The Marriage War (Thorndike Large Print Harlequin Series)

Rating:
Summary: Do I have to give it a whole star?
Review: This is beyond a doubt the worst romance I have ever read. The "heroine" is given an anonymous tip that her husband is having an affair. Knowing that there has been some distance between them ever since the birth of their youngest daughter, she sets her sights on winning him back. He is not a man worth fighting for. The reason they have grown apart is that he is jealous of the attention she gives to their new daughter. Despite their having had other children, he seems to have no idea that babies do, in fact, need near-constant care. The protagonist eventually confronts him about his affair, and he admits that he has been seeing this woman, but they have not slept together - there has been kissing, fondling, and Lord knows what else, but when they were in bed together he stopped just short of penetration. This is apparently supposed to make it a Bill Clintonesque non-affair, and therefore to be overlooked. The "hero" is an adulterer, a terrible father, and (even apart from the affair) a terrible husband. The bottom line is that this is an awful book and not at all romantic. The only use I can see for it is in a college literature and psychoanalysis class, where the students could discuss why some women are fatally attracted to bad men. It pained me to give this novel a whole star, but sadly there are no lesser options.