Review: Scratching the Six Year Itch...a 3.5 stars ..it would have been higher if the story was more developed...
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 27, 2014
I found this story entertaining and much too short. The story opens with a couple who has been married for six years.  The wife suspects her husband of keeping a mistress after she finds a diamond bracelet in their drawers and then later finds out that she was not the recipient of said bracelet when bracelet disappears. He picked up the bracelet for his brother unbeknownst to his wife, so the misunderstanding begins.Armed with her suspicions, the wife feels she needs to shake up their marriage and win her husband back from the arms of the phantom mistress. The books begins when she announces over breakfast that she wants to take on a lover. Her husband is reading the paper and not paying attention to the conversation, agrees with everything she says.  She feels that after six years of marriage and two children, their marriage has become dull and is concern that her husband has or will look for a mistress to spice things up.The two still love each other very much, but marriage for them has become somewhat a rut after six years.  So what does this couple do? They go through the charade of finding her a lover. He tells her he wants to help select her lover. She agrees and then blackmails his twin brother to pretend to be her lover and pursue her anonymously. Her husband also seeks help from his brother to play the role of the lover and pursue her (but not bed her), so she does not have the time to seek another lover. Neither is aware that the brother is the only one privy to the dual roles he is playing.In the end, the husband realizes that he had been taking his wife for granted and has not lived up to his promises of giving her the adventure he spoke of during their courtship. He also admits to his brother and himself of recently developing a wondering eye and possessing a feeling of restlesstness  He knows that he has been neglecting her and not telling her how much he loved her and that he was the one  responsible for allowing their marriage to fall into a rut. He then likens his comfortable marriage to an untended garden. That was a good analogy.I thought this was a sweet story, but felt it could have been longer with more detailed flashbacks regarding their courtship. I only caught glimpses of the wonderment that she wanted to recapture from the days of their courtship. I like stories with married couples who are not fighting. One sticking issue with me is the reference of the wandering eye. If you are as in love with your wife as you claim to be - should you have a wandering eye?  I had to deduct a star for these references.This is the second novel I read from this author and I am very impressed with her writing abilities to capture details of the moment.A recommend.