My Husband’s Wife Book Review
Let me just go ahead and start by saying I did NOT care for this book.
*The rest of this post is a spoiler alert, so do not read on if you plan on reading this book!
About the Book:
This book is told in the narrative of two different women. Well, one child, Carla, that eventually grows up and one other woman, Lily. They are neighbors.
Carla: The book starts with Carla as a young child. Her and her Italian mother live alone. Basically her mother will never talk about the father from Italy and her mother is now sleeping with a married man named Larry who is paying all of their bills. The mother, Francesca, is a horrible character. Also- Carla gets bullied at school and always feels different than the other students because they can’t afford what the other kids have.
Lily: Lily is a solicitor (lawyer) who is married to a man named Ed. Ed works as a copywriter but wants to be a painter. Lily finds out Ed only married her to get inheritance and their marriage is rocky the entire book (all they do is fight.) Lily can’t connect with anyone emotionally or physically because of her brother, Daniel, who died at a young age. You finally hear about why this messes Lily up so much in the last chapter of the book. There is also a killer involved that Lily helped get out of prison because she thought he was innocent and later learned (after he was released) that he actually did kill his girlfriend. Lily feels connected to him somehow because he reminds her of Daniel and ends up sleeping with him while married to Ed?
YES, THIS IS THE BOOK. So weird and so hard to follow. Way too many different plots.
In a nutshell, this is what the entire book is about. The details above are reiterated and over and over again. And then over again.
Lily lives next to Carla and her mother and watches Carla every Sunday. Ed wants to be a painter and he draws Carla whenever he can. Lily one day finds out the man Carla’s mom is sleeping with is actually a law partner that she works with and gets angry with both Larry (the lawyer who’s real name is Tony) and at Carla’s mom for sleeping with a married man who has a wife and kid of their own at home.
Carla and her mom end up having to move back to Italy and Carla blames Lily and Ed for all of their misfortunes from there. Carla grows up and vows to get revenge on Lily and Ed. She moves back to London to become a lawyer and finds Larry (who is no on his deathbed) and Lily.
Lily now has a son with autism with either Ed or the killer… we never find out who the real father is. Ed ends up makes tons of money on a painting of ‘The Italian Girl’ which is actually Carla as a little girl.
Basically Carla comes back and is so beautiful and wins Ed over. Ed leaves Lily for Carla and they get married. Ed is super controlling and Carla gets pregnant and Carla eventually kills Ed… but you later find out it was really the killer that Lily helped and slept with that actually kills Ed. Can you follow? Yeah… me either. This all happens in the last few chapters of the book.
The killer actually loves Lily and did it all for her and brought down Carla with him so they (he and Carla) are now both in jail when the book ends
The Writer:
The writing is actually good and I would be interested in reading another of her novels. The book itself just wasn’t good. You have to spend way to much of your life getting to a rather messy ending.
Why I didn’t care for it:
Way too hard to follow. It just didn’t really make sense. The book kind of revolved around Daniel’s (Lily’s brother) mysterious death that you don’t even find out about until the last chapter of the book. You also never know who the father of Lily’s child is. The entire thing with Carla and Ed is so weird. Lily as a character is so un-relatable. I just never liked her … or any of the characters for that matter. Seriously the book was just a mess.
Did you read it? Do you agree? Do you have any input here? Please leave a comment if you do!
Just Bought & Will Review Soon (in case you want to buy these and read them with me too!):
–Red Queen (Teen Fiction, YES PLEASE!)
–The ONE Thing (Business Book)
If you have some book suggestions please list the below as well!
xox Amanda
Comments
I loved it…. slow start but built up, I was gripped towards the end and read it very quickly.
N
Agree with you. Took forever to get through. Way too far fetched. Didn’t like at all.
Agreed! This is the worst book I have read in I don’t know how long. Poorly written in every sense. The only reason I finished is I wanted to give the author a chance to make it a great ending but that didn’t happen. I will make note to never read this author again. Zero flow. The idea was great but the delivery was bad. The best thing about it was the Title.
This the first time I read a review where the person making the review talks about the style of the writer, meaning the way of writing of the author! Like it:)
Same exact thoughts as you, i had to “re-listen” to parts so many times and it made it drag even more. So confusing. As a reader stated above do jot listem to the wife between us, its the same no good plot
Thanks very much for your honest perspective on this book! I am currently half way through and just not feeling any connection with any of the characters- they are all unrelatable. The chapter that started “12 years later” was the last straw for me and made me realise that I couldn’t possibly listen (audiobook) to anymore as I just didn’t care what was going to happen!
Thank you for allowing me to move away from this boko without the sense of what was to come……..
I just got so frustrated with this book for everything you mentioned. Thank you for putting this out there so I don’t feel like the only one. And also I can skip the rest because screw this book.
Okay, first I have to tell you how adorable you are. I just found you and love your blog and IG feed. And Maui! My favorite place (besides Kauai), we go every year and I’m so envious you get 5 weeks! Love. Thank you for the review of this book- I’m am fighting to get through it and I thought it was just me- the struggle is real. I may decide to put this one down before I finish. Enjoy the rest of your time in Maui, it’s magical!
Thank you so much Nicole! Such a sweet comment! That book really was tough :/. It is hard with tough books bc we only have so much ‘down time’ so wasting it really sucks haha! xox Amanda
The red queen is great, I enjoyed It. I also read my husbands wife and wasn’t that impressed. It had twists that I’m guessing where supposed to be thrilling but they were just weird. (I would not recommend the wife between us if you didn’t care for this one).
First of all, I did enjoy my husbands wife BUT I think it was completely due to the fact that I listed to the audio book. The reader of this book had such great voices for each character that it was easy to follow each persons POV. When I reccomended this book I told them they HAD to listen to it instead because I just didn’t think it would be as good reading it on their own. The ending was a little much for me but the audio version really made me feel like I knew the characters better. Audiobooks for certain books are just wonderful when you find a good reader. I’d definitely recommend trying it. They motivate me to go for a run or walk the dog a bit longer just to listen to the book more so it’s a win win!