Here's the thing, Anne is perfect, the hero is wonderful - the first half of the book is perfect and the end made me want to throw the book at the wall as hard as I possibly could!
As with "The Bad Man's Bride," Gayle Wilson's "Anne's Perfect Husband" was recommended as a DIK on AAR, I had very high expectations which I thought would be met...until I got about 30 pages from the end and the conclusion ruined this book for me. I won't include any spoilers, but I started to question how the loose ends could come together in such a short time, not to mention when the hero and heroine would finally kiss! With every page I read, I got more nervous - rightfully so as I found out. I enjoyed both the hero and heroine so much, but hated how Wilson steamrolls an abduction scene into absolute torture into a pseudo-marriage of convenience between two people who are already in love - all within the final chapters of the book.
Two characters from the previous "Sinclair Brides" novels appear throughout, and there were some apparent inside jokes I didn't understand. Without reading their story, I don't know how much of an ass Dare is - but he sure comes off as one in this book. He's sarcastic and meddlesome all in the name of protecting his brother. Sometimes I like reading the second book in a trilogy, it can peak my interest
in the first couple and sometimes I won't even bother...
The plot has a "Daddy Long Legs" feel, the hero is appointed her guardian, expecting a small child and finding a woman of 20. Major Ian Sinclair is a man of 32, who acts and appears older due to wounds inflicted from the war. Anne's father was responsible for those wounds, including one piece of shrapnel which could be harmless forever or move from it's lodged location in his chest and kill him. The tension is wonderful, they share a house (it's all aboveboard because he's her guardian) and fall in love very quickly - each feels the love is and always will be unrequited, he due to threat of possible death and she because of her age and other miscommunications. Great setup, huge fucking let down.
