| Title | : | An Absent Wife |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 222 |
| Publication | : | First published November 26, 2013 |
In line with her consistent talent for being disagreeable, Lady Adele Warburton had run off with a lowly lieutenant, leaving safety and respectability behind, then died in a cholera epidemic in a far flung country.
In a last show of husbandly duty, Lysander decides to recover her effects, and grudgingly those of her lover, retracing the steps of the wife he'd barely known across half the world. But arriving in the mayhem of India, he finds that all is not as it should be.
An Absent Wife Reviews
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What a beautifully written book.
And I totally loved the story! The author has a very simple understated style but she makes you experience all the hidden churning emotions so well.
*Spoiler caution*
But in all a simple yet fulfilling story! -
I like this one too ❤️
And, another slow burn romance.
The heroine’s tongue not as sharp as the heroine’s from The Discarded Wife but she certainly is not a spineless girl! 😂
The story started with the hero got a letter/information that his estranged wife and her lover, who left to India two years ago has died.
With a need for a closure, he was going there to retrieve her body. But, when he arrived there, he found out that she actually still alive and has gone somewhere! It took him almost a year to find out where she had been. The cheating wife has gone to Australia because she didn’t want to return to England and see him again! Hah! 😂
Oh, don’t feel sorry for the hero, the bastard just deserves to get everything what was happening to him, he was a cruel man! 😡
Okay, that’s all, you should enjoy more without knowing much, what was going on:)
Read on! 😘
❤️❤️❤️ -
Rage inducing romance. Romance?
Everyone is gross with the exception of the hero’s Aunt, the Aunt that he thinks is prematurely senile because she likes his wife. That tells you something about the hero.
The hero is an unforgiving, arrogant, supercilious, weak snob. Oops, I forgot hypocritical. He wallows in his status as a Lord, recalls cutting past friends who fell into genteel poverty then whines when he in turn is cut because he married for money. He then despises the wife that brought him more money than the King. Sadly, given that I read this smack dab during the Meghan Markle/Royal Family kerfuffle, he is probably a very realistic Victorian upper crust hero.
The heroine takes it until she just can’t anymore and leaves him for a lowly soldier. Poor taste as she should have just had a discrete affair like he’s doing. H thinks she’s dead, but she’s actually alive. Inconveniently so as his best friend and mistress point out. Like I said, NO NICE PEOPLE. The best friend and mistress are horrible and are just what the hero deserves.
Heroine has as much personality as an uncooked English crumpet so no hope there.
Somehow the blandness of the two creates a magnetic whirl of attraction in the face of BFF and Mistress Oh noes.
His conviction and love shines through his sweet talking, passionate words.
“The last few months, as we have spent a considerable amount of time together, it has shown us that this marriage can be tolerable to us both, and as you are now carrying our child, it seems natural that we carry on as we are.”
They leave for parts outside of England for their HEA.
No way, no how will these two survive if they ever return. -
This one needed a bit more love, so I decided to embellish my review a tad.
Ballsy story where the heroine ran off with another man...and actually had sex with him! The hero was the rich and powerful but neglectful husband who deservingly got publically humiliated when the unjustly scorned wifey took off with some lowly soldier, preferring to live in sin in another country than to remain in her lonely gilded cage.
Mrs. Ho’ and her toy soldier supposedly die in a cholera outbreak (He really does croak. Poor dude got the shaft!) Putting the past behind him, our ahole hero went to get their effects but started playing the detective when her hairbrush was missing from her things (damn his intuition!) and the local funeral pyre boy related seeing a English women alive at the lieutenant’s service. As it is in the way of fiction, he ended up finding the needle in the haystack halfway across the world and dragged said needle back for retribution.
However, on the way he got to know the special snowflake he tossed aside for the prize that she was and had to eat it at the thoughts of ”his” woman making nasty with some other guy. Can I just say ahhhh? It was highly fulfilling to have the manwhore get a good dose of his own medicine. You just don’t see that near enough. It made up for the little quirks that could be on the irritating side.
Downside was that this read like a self-published title that needed an editor but was otherwise quite good. I liked it, anyway. Different spin on the modern historical romance. -
the first 10% you will hate Lysander for his callous disregard of his wife. He has just recieved news of her death at the start of the book and all he can think is how it will put a crimp in his lifestyle.
Lysander the callous fool and Adele who is no longer his doormat.
