The Husband Trap by Tracy Anne Warren

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I only had two prompts left for Fall in Love part two when I went through my planned tbr. I was originally thinking of having books I read during the Black FaRoFriday Readathon count for them, but I still had a couple days before it started. After reading the The Wedding and Chasing Her Fire, I was in the mood for more historical romance. I though it'd  be a good primer to get me switched over into the fantasy romance mood. One of the prompts I had left was trope you love. My absolute favorite trope is wrong sibling, so I knew since I had time I wanted to get to one of the few books I have that feature that trope that I hadn't read yet. The one that appealed the most was The Husband Trap by Tracy Anne Warren. This is the first book in her Trap Trilogy.

Violet is walking down the aisle towards Adrian, the Duke of Raeburn. What Adrian doesn't know is that this is Violet and not her twin sister Jeannette. Jeannette has cried off the wedding and convinced Violet last minute to replace her to keep both families from the scandal. She will take Violet's place traveling the continent with their Aunt. Violet also agrees because she has secretly been in love with Adrian. As they grow closer and start developing real feelings for each other, Adrian is happy that after marriage his wife has taken her new role more seriously than expected.

Oh my gosh, this was just what I was wanting and expecting from my favorite trope. Yes there was deception on Violet's part and I can see how that would be frustrating for other readers. I don't know, but that tension just does it for me. What made this top tier for me was the guilt she felt towards him. With things pushed by her family and his, she really keeps the secret to help Adrian and protect him from scandal. I loved the conflict that we see Violet go through and I loved the juxtaposition of her guilt, happiness and also hurt. Even though her sister forced her into this, she still went through with it, but when she was in such love with Adrian and they were intimate only for him to call the wrong name. Ugh, it just gets me. I'm usually not one for angst, or at least I say that, but there's something about the type of angst that comes from this kind of trope that really speaks to me. Even more so when dealing with twins. It just speaks to the need and want to feel like you're seen.

Just thinking about it now as I write this I'm tearing up a little bit. I don't know why, but it just hits me. I also loved Adrian and how even though he was a Duke, they both just weren't society people. I did want Violet to be a little more open about her not wanting to have such a packed schedule since they were unable to see each other when in London. It made sense since they were both trying to give each other what they thought they wanted without talking. While that miscommunication isn't my favorite, this book just really hit me and if it was the weekend I probably would've read this in one sitting. Some of the plot points you could see coming and I wasn't too fond of when Jeannette came back to town, but I loved how Adrian took hold of the situation and really didn't let Violet hide herself anymore. He was such a great hero. I also loved that the discovery was more of a second act conflict than a third act conflict. Even though Adrian was hurt and angry, we still got decent time as them together as themselves.

I'm so excited I finally got to read this and Tracy Anne Warren. I'll definitely be picking up more of her books. I'm a little nervous about the next book and how Jeannette will come across since she wasn't the greatest in here, but we also saw her through the lens of her twin with an opposite personality and the man that was not for her. I had to look ahead, just to see who was book three because I was hoping it was either Kit, Adrian's brother, or Violet's friend Eliza. I was so pleased to see it was actually them paired together. Part of me wants to skip ahead to it, but I like reading in order. Hopefully I'll be able to get to them soon and maybe I'll be able to squeeze at least one in during the Historical Romance Readathon this week. We'll see!

Have you read The Husband Trap?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: The Husband Trap, Tracy Anne Warren, 5-stars, 1 day, paperback, 358 pages, published in 2006