Wives Behaving Badly

The Two Mrs Lloyd #2

by Elizabeth Buchan

What could be sweeter than Revenge? The sequel.

American readers fell in love with Elizabeth Buchan’s Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman. Now, with the delicious sequel to that beloved New York Times bestseller, Elizabeth Buchan answers the intriguing question: What happens when the mistress becomes the wife?

Minty Lloyd is now the second wife to her husband, Nathan—but she is haunted by her very much alive, and quite reborn, predecessor Rose. Yet after a shocking phone call, Minty finds herself united with an unexpected ally—the woman she once betrayed.

With Buchan’s signature gift for capturing women’s daily joys and struggles, Wives Behaving Badly is an irresistible story of love, loss, and renewal that explores the very nature of friendship and the bonds that sometimes grow strongest when stretched to breaking.

Genres: Fiction, Chick Lit, British Literature, Adult, Womens Fiction, Contemporary, Audiobook

304 pages, Hardcover

First published June 27, 2006

About the author

Elizabeth Buchan began her career as a blurb writer at Penguin Books after graduating from the University of Kent with a double degree in English and History. She moved on to become a fiction editor at Random House before leaving to write full time. Her novels include the prizewinning Consider the Lily – reviewed in the Independent as ‘a gorgeously well written tale: funny, sad and sophisticated’. A subsequent novel, Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman became an international bestseller and was made into a CBS Primetime Drama. Later novels included The Second Wife, Separate Beds and Daughters. Her latest, I Can’t Begin to Tell You, a story of resistance in wartime Denmark, was published by Penguin in August 2014.

Elizabeth Buchan’s short stories are broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and published in magazines. She reviews for the Sunday Times and the Daily Mail, and has chaired the Betty Trask and Desmond Elliot literary prizes, and also been a judge for the Whitbread First Novel Award and for 2014 Costa Novel Award. She is a patron of the Guildford Book Festival and of The National Academy of Writing, and sits on the author committee for The Reading Agency.

Reviews

[Diana Townsend · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am giving this book 3 stars because I have never ever, in my entire life, hated a character like I hate Minty. I disliked her with every fiber of my being, so kudos to the author for pulling an emotion out of me. As far as the plot, I don't know. Rose is too nice for me, too diplomatic. I needed her to be a little bitchy, just a little mean... at least for it to be believable to me. This is a book about a woman with extremely low morals and her life as second wife. She is unhappy and dares to want sympathy. There are a lot of unresolved stories in this book, the ending leaves a lot unsettled. Finishing it, all I can think about is karma. The real question is did Minty get everything she deserved or was she let off the hook too easily.

[LindyLouMac · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/6...

As a sequel to the revenge of The Middle Aged Woman this worked well. I was definitely left at the end of it wondering how it would all work out for Nathan, Minty and Rose.
Well now I know exactly how Nathan and Minty’s marriage turned out. It is now some years later and they have twin sons Lucas and Felix and we learn how their marriage is working, in comparison to those of Gisela and Roger, Paige and Martin, both relationships beset with problems. As for Rose the deserted forty-something woman in the first novel, she has weathered the storm well and although she would not have chosen to be so, is an independent and successful career woman.
So what happens when the mistress becomes the wife? Still the villain of the story Minty has grown up since seducing Nathan. She is now a mature married woman with a family to consider who finds herself extremely unsettled by the fact that Nathan appears despondent about his life. Everyway Minty turns; she experiences feelings of being ‘second-best’ in Nathan’s life. Neither of them will ever be free of Rose, a constant for various reasons.
One feels sorry for Nathan as he now lives with the consequences of his passionate affair with Minty. Maybe a mistake; but one that many men have made and will continue to do so. Instead of looking forward to freedom with grown up children, he finds himself right back at the beginning again with a young family.
The marital dramas that form the essence of this story are a reflection of those that second wives face every day within the extended family unit.

Beware the American sequel is called 'Wives Behaving Badly' as I have just discovered Jan 2010, thinking it was a completely different book. Luckily I was only a few chapters in when I realised I had already read this!!

