The Husband's Secret review

  The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty

  Synopsis

  To be opened in the event of my death

With one swift, vicious movement, she sliced the envelope open, and pulled out a handwritten letter.

love you and the girls...
so sorry to leave you with this...
cannot bear

The Husband's Secret is a funny, heartbreaking novel of marriage, grief, love and secrets. When her husband announces he's in love with her best friend, painfully shy Tess picks up her young son and returns to her mother's house. There she begins an unexpected affair with an old flame. Rachel is a woman in her sixties consumed by grief and anger at the loss of her daughter twenty years earlier. When her son announces he is taking her beloved grandson overseas, Rachel begins a descent into deeper bitterness and pain. Cecilia is the quintessential "I don't know how she does it" woman. A devoted mother to three daughters, she runs her household like clockwork, is President of the P&C, owns an extremely successful Tupperware business and is happy in her fifteen-year marriage. Until she discovers a letter in their attic labelled: "To my wife Cecilia, to be opened in the event of my death"... Her husband's secret is a bombshell beyond all imagining with repercussions across the lives of all three women

Lisa's Review - 4.5 out of 5 stars

I will be honest and say I only read the first few lines of the synopsis before deciding this was a book I wanted to read, so when I actually realised this was a book revolving around 3 different women's stories that all intertwined into one, I was pleasantly surprised. I was expecting it to revolve around Cecelia and the letter she finds from her husband and how they deal with whatever the letter contained, so to have the other women's stories included was an added bonus for me!

Each individual story of Cecelia, Tess, and Rachel, is brilliant in its own right, and had these been individual stories, I would have enjoyed them, too. The fact that they are all connected makes this book brilliant. Cecelia is the almost perfect housewife, successful Tupperware saleswoman, works hard for the school and her children, but also has those few little taints that make her a normal woman. Tess is shy but successful, living her with her husband and son, and thinks everything is perfect until she finds out her cousin, who is more like her twin sister, and her husband, have fallen 'in love' with one another, so she packs up her son and heads to her mothers house, where she meets up with an ex boyfriend. And Rachel, the woman struggling every day to come to terms with the murder of her daughter, 28 years ago.

At first as I read I wasn't sure how these stories were connected, but with such ease the author begins to finely intertwine these individual stories together to become one in a breathtaking way. The women's stories are deep and emotional, but enough light hearted moments are included to stop this book from becoming over intense.

Although it becomes almost obvious what the letter from Cecelia's husband contains, it does not stop it from becoming a shocking moment in the book and poses that million dollar question - 'what would you do?' At first you would think the answer would be obvious but it does make you think and question whether you would go with that first instinct.

The only reason I didn't give this book a 5 star is because I was slightly disappointed by the ending. By personal preference I wanted to see a slightly different ending for at least one of the characters and had willed the ending I wanted, so when it was different I was a little let down. I did really enjoy this book though and was really pleased I stumbled across it.

Links

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17317855-the-husband-s-secret

http://www.lianemoriarty.com/

Purchase Links

 Amazon UK The Husband's Secret

Amazon US http://www.amazon.com/Husbands-Secret-Liane-Moriarty/dp/1405911662/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-1&qid=1376382216

B&N http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-husbands-secret-liane-moriarty/1114700914?ean=9780399159343