Not sure what to rate it. So regardless about my iffy status before reading the book, I ended up liking it. I wouldn't say was an incredible read, but it was good. I think Heath did a well job in portraying how the situation affected the three people involved, more focusing on Ainsley and Jayne.
They didn't jump into the situation immediately, and neither did they completely forget the world that they were in. They thought about it. Of course initially, Ainsley and Jayne were like wth?! (like the reader no doubt) but once an idea is planted it's deuced hard to get rid off. Jayne especially it affected because it went so much against what she believed in, but she wanted a child badly and she also wanted to give her husband some happiness. And once that pesky idea was planted it was difficult to get rid of it, not matter how much one denies it.
But then when the time came to part and reality more than set in, because they all knew what they were getting into, they realise that although they expected the outcome. They never truly grasped how much it would hurteveryone involved.
And this is what I liked about it. The fact that there wasn't any jumping into the situation with, "oh yes I have some doubts" but then a day or two later it's all hunky-dory until someone gets hurt. No. It was an ongoing struggle with themselves of what they perceived was right and wrong, and then later who it will affect.
I liked that.
And then there's the husband (Walfort) who came up with the scheme. I never liked him. From the moment I met him. I didn't like him. And by the end of the book, (when some truths were revealed) I liked him even less. That's not to say he didn't care for Jayne, because (and I think really it was after his accident that he started to care) he did. But at the same time, he was man that had no compunctions about breaking the marriage vows. And really at the end of it he just seemed like a petulant child.
The thing that really detracted it, is...for some reason I didn't feel the characters. Aside from that the plot was decent...except for the ending part, just seemed to convenient...but it works...sort of.
And Ainsley, although I haven't mentioned him much, is a dear. He loves Jayne, and he would do anything for her. A part of that is the reason why he agreed to the crazy plan in the first place (it was also one of the reasons that what was holding him back also). And he isn't one of those indiscriminate rakes. He actually has standards. In that he doesn't ruin the women that he beds, neither does he treat them carelessly.
Anyways it was a good read, and I will recommend this to others, if you're looking for something enjoyable. Aside from the (in my opinion) convenient ending and the fact that I couldn't connect with the characters.