[Manny · Rating 3 out of 5]

- Sweetie, how are you? We haven't talked for -

- That fucking cow. I saw him with her the other day.

- Oh, I'm sorry -

- Well, at least it looks like it's a difficult pregnancy. I hope she's got varicose veins.

- You know, you shouldn't -

- And I hope those little half-cup bras aren't as comfortable as they used to be. I hope they cut into her disgusting swollen tits every time she wears them.

- Sweetie, really -

- I bet she'll be a terrible mother. She has no idea how to deal with children. None whatsoever. And she can't cook either.

- Well, we'll have to -

- She's no good for him, you know. She stresses him out. He always looks so tired. She only thinks about herself.

- Yes, he does rather -

- If he just drops dead one day it'll be her fault. It would serve them both right.

- Sweetie -

- I sometimes wonder what he's put in his will. I think she might get a nasty surprise.

- I -

- Then she'd have to get by on her own. She'd see what it was like. The stupid fucking bitch. Bitch. Aargh!

- Shall I get us another round?

- Thanks. Oh fuck, I'm sorry, I shouldn't talk about myself all the time, I just can't help it. So what are you doing? How's the novel coming along?

- Blocked. Can't decide how to continue.

- Oh, that's awful! I loved the first one. And I'm just going on and on, I know, I hear myself saying these terrible things and I wish I didn't, but -

- Sweetie, don't worry. Let it all out and you'll feel better. I love listening to you.

- You do? Really?

- I do.

- Oh my god, you're always so nice to me, I feel ashamed. You know, really, in my heart of hearts, I know she's not so bad. I'm just so fucking angry with her. And with him.

- Well of course you are.

- You're right. Now I've said all that shit, I feel better. We should meet more often.

- We should!

- Look, I hope you start getting unblocked with your book soon.

- Actually, I just had an idea. I wonder -

- Oh fuck, is it one o'clock already? I'm so sorry, I have to go. We'll talk more about you next time. Sorry. Sorry! Bye.

- Sweetie, it's okay! See you soon. Bye. And you look after yourself.

- Mwah!

- Mwah!

[Marisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't begin to explain how profound this book was for me. I actually hated how much I loved this sad and demoralizing depiction of a much disliked second wife and under the shadow of the ever constant first wife. The old adage comes to mind "careful what you covet".

I also want to say I was not fond of the first instalment Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman, and this is a first for me where I loved the second book more than the first, kodoos to the author on eliciting such an emotional response. I read this through in half an uninterrupted day.....couldn't put it down.

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

I kept waiting for this book to stop depressing me. That never happened.

[Kricket · Rating 2 out of 5]

hmmm. i was looking forward to getting minty's perspective after reading "revenge of the middle aged woman" but this one was kind of boring. i was hoping buchan would flesh out minty as a character so that i would feel conflicted about hating her in the first book, but it seems that buchan herself hadn't forgiven minty either. i didn't identify with minty or understand her very well, and i was still feeling outrage on rose's behalf so i reacted to minty's jealousies with the attitude of, "well, what did you expect?"

i also don't understand why the title was "wives behaving badly" because, although minty sucked, nathan wasn't a paradigm of virtue either. maybe it referred to poppy & jilly as well, but we don't even get enough of their stories for them to rate.

anyway. i'll still try more by this author.

[Anastasiaadamov · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was next month book club assignment. My expectations and the book did not sync. At first I thought the book was kinda bland and without passion - I expected passion. This did not change by the end of the book...

[Ladyslott · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is the sequel to Buchan’s Revenge of the Middle Aged Woman, which I read last year.

Reviewing sequels is tricking business, since many things that occur in the first book are mentioned and taken for granted. Therefore, if you did not read book one; be very wary of continuing with the review below, as it will be full of spoilers.[

Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.This book picks up a few years after the end of the first book.

Minty is now firmly ensconced in Rose’s home, married to Rose’s ex-husband and completely miserable. This is the book in a nutshell. It is hard to empathize with Minty at all. In book one she set out to win Nathan away from Rose, and now that she has all she ever wanted all she does is whine. And to make it all just a little more difficult a pill to swallow, Rose is doing fabulously well. With most of Nathan’s friends disliking her, Nathan’s family disliking her and few friends to rely on Minty is in for a huge comeuppance when she is blindsided by events that turn her life completely upside down.

