Friday, 15 February 2019

Book Review: MY LOVELY WIFE by Samantha Downing

 


Author: Samantha Downing
Publisher: Berkley Books
Read: February 2019
Expected publication: 26 March 2019
My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2


Book Description:


Dexter meets Mr. and Mrs. Smith in this wildly compulsive debut thriller about a couple whose fifteen-year marriage has finally gotten too interesting...

Our love story is simple. I met a gorgeous woman. We fell in love. We had kids. We moved to the suburbs. We told each other our biggest dreams, and our darkest secrets. And then we got bored.

We look like a normal couple. We're your neighbors, the parents of your kid's friend, the acquaintances you keep meaning to get dinner with.

We all have secrets to keeping a marriage alive.

Ours just happens to be getting away with murder.

My musings:


Wow – what a hell of a ride this book was! It was also so much fun to read. Which makes me a little bit concerned about my own sanity, seeing how there were some pretty dark themes at play here: murder, torture, sexual predators, lies and infidelity. But, oh so very entertaining!

On the surface, Millicent and her husband are just an ordinary suburban married couple. Millicent sells real estate, whilst her husband gives tennis lessons to the rich bored housewives in the area. They come home at night, cook dinner, help the kids with their homework and ferry them around to their various sporting activities. They have strict rules in their household. Their children are well behaved and respect their parents. But at night when the kids are asleep, the couple meet for “date nights” in the garage where they pursue their own interests. Pretty normal, huh? Except that this is not stamp collecting, gardening or tinkering in the shed. Because Millicent and her husband are the sort of couple who like a thrill, and nothing makes them more excited than ....

STOP! No, I cannot give their delicious little secrets away here. Go into this book blindly and let it sweep you away in its murky current of WTH!!! You can thank me later ....


I loved every crazy minute of this unusual story. What made it even better was the lively discussion that ensued in our buddy read group. I think that every single one of us was blown away how entertaining and unique this book was. In a market oversaturated with psychological thrillers, Downing still managed to carve out a special niche for herself. Plus, she still manages to sneak in a damn good twist *applause*! 


Summary:


Macabre, shocking, twisted but unputdownable are the words that instantly spring to mind. Despite its dark themes, I think that this books will also appeal to readers who like a lighter mystery, as it doesn’t dwell on the serious and the gory. I cannot go into the story for fear of spoilers, even though I am itching to tell you my favourite parts of it! So all I will say is: do yourself a favour and pick up this book today. Or, even better, read it with a friend or a group, because you will want to SMS someone in the middle of the night as the crazy things unfold in front of your eyes. By far one of the more original books I have read in a long time, and one that I can highly recommend to all lovers of the genre! A great binge read – lock your doors, make sure you are stocked up on food and bevies and just enjoy the ride.


Thank you to Edelweiss and Berkley Books for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.



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