Lysander had ignored Adele for almost the entirety of their 6 year marriage, because he was pissed that he had been forced to marry her for money. Adele had hopes of them learning to care for each other but they died a long painful death in the wake of his willful ignorance. So after 5 years she meets an army man who cares for her and they run off to India together. It opens her eyes to life and all the things she has been missing. Because back then. a wife was severely limited on what she could do for entertainment without a proper male chaperone (husband or relative).
Lysander feels it his duty to go retrieve his wife's affects after he was told that she died of Cholera. But once he gets to India he begins to suspect that she isn't actually dead.
When he catches up with her in Australia, he is so livid that the first thing he does is rape her on the desk in the schoolroom where she teaches.
He does manage to apologize half-heartedly. By now I am a quarter into the story and feeling pretty sorry for Adele but also wishing she would stand up to him more.
It takes time over their travels back to England for them to finally (after 6+ wasted years) to get to know each other a bit better. Lysander starts to notice things about her almost against his will. He begins to see her from the perspective of others and realizes he never actually knew her. And yes he does begin to admit that most of the reason she ran off with another, was his fault.
At the same time, Adele starts to stand up for herself.
SOooo for the first 3rd of the book the well written characters and settings kept the book interesting and then the growing tension and intimacy between the MCs pulled me in. Lysander is reticent to tell Adele what will become of their marriage, so she asks him for a baby. That if she has a child she will be content whatever the future brings.
Does he redeem his sorry ass? I think so, although I wish I'd seen it tested under difficult circumstances. He will never be a favourite H of mine. Still, the epilogue was wonderful.
Adele does a fine job standing up for herself in the last 3rd of the book.
My fave quote from the end taht shows how much he has changed/grown/fallen in love;
“Are we ready to start making our way back to England?”
“I don’t know,” Lysander said, looking away. “I want us to be thoroughly bonded before we go back.”
Adele smiled and stroked the side of his head with her palm. “I don’t think that is an issue.”
Lysander, “I just want your memories of us being together to be stronger than the memories from before."
safety is questionable but not bad
AN angsty read and I did feel a bit weepy here and there. It took Lysander forever to stand up for his wife against Evie and his friend's cattiness towards her. -
A very powerful story of regrets and second chances reminding me of another great read "Ravishing the Heiress" by Sherry Thomas. The story starts as Lord Lysander receives a letter that his estranged wife and her lover died from cholera in India. He is relived but also wanted a closure. Lysander decided to travel to India to retrieve his wife belongings even though her body was cremated. When he gets there, a certain sequence of events lead him to suspicion that his wife is not dead. Throughout the story we get flashbacks to his unhappy marriage. Lysander, reluctantly entered the marriage as it was either MOC or disinheritance. It is not clear to me (that is why 4 starts) why the heroine, Adele, agreed to marry obviously unpleasant hero who had no regard for her and only distaste. Yes, she was in love with his looks and title was not to be amiss but she didn't appear to be shallow .
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Omg. Wish I could take back reading this book. At first it was interesting with the two separated and I thought it would be a story about them finding their way back to eachother. Nope. He catches up
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3.5 stars
This was an interesting read. A Very unique book with a heroine that cheated after years of neglect from her husband. This is a trope I would not have read even five years ago but, I'm glad that I've broadened my horizons and opened my mind to reading this book. Not a bad read at all. -
I liked it, but not nearly as much as
The Discarded Wife.
This one was much steamier than the Discarded Wife and I wish I could take some of that steam and apply it to An Absent Wife. Matter of fact, there are a few things I wish I could swap between the two books, but even as they are, they're both really good. -
Reread. Good, riveting but 3 stars this time bc horrid, horrid hero. He placed his wife in the country, they never met, he had mistresses, he didn’t care or had any interest in her, even resented her. And the rape! So why, how was she in love with him for years of this treatment before the drama and this book started? Dumb.
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It was refreshing to read a book where a cheater get a taste of his own medicine.
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Touching...
This is everything I could ever want in a book and so much more, it literally blew me away with it's mysterious, heart-wrenching, evocative and stunning story. I haven't read a book in a long time that surprised me as much as this did; usually you get an inkling of what to expect but the path this took was totally unexpected. Experiencing the emotions of the characters throughout the different events that took place felt completely real, I was drawn in from the very first page to the very end.
