To Have and to Hoax is an adult historical romantic comedy by Martha Waters. I love romantic comedies, but I have not read to many historical rom coms, so when I saw this one on netgalley, I was intrigued to say the least. And I have to say, To Have and to Hoax was a lot of fun, and it was really very funny! It is a big game of one upping each other between a husband and wife that had me laughing several times while reading. I did have some minor annoyances, but overall I thoroughly enjoyed myself while reading To Have and to Hoax.

In To Have and to Hoax, we meet our married couple, Lady Violet Grey and Lord James Audley. They have been married for 5 years, but we soon learn that they have not had a great marriage for most of that time. But that all changes when Violet thinks her husband has fallen off a horse and was badly injured. When she finds out that is not true, she decides to get even and tell him that she is sick. And from there the games begin. They keep trying to one up each other. It kind of reminded me of a historical version of the Friends episode where Rachel and Phoebe find out about Monica and Chandler dating, and they decide to play pranks on Monica and Chandler stating “they don’t know we know”. And then Joey gets involved and Monica finds out that they are pranking them and that they “know” so they decide to prank them back, stating “they don’t know we know, they know!” and the whole thing spirals out of control…in a funny way. That is exactly this book. It is a lot of fun, but I do feel like it went a bit too far at times. I liked their interactions and their flirting, and I really liked the two of them, but I kind of wish the grew up a bit and each apologized to each other. But they are both so stubborn that I understand why it didn’t happen that way, I just wish it did.

Which brings me to my other little annoyance. It felt like James took the brunt of apologies, when I firmly believe that the fault lay squarely on both of their shoulders. But other than those minor issues, I really did have a lot of fun while reading To Have and to Hoax. I think there are so many funny scenes that will have you giggling and laughing out loud, and rooting for our couple to just admit that they do care about each other. All in all, this book was a total good time! If you are a fan of historical romances and of Romantic comedies, I think you will enjoy To Have and to Hoax