This was an ultimately difficult book to like, mainly because the main character was so unlikable. Giving her a few redeeming qualities may have made it a little better, but in the end if you don’t like the protagonist of the whole story, it’s difficult to care about the story’s outcome

[Julie Hedlund · Rating 3 out of 5]

A so/so sequel to "Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman," which was a much better book. Easy and fast read, but lacking the depth of emotion in the first book. This one is narrated from Minty's perspective, aka "the other woman." Unfortunately, Minty was the most one-dimensional character in "Revenge," and this book did little to add meat to her bones. Likewise, the other characters seemed more like caricatures rather than an extension of their personalities from the first book. Not a horrible read, but my advice is to skip it in favor of her other, better books.

[Tara · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't believe I even finished it. There is no one to like or even sympathize with in this book. It gives new meaning to the phrase, "With friends like these who needs enemies."

[Vivone Os · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ne mogu se odlučiti sviđa li mi se ova knjiga ili ne.
Neki dijelovi su me živcirali, točnije osobe. Nathan i dalje nije znao što želi. Nije bio sretan s Rose pa ju je u prvom dijelu prevario s Minty i ostavio zbog nje. A sad opet nije sretan s Minty i bez obzira koliko se ona trudila oko njega, on je i nju odbacivao.
Sad mi je nje iskreno žao. U prvom dijelu mi nije bilo žao Rose (iako naravno ne odobravam preljub) jer se nije borila, nekako je odustala od svega i pustila da ju svi krive. Ni sad mi se iskreno ne sviđa. Krivi Minty kao i svi ostali, ali nitko se nije sjetio kriviti Nathana. Kao da on nije imao veze sa preljubom i razaranjem svoje obitelji. I kad je umro svi su ga žalili, a Minty okrivljavali za sve.
Sama priča mi je bolja od prvog dijela, u početku slična prvoj knjizi, ali negdje na trećini, kad Nathan umre, pratimo kako se Minty, njeni sinovi, a i ostatak Nathanove obitelji nose s tim. To je jedna sasvim moguća situacija i daje knjizi jednu drugačiju, ozbiljniju notu. Zbog toga mi se knjiga i svidjela više od prve.

[Exlibris Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

Page after page, you are starting to like the boldness, the self-irony and no-nonsense of the main character. The classic situation of husband-left-his-long-term-wife-for-her-younger-friend reveals in flashbacks, present and main character's feelings. It is a very good example of how the problem is usually the leaving party itself and not his/her partner. The old family vs. new family complication is huge, all involved are suffering, one's physical pleasure not being able to replace the happiness. But life goes on, irrevocable mistakes become past and the future can still be bright.

[Anna Bush · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first half of this book bored me so bad. I had no idea what was even happening or where it was going. The second half picked up a bit & kept my interest a bit. I really didn’t like any of our characters. This book did have an element about grief in it I wasn’t expecting. Overall just not what I expected at all