This is a story of forgiving, healing, love and there'll be like nothing you can compare it to. It started with feelings of regret and betrayal that surprisingly turned into a love story that is poignant and romantic. As in most romances, there is certainly no lack of misunderstandings between these two, Lord warburton and Lady Adele, after years of separation, they unite together to overcome an event that has the potential to be life-altering. There is a small part that is suspense, but it is minute compared to the romance and the falling in love, I recommend this book highly, it is one of the most touching and beautiful tale that somehow leaves you feeling hopeful, that somewhere out there is a great man with a big heart and love to give, waiting just for you.... you just have to find your way to each other. -
4.25/5. This book is reminiscent of
The Marriage Bed,
A Duchess in Name and
Unforgivable in terms of the angst-driven plot based on an estranged married couple. In this one, the titled impoverished groom was also forced to marry a heiress in order to save his family from ruin. Lysander, Lord Warburton, left his young bride at his country estate pretty much soon after their vows and did not really spare her much thought for the next 6 years as he cavorted around London with friends and various mistresses. It isn't until the scandalous news of her running off with a lieutenant to some far away place that he is most unpleasantly reminded of her existence in the most insulting way. To make matters worse, within months of her shameful disappearance she and her lover have the temerity to succumb to cholera in India, necessitating him to do the proper husbandly duty of travelling there to bring back her remains and effects. (Yes, he did have excessively uptight notions of expected gentlemanly behaviour, which did not include fidelity to his wife) He is thus most put out to realise upon his arrival there, that although her lover is confirmed dead and cremated, his wife apparently is very much alive and boarded a ship bound for Australia.
Adele has spent too many years withering away in the country while infatuated with her indifferent husband. Heartbroken when she finally realised that he was never going to come for her, her lonely spirit responded when another man finally gave her the care and affection she had been craving for. Now that she is on her own again, she is determined to never be encaged again in her gilded prison at her husband's estate. She moved to Australia to get as far away from there as possible, never expecting her reluctant husband to track her down and coerce her back to England. During their journey back, they are forced to interact for the first time in their marriage and when the initial blazing anger cools down, they slowly open their eyes and truly start seeing one another. As the attraction grows between them, so does the confusion and uncertainty regarding the fate of their marriage in light of such an open scandal and all the hurt and embarrassment they have wrought upon one another. Complicate that with Adele's quiet last and only request of Lysander - a baby.
Oh, the emotions, the tears! Yes, it's not perfect. There are some editing errors and a few anachronistic word choices. The dialogue can be a bit over-dramatic. Lysander was a pompous arse for much of the book, and then there was their brutal first confrontation in Adelaide (Aus), when he nearly forced himself on her in rage. He did apologise immediately and was genuinely contrite. Their first intimate time together was not his finest moment either. *wince*
It had all happened so quickly; he felt that he hadn’t even started accomplishing the things he wanted to—like a secret garden had been opened to him and he’d just rushed through it.
On the other hand, kudos to Lysander because despite his jealousy, he did not dwell on her affair but understood that his neglect and failures as a husband drove her to such actions. The author depicted his turbulent mind well.
He couldn’t quite figure her out—too innocent for a villain, too guilty for an innocent.
Overall, this was a quick but emotionally intense book. There might be some triggers for people, and I can understand that it is not for everyone's taste. My first by this author and I'll be checking her out again for sure.
Lysander envied women’s ability to claim headaches anytime they wanted, and were excused. Men couldn’t claim a headache even if they were dying of typhoid. Because of this, he had to go back and sit through the torture of Mrs. Fulfer’s recital until the bitter end. -
This was an easy book to rate, it was well written and very compelling so it deserves my 4-stars. However, it is a hard story to review. It deals with cheating on both sides, but we know this from the blurb so it’s not a spoiler.
What really compelled me to read this (I was very intrigued) was that, how often had I read a romance book where I wished a cheating a**hat of a Hero gets his comeuppance and here it finally happens!
The aristocratic Hero had been compelled by his father to marry the heroine who is from a very wealthy but merchant class background. The family is in financial straits and needs the cash infusion. Since this prevents him from being with the girl he loves, he resents the marriage from the start. However, he does his duty, leaves his wife to rusticate in the country and continues his bachelor existence (with mistresses and all) for the next 6 years! It’s understood that he isn’t particularly mean or cruel to her, he just completely ignores her existence (which is bad enough).
He gets the shock of his life when his circumspect, quiet, and as he thought, boring wife runs off with a lover, a lowly lieutenant, giving up social position and a life of luxury to live with him in India! Well yeah!!! Hurray for her!
