The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous: A tantalisingly raunchy tale from the Sunday Times bestselling author Jilly Cooper
£5.70
Lysander Hawkley is a good man – but far, far too attractive to women.
Lysander Hawkley combined breathtaking good looks with the kindest of hearts. He couldn’t pass a stray dog, an ill-treated horse or a neglected wife without rushing to the rescue. And with neglected wives the rescue invariably led to ecstatic bonking, which didn’t please their erring husbands one bit.
Lysander’s mid-life crisis had begun at twenty-two. Reeling from the death of his beautiful mother, he was out of work, drinking too much and desperately in debt. The solution came from Ferdie, his fat, fast-operating friend: if Lysander was so good at making husbands jealous, why shouldn’t he get paid for it?
Let loose among the neglected wives of the ritzy county of Rutshire, Lysander causes absolute havoc. But it is only when he meets Rannaldini, Rutshire’s King Rat and a temperamental, fiendishly promiscuous international conductor, that the trouble really starts. The only unglamorous woman around Rannaldini is Kitty, his plump young wife who runs his life like clockwork. Soon Lysander is convinced that Kitty must be rescued from Rannaldini at all costs, even if it means enlisting the help of the old blue-eyed havoc maker: Rupert Campbell-Black.
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‘Wicked, sexy, sparkling with wit’ Sunday Express
‘Irresistible… I devoured it in a day… she’s on cracking form’ Sunday Telegraph
‘Delicious … her bawdy humour shines through at all times … settle down and have a rollicking good time. Satisfaction guaranteed!’ Jackie Collins
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Additional information
| Publisher | Transworld Digital (23 Dec. 2010) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| File size | 4952 KB |
| Text-to-Speech | Enabled |
| Screen Reader | Supported |
| Enhanced typesetting | Enabled |
| X-Ray | Enabled |
| Word Wise | Enabled |
| Sticky notes | On Kindle Scribe |
| Print length | 740 pages |
by J. Vance
I love the series, although I missed Rupert in this book as he only appears briefly. At times I felt Lysander was too annoying and far too immature. He got a little annoying.
by AvidReader
I love this book and reread it for the sake of nostalgia. It is set in a time prior to mobile phones, social media and all the misery that trash brings with it. It is a delight to revisit a simpler and more honest time with believable characters and a rollicking plot!
by Charlotte Howard
I hadn’t read this since I was a teenager, so downloaded it and decided to re-read. It’s not as good as I remember it! I like Jilly Cooper’s style of writing, and find her easy to read, hence this is a 4-star review. But overall the book left me feeling a bit lost in places. Quite a large chunk of the book suddenly skips from character to character without any build-up and I was left wondering who they were and why they were important, until several chapters later.
by jaq
If you’re a fan of Jilly Copper and enjoy the Rutshire Chronicles, like Riders and Rivals, you’ll should enjoy this. While the incorrigible Rupert Campbell-Black and his family feature, our hero is the irrepressible Lysander, who, after an encounter with a lady sadly neglected by her husband, discovers a talent for bringing back miscreant husbands to their wives. Rather than making a hobby of it, his best friend persuades him to make a career of it, and Lysander ventures forth, capturing hearts, losing his own and rattling husbands. While mending marriages in the most bizarre way ever, will Lysander find happiness for himself?
by Mama Anyi
Where to begin in this book of awfulness? Should we say that the premise is too far-fetched and then discuss:
1) The run on sentences all starting the same way? “Having brushed his teeth and had a long, luxurious shower with hints of jasmine and honey, and sluicing the water off his taut, suntanned, ski-set skin with the flat of one long hand, tipped with sensitive piano fingers, he proceeded to bring out his whip, bend her over and give her a sound thrashing, before wrapping her in his expensive Ralph Lauren cashmere sweater.” (Sentence my own, but this is typical of what you find in this book.)
2) This book SHOULD NOT be this long by any stretch of the imagination. In a lot of places, Aunty Jilly just uses whole chapters to show off her research without moving the story along, i.e. that scene in the bird sanctuary. Why?!
3)The plot is sooooooo unrealistic, meandering, just plain ridiculous! Aunty Jilly is taking the piss with my suspension of disbelief. Only my stubbornness made me finish this book and it took so long that I want my two days back! My innocence is gone.
4) All the women characters are SO drippy or SO two dimensional. Jeez, it’s either they are beautiful and weak or as plain as bagels and strong. Powerful, beautiful women? Zilch. instead people are dying over men, breaking necks over men, ruining their lives over men. If you’re a feminist the book is not for you.
Now I have only just come to Jilly Cooper’s books and this is only my second one. I had no idea what kind of writer she was and reading reviews I have only just realised that she is considered to be a bit risque? The sex was not anything to me though, the cheating was a bit much even for me (taking liberties with my disbelief again, Aunty Jilly?) even though I am a woman of this age. However, it is worth having in mind the age of this book – it was written in 1993. Hence:
5) THE HEAD HOPPING IS CRAZY! But the writer takes this to the extreme again. It was so difficult to feel anything for any of the characters even the (caricature) ones who were supposed to be ‘good’.
I must say that I read ‘Harriet’ first and I didn’t realise it was supposed to be a romance novel until I finished. That one was so well-done. By all means read that.
I still have one more JC book ‘Riders’ to read. If it’s this awful, I’ll never bother with her again.
In conclusion, as my grandmother in Nigeria would say: ‘This is a very, very nonsense’. Do not bother.
by Mrs Nina Macfie
I missed reading this when it came out. It’s a preposterous story about very silly people. The characters are stereotypes, their world is unreal and you’d cheerfully kick most of them up the bum! But … but … it’s Jilly Cooper, isn’t it? Her love of nature, animals and music, her sympathy with flawed humanity, and of course her snappy dialogue and one-liners make it an ideal piece of froth to read in difficult times. Suspend all intellectual pretensions and dive in!
by Cary B
The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous
I listened to the Audible version of this book read by Sherry Baines and I can thoroughly recommend it.
This modern morality tale is my favourite Jilly Cooper novel so far. People may be surprised to hear the word morality associated with one of the Rutshire Chronicles, aren’t they often described as ‘bonkbusters’? However, as many of the wrongdoers here are punished or corrected and some even reformed I think morality tale fits the bill. The central character is Lysander Hawkley, the drop-dead handsome shambles of a young man who can’t help being kind and adorable whilst he runs through money as if there’s no tomorrow and along the way he charms every female he meets. On seeing him approach, the men rush to guard their wives.
Jilly cleverly pokes fun at the social mores of a small village and the wider world whilst creating luscious word pictures of glorious gardens surrounding the homes in the stunning countryside around the village of Paradise. The scene where Georgie Maguire meets Lysander’s father is a classic piece of comic writing. Jilly always makes everything so vivid.
There are so many wonderful characters in these pages. Kitty Rannaldini, Georgie Maguire, Marigold, Ferdie all of whom Jilly paints with a deft brush of sly humour and compassionate insight. Then there’s the sad eco-obsessed and sanctimonious Rachel Levitsky who is more topical than ever in our eco-deluded times.It’s such a delight as Jilly pokes fun at it all.
Add in our old favourite Rupert Campbell-Black later in the story and really, what more could we want? Lysander’s interactions with Rupert are hilarious and touching by turns. Jilly Cooper is a quite masterly manipulator of the English language.
It’s an ideal holiday read, even at 733 pages. I promise you’ll race through it in no time, it’s so entertaining.