Thursday, November 5, 2015

Review - The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty



"At the heart of The Husband's Secret is a letter that is not meant to be read... 
My darling Cecilia,
If you’re reading this, then I’ve died... 
Imagine your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death. Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest secret—something with the potential to destroy not only the life you have built together, but the lives of others as well. And then imagine that you stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive…
Cecilia Fitzpatrick has achieved it all—she’s an incredibly successful businesswoman, a pillar of her small community, a devoted wife and mother. Her life is as orderly and spotless as her home. But that letter is about to change everything—and not just for her. There are other women who barely know Cecilia—or each other—but they, too, are about to feel the earth-shattering repercussions of her husband’s secret."


Genre: Mystery, Fiction, Chick-Lit, Romance, Contemporary
Topics: deceit, family, secrets
Publication date: April 1, 2013 originally & March 3, 2015 re-released as paperback
Pages: 416 (paperback), 396 (hardcover)
Format: Paperback
Source: Bought
Links: Goodreads Website


When you look at the cover of this book, you may think it's going to be a light-hearted, feel-good romance novel that has some secrets being hidden, but isn't going to be too catastrophic to alter everyone's universe. MY GOODNESS - YOU'D BE WRONG.

The Husband's Secret follows three (really four) women through their daily lives. It's difficult to figure out how they're all connected by the first couple of chapters, but once you start putting two and two together, you will probably be completely baffled

You meet Cecilia in the first chapter. She's an organization Goddess that sells Tupperware while her husband is off on his business adventures. She was definitely a likable character for me from the moment I started reading and I wish I had an entire prequel about just her cause that would be AMAAAAZING ♥ One day, while Cecilia is looking for something for her daughter in the attic, she finds a letter addressed to her from her husband that is labeled "For my wife, Cecilia Patrick, To be opened only in the event of my death". Dun dun duuuuun ~

And you know what this woman does? It drove me absolutely insane that she contemplated for chapters as to whether or not she should open the letter. But seriously, it frustrated me in a good way. I wanted to keep reading and reading until I could finally figure out what was in the damned letter! There are several hints as to what it is, and I wrote down some of my theories before we finally got to know what is says - HOW and WHEN she does, I will not tell you ;)

Second, we have Tess who has a husband and almost-sister cousin who tell her they've fallen in love. Her story is hard to figure out - it probably took me the longest before I even realized why her point of view was included at all. I loved Tess as a character in the sense that I related to her personality - introverted, not super peppy (although I am when I force it - I'm either super introverted or super extroverted :p), and usually relies on others for her happiness. Her character seemed the most complex.

As for the third woman, Rachael - I absolutely hated her at first, Her character made me drag through the third chapter and almost want to put the book down. I have vowed not to do that this month, though, so I continued to tread through the chapter and ended up liking and getting a sense of why she was the way she was. I even smiled at the last sentence!

The stories of these ladies take crazy twists and turns that keep you entertained and questioning everything. I thought there would be way more romance than there is, but I know that's a positive for some of you guys! I would have given this story a 4.5/5 stars, if it were not for the fact that I didn't agree with some of the decisions made and didn't think the same way as some of the characters. It threw me off a bit, so here's my rating!





Sidenote: I didn't realize until I was half-way through the book that this wasn't the first book I've read by Liane Moriarty! She also wrote a book titled The Hypnotists Love Story which was AMAZING! I read it like four years ago and own it, but it's in storage with all of my other books right now. You should check that one out as well, especially if you're looking for more of a romance.



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