The story actually starts when the husband gets word about the death of his errant wife and her lover, and some delayed sense of duty compels him to go and retrieve her personal effects. In the course of doing this he finds out that, it seems only the lover passed away and his wife may probably still be alive. So he goes searching to solve the mystery.
SPOILERS:
Obviously she is not dead and actually tried to hide from him, but he finds her and brings her back. The rest of the story is how they must now deal with each other. It’s a new experience for them, since they’ve never spent time together and are finally obliged to do so on the voyage home by sea. The husband is forced to change his impression of his wife, and to see her as other men do. It’s quite amusing how he finally acknowledges her attractiveness to the opposite sex and how he even worries that, though she looks respectable, she’s actually capable of looking out for another lover. (OMG, I loved it)
The bulk of story is told from the husband’s point of view so it’s interesting and amusing to see how his perception of his wife changes and how surprised and intrigued he is by her. The husband is not a very charming character. I got the impression that he is basically non-confrontational so he puts off decisions that he finds unpleasant. His wife thinks he is punishing her by not telling her his intentions as to her fate when they get home, but really it just because he doesn’t know what to do.
Although the cheating aspect is a catalyst the drives the book in the start, it isn’t actually the central theme. The historical time period contributed a lot to our understanding of the main characters and it made the circumstance acceptable. This was a time when husbands were dominant and wives had to obey. Though both characters conform to these traditional roles, it’s not over done and is able to drive the story, through the actions of the characters. The husband has to answer for a lot of neglect and he slowly comes to this realisation. It also makes it easier to accept since any relationship between the couple only really starts after the husband finds his wife and they start their journey home.
I won’t belabour the review with more details since the other reviewers have already done an excellent job. This is a slow burn romance and a second chance for a couple that almost didn’t find each other. -
It's a re-read for me. I love angst, but this one actually made the hero suffer a bit too. Love that ;-)
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Interesting and rather entertaining.
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I found the first half pretty depressing, maybe the mood I was in. The life of the unwanted wife, pining for a husband who has nothing but rejection for her. It also relied on tell rather show and I wasn't connecting with it but the 2nd half lifted this to an more emotionally intense read.
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This is a poignant story about missed opportunities, regrets, loss, forgiveness, acceptance & love.
This was an unusual historical romance. It opens with Lord Lysander leaving for India to collect his deceased wife's belongings. She run off with her lover & died of cholera there. It turned out she did not die after all. She made it seem that way to escape the empty life she lead with her husband. Lysander found out & dragged her all the way back to London. On the return trip, he discovered that Adele, the wife he ignored for nearly a decade was vibrant, beautiful & very different from how he perceived her.
I draw the line on adultery & cheating but I might just make an exception with this book. Shocker, I know!!!
Theirs was a marriage in name only. Right from the start, Lysander was prepared to hate & ignore Adele since he was 'forced' to marry her. He married her & abandoned her right after their wedding. They never had a marriage. It was all a cruel & painful pretense. He carried on with his mistress & forgot about Adele.
Adele, on the other hand, fell in love with her husband. She tried everything she could to make him notice her, to be the perfect wife but he doesn't see her. She lead a sad & empty life hidden in the country house. She hoped & hoped for years for him to love her in return but it never happened. Eventually, she came to terms with her lonely existence. She met & fell in love with Samson, a lowly lieutenant, who loved her & gave her his all. Gave her what she deserved to have. However, it was short lived cause he died while taking care of her when they both contracted cholera.
Lysander got to know Adele on their way from Adelaide to London. He slowly realised how blind he was all those years.
He couldn't figure her out_ too innocent for a villain, too guilty for an innocent.
"I'm sorry it took me so long, but I'm not letting you go now. You're my wife, Adele, and you belong with me."
"I am asking you to give this everything. I'm asking you to trust me, and I fully acknowledge the past and all the mistakes I made. But I want us to be together properly. Please be my wife, Adele."
So, why not a 5? I, personally, like more interaction & conversation. I like to be in the situation with the characters. This was more narrative than I prefer. I'd like to experience things rather than read about it after it has happened. Plus, I didn't fall in love with Lysander. I just couldn't connect with him fully.
Despite that, this was a really good read. It was moving with solid, if not flawed characters.
*** Thanks, Mila, for this book!*** -
Beautiful and Sad story. Lysander (cute name by the way lool) and Adele were married for 6 years. He was in love with another and he resented poor Adele since their wedding. He abandoned her in his country estate while living like a bachelor in London (of course!)
