to jail for murder.  I found that hard to believe.  Rory was too smart, shrewd, and logical as a businessman to lose his mind that way.  It didn't feel right - for me.END SPOILER.Heroines don't have to be perfect for me.  I like different, unusual, weird, and weak.  But Zoe did something selfish, mean, and insensitive - gave me a bad taste.  She hid the only phone.  Rory gave up a lot to spend time on the island - at her request.  But he still had urgencies to tend to from afar.  She prevented that by hiding the phone.  He had plenty of time to spend with her.  She didn't need to do that.  When he asked where the phone was, she lied saying she didn't know.  He should have insisted on finding it, but he accepted her lie without thought.DISCLOSURE:I received a complimentary copy for review.DATA:Narrative mode: 3rd person.  Kindle count length: 3,790 (493 KB) 193 pages.  Swearing language: strong, including religious swear words.  Sexual language: mild.  Number of sex scenes: 5.  Setting: current day Tonga, a Pacific island.  Copyright: 2013.  Genre: contemporary romance.