Preeti ♥︎ Her Bookshelves's Reviews > The Wrong Husband

Loneliness gnawed at me, a constant reminder of my invisibility.
I had always prided myself on finding joy and contentment in my art, but now, I felt utterly hollow. The sting of being unwanted, of being ignored by the one person who should have seen me, was almost unbearable.

I know MA's hs are treated bad - so that we get our angst fix. *eyeroll*
But this one here is the worst form of Cinderella.

The H's family and hers are friends since forever but no one(!) - the H, his parents or his brothers 'know' her. For them ,the sister is all things good and beautiful while she's an invisible non-entity. Barely seen, never heard. Even worse - a worthless and useless parasite.
No one in his family ever wonders - why she's never around or why her family denigrate her so.
And NOW...within minutes of meeting her they see the real her?
At least the H and his brother do...the mother does too but she's still Team sister. Because well, you need spine to be an Archer.

So, yes the H/Sister are off-on bf/gf.
Everyones knows, expects them to marry someday.
But then the H gets to know that the skank has been cheating on him. His response, to after the invisible sister and have sex with her. Because he knows how much his gf hates her sister.
Therefore = best revenge.
He follows her to Vegas - but ends up married to her.
No secret - the h has always loved him.

Now, the h here is feeling guilty - thinking she somehow manifested it and that the H was too drunk that night to know better. The a-h lets her think that.
Her family expectedly goes ballistic - mother/sister duo hit her and she ends up in hospital.
He brings her back to his home, nurses her but then deserts her - guilty about his actions and that he has had the best sex ever. She knows that her family and sister are still welcome at his family home while she's shunned and hidden away.
She has sacrificed so much for her family, to get their approval - talking shitty jobs at their salons, giving up jobs at Sotheby's - but nothing was ever good enough.
So, she leaves his penthouse knowing it'd take him days to even realize she's gone. And she's not wrong.

The H takes her back to his home - guilty but still intending to use her.
Her quiet hurt demeanor, isolation, shunning by everyone, emotional and physical abuse by her family, not expecting any better all add up to = Heaps load of angst!

I liked how he deals with her tormentors at work (she starts working at his gallery), but his mom gets off scot-free imo. She needed to be brought doen a peg or two.
And so it goes on.
Till the big grovel/healing.
Her family's humiliation/just deserts should have been on-page and clear.

ART
Well, I liked how her art and her artistic temperament are weaved into the story.
The days she goes into a painting frenzy at the cost of her health, all fueled by her heartbreak is wonderfully done. Little ott but I liked the angst hit.


And I WANT, DEMAND Moana's book - don't care if she is an escort etc. Whatever.
Too good a character to waste. Maybe Dean ?