Review: 2.5 Stars
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 27, 2014
I am between not liking this book and feeling that maybe it was kind of okay. Therefore my 2.5 stars and I will try to explain.Million Dollar Wife could have been a very good book with some tweaking! I like the portions of the storyline but, for me, throughout the book I felt as though something was missing, like I was waiting and expecting an AHA moment that never really came. It was not a satisfying ending for me. When I finished it left me feeling uneasy and frustrated. There were things mentioned in the book that were left unresolved. Yes there was an HEA but....and that is another problem. In every 'marriage of convenience' book I read (which is everyone I can get my hands on) they tend to end the same way. Something tragic-esque has to happen for the H to realize that he is in love with this now-wife.IMO Marja, the convenient now-wife, was a brilliant professor who had abundant knowledge on childhood development and was excellent with his children., She was also a doormat in the worst way. Her thoughts of herself and her marriage were always negative, even when she said she was not going think that way anymore, she still did. For me, that just became so monotonous I wanted to grab her and shake some sense into her. Most men are not overly fond of weak women with such low self worth and she was weak in many areas where it would/could have been a huge pay off for her to be strong, even faking it if she had to. Her insecurities were overwhelming and redundant. She did have backbone at times but when she should have let him have it or opened up dialog because of something he said, did, or for shutting her out, she would be the one to end up apologizing to him and taking all the blame...for everything...all the time. The men I know don't care for the 'I am not pretty-I am frigid- if you make love to me you will leave me-I am not good enough-my looks and image will never measure up to the arm candy you deserve to have on your arm-type of woman.....and on and on it continued to go.I was disappointed in Bryce's character. He has a trigger temper and has no idea how the things he says hurt her...deeply. In his world it is all about him. He's a big movie star who has his every whim catered to. He is arrogant and extremely bossy, barking out orders to anyone and everyone and expecting them to be followed immediately. He has a huge entitlement issue and it just gets old after awhile. The further into the book I read, the more I began to dislike him. He is an absent father and husband so ensconced in his acting career that he thinks of no one but himself. He was even demeaning at times and I just grew to like him less and less as time went on. There was one positive thing about Bryce. He was monogamous and because of that I thought I was really going to like this man. Wrong!Bryce's wife passed away 2 or 3 years ago...hard to know for sure because the timeline in this book was not at all clear...and he was bent on living in the past...with his dead-wife on his mind all the time. His twin girls needed a mother and that is where the marriage comes in. How do you think you would feel when you are making an effort to grow closer to your husband and you find him just standing and staring at his wife's portrait. Then he tells his now-wife that he didn't just love his dead-wife but he worshiped her and still does! Way to go Bryce. What an unfeeling a$$. There was way to much Sally (dead wife) in this book for my reading enjoyment. Poor Marja, Sally's pictures were everywhere in this house/shrine.There is an unexpected twist towards the end that was so out of place in this story. I thought what the heck. It was out of the clear blue sky and so unnecessary. It cheapened the ending of the book in my opinion because it did not fit.Do I recommend this book? You should decide for yourself but I will say that I would not read it again nor mention it to my reading friends.