tiffy0380's Full Review: Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez - The Husband Habit
In Alisa Valdes Rodrigues' new novel, The Husband Habit, Vanessa Duran is an independent woman and a talented chef whose boss steals all of her original ideas. She swears off dating after experiencing "The Husband Habit" a self described way of unknowingly dating married men. After a disastrous meeting in which her suitor's wife chases her through a hotel lobby, Vanessa returns home determined to help her ill mother and to spend some time alone.
While visiting her sick and difficult mother, she meets Paul, a neighbor and recent Iraq war veteran. Vanessa and her family have preconceived notions about Paul and most stem around his work in Iraq as an interpreter. As they begin to fall in love several factors work against their happily ever after. Vanessa's codependent relationship with her sister threatens to break them up plus a possible reemergence of The Husband Habit tendency with regards to Paul. Vanessa struggles to make any decision regarding her future in this complicated love story set in New Mexico.
Two things really stand out in this book, the luscious descriptions of everything (food, landscapes and emotions) and the political factor. I'll tackle the political aspect first. It's not secret that Valdes Rodrigues has liberal views and while she channels those view through Vanessa I didn't feel like she tried to force those views down my throat. I think the author voiced the concerns that Vanessa had with Paul's career choice as the concerns that anyone with even mild liberal views would have. I didn't feel like Vanessa's issues with the Iraq War took away from the love story, it just added another dynamic that the couple had to deal with in between getting to know each other.
The other aspect of this book that I thought made it a more engaging story was Valdes Rodrigues' beautiful descriptions of the southwest and Vanessa's cooking and gardening. The author always takes the time to set the scene and I especially loved the scenes in which Vanessa cooked with local ingredients. Rodrigues either cooks a lot or did some extensive research regarding this subject and it really shows.
As a love story The Husband Habit focuses on how two totally opposite people can attempt to have a relationship but if they lack communication or the guts to tell family to stay out of their business, there is nothing but a rocky road ahead. Valdes Rodrigues realistically captures Vanessa's frustrations about love, men and finding the best way to stand up for herself. Although I didn't like The Husband Habit as much as Valdes Rodrigues' previous novels, it was a nice change from her previous novels with the Latina friendship theme.
Why does Vanessa keep falling for married men?Not that she "knows" she does. At least not at first. But every man who seems like he might be the one t...More at HotBookSale
From the author of the bestselling The Dirty Girls Social Club comes this work about a young chef who keeps falling for married men.More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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