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A review by ncrabb
The Husband Habit by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez
1.0
Initially, the female character, Vanessa Duran is likable enough. She's an Albuquerque-based chef whose recipes are making her boss famous while she gets no credit. But at least it's a job, and it will work for her until she can open her own place. Although her folks aren't much to be proud of, Vanessa has a slightly older married sister who is in her corner, so to speak.
There's just one problem with Vanessa; she has a nasty nack of falling for married men. Of course, she doesn't know they're married at the time. She's not a home wrecker by desire; she doesn't set out to callously destroy families, and she's horrified every time a relationship breaks up when she learns of a wife somewhere else.
After a particularly humiliating experience in Philadelphia, Vanessa is determined that from that day forward, her heart is sealed, and the only living things that would garner her love would be those things that grew in her her garden and her dog. She admirably keeps that promise for a while, but her sister needs help caring for their aging mom, and Vanessa reluctantly agrees.
While helping her mom, Vanessa meets Paul, the neighbor who has recently moved in. Despite her determination to avoid any future entanglements, Paul moves her in all kinds of good ways. There's no ring on his finger, but Vanessa, of all people, realizes how irrelevant that fact can be. Paul flew bombing raids in Iraq, and he has come home ashamed of his service and embittered by what he saw. He is smitten with Vanessa from their first conversation,and despite her best efforts, she, too, is quite taken by him. While rummaging about in his house one day, Vanessa unwittingly stumbles onto the box, and I suspect you'll be as intrigued by what it contains as I was.
The book gets a low rating because of the manner in which Valdes-Rodriguez deals with Paul's military service. At one point, Vanessa rather self-righteously insists she would never have gone to Iraq, and Paul seems somehow ashamed of his part. I also found the whole concept of returning veteran who is a wealthy guy and can help get her set up as a chef in her own place rather offputting.
Interestingly enough, since Vanessa is a chef, the brief sexual scenes here are "tastefully" described. The two boil, drizzle, stir, and mix and so forth. The descriptions were pretty creative as opposed to the tiresome stuff that usually gets written, and the author gives her readers credit for having the intelligence to fill in the blanks.
There's just one problem with Vanessa; she has a nasty nack of falling for married men. Of course, she doesn't know they're married at the time. She's not a home wrecker by desire; she doesn't set out to callously destroy families, and she's horrified every time a relationship breaks up when she learns of a wife somewhere else.
After a particularly humiliating experience in Philadelphia, Vanessa is determined that from that day forward, her heart is sealed, and the only living things that would garner her love would be those things that grew in her her garden and her dog. She admirably keeps that promise for a while, but her sister needs help caring for their aging mom, and Vanessa reluctantly agrees.
While helping her mom, Vanessa meets Paul, the neighbor who has recently moved in. Despite her determination to avoid any future entanglements, Paul moves her in all kinds of good ways. There's no ring on his finger, but Vanessa, of all people, realizes how irrelevant that fact can be. Paul flew bombing raids in Iraq, and he has come home ashamed of his service and embittered by what he saw. He is smitten with Vanessa from their first conversation,and despite her best efforts, she, too, is quite taken by him. While rummaging about in his house one day, Vanessa unwittingly stumbles onto the box, and I suspect you'll be as intrigued by what it contains as I was.
The book gets a low rating because of the manner in which Valdes-Rodriguez deals with Paul's military service. At one point, Vanessa rather self-righteously insists she would never have gone to Iraq, and Paul seems somehow ashamed of his part. I also found the whole concept of returning veteran who is a wealthy guy and can help get her set up as a chef in her own place rather offputting.
Interestingly enough, since Vanessa is a chef, the brief sexual scenes here are "tastefully" described. The two boil, drizzle, stir, and mix and so forth. The descriptions were pretty creative as opposed to the tiresome stuff that usually gets written, and the author gives her readers credit for having the intelligence to fill in the blanks.