[Lu Bielefeld · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vadia interesseira se dá muito mal, kkkkk
Já comecei a ler o livro com ódio da Minty (o nome já é de vagabunda...), pois eu acabei de ler o livro "A vingança da mulher de meia-idade" e estava torcendo pra ela se ferrar total.
Nunca tinha lido um livro antes em que o personagem principal me despertasse tanta antipatia desde as primeiras páginas, mas com o passar do livro eu fui ficando feliz pela vida desgraçada que ela acaba tendo. Ser a segunda em tudo não é agradável e ser comparada com alguém melhor então...
No livro anterior ela passa como um trator pela Rose e rouba o marido, o emprego e a casa dela. Ela se comporta como uma verdadeira vadia, pois ela não ama o Nathan e só está de olho no que ele pode oferecer pra ela em termos materiais.
Se ela amasse o cara eu até perdoaria, pois são coisas que acontecem e você tem que entender, mas ela se infiltrou na vida da Rose com uma inveja e uma obsessão tal que foi como se o desejo de se apoderar do que a outra tinha tivesse dominado a vida dela. Ela foi egoísta e mau caráter, mas se ela pensou que a vida dela seria um mar de rosas ela se enganou redondamente... ha ha!
Apesar dela ter segurado o pobre "cinquentão deslumbrado" a vida deles caiu na rotina de sempre, pois ela teve gêmeos e o pobre do homem acabou tendo um retorno aos velhos tempos de preocupação e as horas de sexo tórrido e despreocupado com a amante acabaram, ficando somente as contas, crianças pequenas demandando atenção, trabalho, preocupações e etc...
Durante todo o relacionamento ela teve que engolir que a Rose era muito mais mulher que ela em todos os sentidos, era mais inteligente (a Minty não durou no cargo que foi da Rose por 10 anos nem seis meses por pura incompetência), era uma mãe maravilhosa, discutia com o Nathan de igual para igual os problemas de trabalho e em urgências formavam uma frente unida, eram respeitados pelos amigos e parentes e et... e ainda por cima depois de ser chutada ela deu a volta por cima e ficou mais bonita, arrumou um novo emprego e tal.
A Minty ficou com um cara que ela nunca amou, uma casa que não era sua e repleta de lembranças da vida anterior do Nathan, ficou com o desprezo dos filhos dele e dos vizinhos que conheceram a Rose por 25 anos e no final nem o Nathan aturava mais ela.
Ela acabou estragando um casamento que podia até estar desgastado por 25 anos, mas que duraria pra sempre e não foi feliz nem fez o Nathan feliz.
Gostei, se fez justiça, como se toda vagabunda interesseira tivesse o que merece.
Nós mulheres de meia-idade nos sentimos um pouco Rose e foi maravilhoso ver que ela deu a volta por cima apesar de todo sofrimento e dor que a Vagabunda que apesar de não ter amado Nathan o conquistou com a promessa de uma vida sem amarras e muita sessão de sexo.
A Minty descobriu que roubar a vida de outra pessoa não é tão fácil assim e que tanto o bom quanto o mal de um relacionamento acaba vindo junto.

[Moni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ispocetka obecavajuca i stvarno zanimljiva, zadnjih stotinjak stranica dosadna.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

The brilliance of this book crept up on me. In the early stages I was a little ho hum but somewhere around the end I was marveling at the skill and nuance of Elizabeth Buchan. So good how the first wife, the second wife or the husband of actually came out of this scenario unscathed or unaltered. The advent of leaving one for the other created a whole new set of issues not well considered but none the less a reality.

The longer I ponder this book, my own marriage and that of my contemporaries I am astonished at her insight. She has articulated work, mothering, surviving, desire, want and need phenomenally well. Now that I think about it so too did the first book of hers I read many years ago, I can see I will be on the hunt for more as it appears she is a reasonably prolific writer. These are the kinds of books that just make my heart sing, they allow me the time and space to make sense of the world I inhibit and remind me of what is important in my own wee world.

I know lots of second and first wives yet have never really sat back and considered the big picture dynamics. Too busy being involved in the minutiae of their particular circumstance. This book made me take a step back and consider more. Rose the first wife in particular articulates the loss, as well as the effect the change had on the requirement to be our best despite the worst.

Really a quiet brave triumph for women and women's fiction. Not earth shattering prophetic or world changing but important none the less.

[Eva · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this third installment featuring the lives of Minty, Nathan and Rose, Buchan accurately portrays the downward spiral of a marriage when small hurts fester and communication stalls into frustrated snipes at each other.

Seven years after Minty and Nathan marry, Nathan has recreated the same problems he had with his first wife, Rose. His grown children from his first marriage still despise his second wife, Minty. Rose, freed from drudgery of marriage and motherhood, has become vibrant and attractive. Among Minty's many worries is added a new one, is Nathan having an affair with his ex-wife?

We watch Minty pick her way through the land-mines of life as a second wife and mother of a second family. How do you handle Christmas with a blended family? How involved do you get with the first wife's grown children's problems? The situation is made all the more complicated when Nathan suddenly dies. Every detail of the funeral is a fresh battle with Nathan's first family.

