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@Barrie Summy
This month
I will be reviewing The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen. I came to know about it because Sara Haines of The View recommended it as a summer beach read thriller and I borrowed it from my library.The story is about what happens when Richard and Vanessa Thompson divorce and Richard is about to remarry. It's primarily told from the viewpoint of Vanessa and tells / shows the great lengths she goes to to try to stop Richard from getting remarried. Part of the book flap and amazon blurb is:
When you read this book, you will make many assumptions.
You will assume you are reading about a jealous ex-wife.
You will assume she is obsessed with her replacement – a beautiful, younger woman who is about to marry the man they both love.
You will assume you know the anatomy of this tangled love triangle.
Assume nothing
That is all true. There are twists and turns that are completely unexpected. The book is divided into three parts. At the end of each "part" there is a bombshell revelation that you don't see coming - or at least I didn't. It left me with a 'what the heck' feeling at the end of each part.
But speaking of a what the heck feeling, I want to compare it, to a degree, to a murder mystery. In a murder mystery the author deliberately misleads you and has you second guessing the conclusions you've come to. The author will drop little clues for you to follow. You might have thoughts like "but I thought . . . didn't he say . . . wasn't it the brother who" and I think that's normal for a murder mystery. It makes me feel more involved in the story, like it's an interactive book almost. I had those type of thoughts with this book too, well actually only in part one of the book. The thing is, this wasn't a murder mystery and when I had those thoughts I was going back to find passages earlier in the book to clarify. I thought the author had screwed up. Even when I got to the bombshell moment where it's all explained I was a little confused for a minute. Again, this was only in part one of the book but part one is roughly 150 pages of a 340 page book. Part one was told in a unique way that initially confused me before I realized that I'd missed clues the size of boulders that could be seen from outerspace! I can't say anymore without giving away spoilers but I will say that when all is said and done, it was totally worth it.
That all said, I really enjoyed this book and had a hard time putting it down. It was totally worth the read and has some jaw dropping revelations in it. I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys the thriller genre.
For more reviews, click on the icon at the top of this post or go to barriesummy.blogspot.com.
