YMMV / The Missus

• Angst? What Angst?: It's been a mere two months since Alessia was trafficked to a foreign country and wound up a homeless illegal immigrant being hunted by her kidnappers. She was then abducted again by her abusive ex, held at gunpoint, nearly raped and faced the prospect of being forced to marry this man just days before this story begins. Despite her horrifying ordeal and how little time has passed since then, Alessia hardly seems bothered by any of it after marrying Maxim (a man she barely knows), not even suffering much from nightmares or a fear of darkness anymore (which she did experience in the previous novel). Maxim appears more affected by it than Alessia, such as getting paranoid and anxious if Alessia is out of his sight or doesn't get in contact with him, while Alessia just brushes it off.
• Cliché Storm: The book's A-plot about a woman from a poor working-class background who married a rich upper-class man having to stand up to the judgement of his family and peers, all the while worrying about the effect this will have on their relationship and whether it will be worth the struggle, is pretty hackneyed; not helping is that the novel doesn't even try to do anything different with the premise, instead packing yet more romance cliches on top of this.
• Improved Second Attempt: Several reviews noted that Alessia and Maxim's romance comes off as much healthier and less fraught with drama than Ana and Christian's romance from E. L. James' previous series; some readers have even found this book's depiction of their relationship to be an improvement from The Mister due to it toning down the power imbalance. A recurring criticism of Ana and Christian's romance was that it unintentionally came off as dysfunctional and abusive rather than a flawed yet loving relationship, and arguably glamourised abusive behaviour. While Maxim and Alessia's relationship still has some issues, comparatively they come off as much more affectionate and supportive towards each other and they tend to use clear, honest communication to resolve relationship conflicts. While it's been pointed out that the Official Couple so easily and quickly resolving most of their problems causes some narrative issues (namely contributing to the story's lack of long-term stakes and tension), their relationship comes as a breath of fresh air compared to the toxicity of Christian and Ana (not to mention other fictional couples inspired by Fifty Shades who were similarly problematic).
• Padding: There are loads of scenes of the characters having lengthy conversations or doing mundane things that either repeat something that's already been stated or established, or do nothing to move the plot forward (such as Maxim's endless arguments with his mother about Alessia, Maxim deciding to start a distillery, meetings with lawyers about Alessia's visa, people eating/drinking and watching TV and so on). Some of these scenes appear to be there to introduce new plotlines, but most are ultimately resolved in a few pages or dropped completely. Because there isn't much actual plot, these scenes take up a lot of the page count, with some reviews noting that if you cut most of them, the book would probably work fine as a novella.
• Salvaged Story: A complaint of The Mister was that neither Alessia or any other characters did much to help the other women being trafficked by Dante and Yili, to the point Alessia barely seemed fazed by any of it. In the follow-up, there's a subplot involving Alessia attempting to find a trafficked teenager she was friendly with and experiencing some survivor guilt. Although it turns out the girl escaped and finds Alessia by herself, Alessia at least tried to help and provides the girl with a place to stay. The epilogue also has Alessia deciding to try and rescue the rest of the women and shut down the slave ring for good. The trafficking plotline doesn't get much focus in the novel, but it's not completely brushed aside like it was in the first book and Alessia shows more concern over the situation.
• Sequelitis: While The Mister didn't exactly get glowing reviews, the reception for The Missus was even frostier. Though some reviews acknowledge that the sequel removes or tones down some of the creepy content from first book (mostly regarding the Official Couple's power imbalance), many also criticised it for being a dull and unnecessary follow-up, with barely any plot and pacing that would put a snail to sleep (The Mister at least had some intrigue surrounding Alessia's mysterious past and the men hunting her); even more positive reviewers found it unjustifiably long-winded. The sex scenes were also criticised as lukewarm and by-the-numbers, which isn't ideal when the book's main draw is its erotic content. The Missus was released with little fanfare compared to The Mister and Fifty Shades of Grey, and didn't receive much attention overall; it's been noted that The Missus didn't sell nearly as well as the first book, being notably absent from The New York Times Bestseller List (the author's previous novels ranked high on the list) and debuting at 58 on the USA Today Bestseller List before falling out of the top 150 within weeks.
• Slow-Paced Beginning: It takes nearly a hundred pages (in a 464 page book) for Maxim and Alessia to marry and return to the UK (and for the first sex scene to occur in this erotic romance novel), with nothing of much importance or interest happening prior to this. It's only at this point - a quarter of the way through - that we really get into the main storyline of Alessia and Maxim trying to navigate their new lives together, as well as the sideplot about Maxim's brother having a fatal genetic condition that Maxim has potentially inherited too.
• Sweetness Aversion: Most of the challenges and potential problems Alessia and Maxim encounter in this book get resolved swiftly and neatly, with few lingering negative effects. While some readers were relieved that the book didn't mine all its drama from the main couple constantly fighting and mistreating each other, the downside is that there's not much in the way of conflict or tension in the book, at times making it feel like an overly-long, slice-of-life cosy romance with not much else going on; this is in spite of the book being advertised as a "passionate and thrilling love story" and including sex trafficking and dark family secrets as plot points (which tend to be glossed over or pushed to the background). Many readers find that this causes the story to drag in places, while also avoiding exploring some potentially interesting conflicts in-depth; some readers have gone so far as to state The Missus can feel less like a true sequel and more like an extended epilogue detailing Alessia and Maxim's Happily Ever After.

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