Months before the story begins, Adele met a Lieutenant and kind of fell in love with him. They ran to India and got sick (cholera). Lysander receives a note saying his wife and her lover were dead in India. And he decides to go there to get her belongings, acting like a dutiful husband and now the story starts.
It was angsty. As we can guess, the wife is not really dead. Only the lover is and she faked her death to escape her husband. But he finds her and they are slowly going to fell in love with each other (re-fall in love for her after she tried to fall out of love with him).
I was glad she made him fight for his marriage and didn't welcome his attention that easily. She even asked him why he is in love with her now after ignoring her for 6 years lool, good one!
But hey, poor Lysander worked for it. He groveled and finally got his HEA.
The only thing that annoyed me was the way his acquaintances were all telling him to divorce. Especially his aunt Isobel. I didn't find her endearing at all. Like, mind your business! -
2.5 Stars
The premise of this story is quite unique. In a nutshell, Lysander and Adele had an arranged marriage that he was forced in to. The bitter H ignores her while keeping a mistress, and the starry-eyed h daydreams of the day he’ll love her. This is nothing new, but after a few years of being lonely, the h runs off with another man. The book opens with Lysander being informed his wife is dead, and setting out to retrieve her things.
I’m not going to spend much time on this because it’s free to read with KU, so if it sounds interesting… give it a shot. I didn’t love it, but they were Jac issues. I didn’t connect on an emotional level so I wasn’t feeling the angst. Neither is bad, I just found them flat… especially Lysander. I’m an impatient reader, and was bored out of my mind a few times, so I skimmed. I like drama, and there’s not a ton of it. Very little OW drama.
Bottom Line- Interesting twist on the unrequited love, arranged marriage trope, but just ok for me. I felt that they both grew up… especially the H, and believed in their HEA. -
I Really Liked It!
The relationship between the two characters is rife with discontent and tension. Watching the two slowly come together broke my heart and then mended it. Very well done! -
2.5 stars, writing style was nice but i honestly didn't buy the relationship of the mains.
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This story was recommended in a reader group and it was amazing. I fell hard for these characters and the author depicted the time period and constraints on women so well. Definitely recommend
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3,5 ⭐⭐⭐
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Accidentally deleted this from my books and lost review 😭
Notes: read twice -
Loved every pages of it, it was page turner. I've read many books about marriage of convenience but this one def. on my 5 ratings shelf. If you combined "Not Quite a Husband" by Sherry Thomas, "Unforgivable" by Joanna Chambers, and "Seducing the Duchess" Ashley March then this will be it and much more.
I like to read books about heroine overcome their misery during that time period, where husbands have every right by law to do as their will to their wives, to get her own act together, not become a doormat and TSTL.
Adele, our h, is very prim and proper, reserved, cool manners, even Lysander thinks that she's boring, weak, and a timid person. Yes, on the exteriors but she's not waiting around for her husband to leave her out in the country while he is in London with his mistress. This is the first book in this type of plot that I've read (which I read a tons of them) walked away with another man after years of neglect from H. No yelling, no revenge, no misunderstanding just a two people trying to accept, forgive, and try to work things out from their past mistakes, of course at the end they worked things out and get their HEA.
Wish more interactive conversation between H&h than narrative in it and Adele stand up to her husband more or walk away instead of waiting for him while waiting for his decision of their future. Looking forward to read more HR books from this author. -
Actual title: an absent, clueless husband.
Victorian era+ took place in UK, India, Australia, & UK again.
Lord Lysander's noble family was low on money. So he was
forced to wed Adele, a merchant's daughter, when he loved
another. He ignored wife Adele for 6 years, he in the capitol
and she in the country. They didn't speak, argue, or compro-
mise & seldom saw each other. He pd the bills- what a man!
She ran way w/ a Lieutenant. I don't believe in infidelity.
But if Ly didn't want her .......
Poor Ly, he had to leave his well-ordered life +drama-prone
mistress to claim the remains of his estranged wife, dead
of cholera in a foreign country. Or did she die?
The H +h did not make future plans together. He did not ask
or value her opinion. She wanted a child- the only thing they
agreed on. He resumed his husbandly rights w/o foreplay,
w/o concern for her pleasure or comfort. What did she see in
this thoughtless 'hero.'? He deserved karma to come back on
him.