Buchan brought up a lot of issues I hadn't thought about. As a first wife myself, what is the protocol when an ex-husband dies? Do I even attend the funeral? Do I sit with my children in the front or at the back of the room by myself? As a soon-to-be third wife, do I invite his other wives and families to the funeral should he die before me? What part do they play in the service? Life is a lot more complicated than I thought.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't realize that this book is a sequel. As a daughter caught in the breakup of two marriages and the eventual marriage of two of the lovebirds, I have the "been there, done that, got the tee-shirt"state of mind as I review the book. I think it should be required reading for any person trying to break up a marriage or allowing his/her marriage to be broken. There will be quizes to make certain that the readers are getting some information from the book!

[Bre · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was really hard to get through. I just couldn't get into it. It didn't seem to go anywhere.

[Preet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Verry interesting! I didn't read the first book, but this one was great and I didn't feel like I missed too much.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars
see review for book one,covers both!

[Helen J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having loved “ The Revenge of the Middle Aged Woman” I could t wait to get my teeth into this. It didn’t disappoint and showed the other side of the situation when you are the one who broke up a marriage to get the man. The result is not what would be expected for either party as the reason why the affair worked was BECAUSE IT WAS AN AFFAIR AND NOT MEANT TO LAST!
Had Minty and. Nathan’s affair not turned into marriage I believe he would have been forgiven in time by Rose and they would have rebuilt their lives. Minty would have found someone else and still had children. Everyone knows that being the second wife when you broke a marriage is not going to endear you to the husband’s first, grown up family nor their friends nor are you to be allowed to be made welcome. Had circumstances not changed with Nathan’s departure it would have been interesting to see if the second marriage would have survived.
The reason why it was exciting and full of passion from the start was because it was never meant to go anywhere.
The descriptions of those sweet little twin boys captured my heart and seemingly the hearts of the characters in the book. They prevented Minty from giving up and walking away from everything and leading a totally selfish life. . I think I could foresee the future for all of them ~ at least I wanted to.
Ms Buchan has done it again. Her writing is excellent and keeps you focussed and I am steadily working my way through her entire repertoire

[Deanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was good, but not all that exciting. It was a family book that looked at the strain an unconventional family would stress over. The mistress married the husband and had twins, but the old wife and her adult kids are still a part of the new husbands life. Apparently it was a sequel, but I didn't realize that until I was almost done. That's quite a compliment; I appreciate it when I don't feel like I have to read a full series to understand the book I am currently in. At the same time, the first half of the book was all over the place! Listening to it on audio book was just downright confusing. I had trouble telling if scenes were happening at the moment or the character was thinking about something, or if the author was just sharing that something had happened previously. The second half of the book was better.

[Lynn Laughlin]

I loved "Revenge of the Middle Aged Woman" and therefore was eager to read the sequel, "Wives Behaving Badly", despite my misgivings about sequels in general. I rather enjoyed this particular sequel and it was fun to revisit some of my favorite "chick lit" characters, but this book, as another
reviewer put it "lacked the emotional depth" of the original.
I was also disappointed by the death of a main character (don't want to give away too much here), which seemed sort of an easy way out of the antagonism between two characters ( well, so much for not giving away too much, I guess). I found the whole plot a little hard to believe and it seemed very unlikely whereas everything that took place in the first book was very easy to accept.

[Mimi Boozehammer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Initially, this book annoyed me....I just wasn't sure who I wanted to slap some sense into. Although, I did feel this was intentional on the part of the author to give an insight in to the fragility and foibles of all humans. I felt the story could have almost been halved as it seemed to have periods of dragging and use of descriptive language just for the author to demonstrate adjectives. I did enjoy the last hundred or so pages and raced to the end. I will certainly try another book from this author.

[Laurena Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Firstly this is not a stand-alone book: you really need to read 'Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman' first.
In some ways I didn't think it was as good as the first book, but having finished it I admired the writing and the compassion in it. It examines the fallout from the betrayal which took place when Minty had an affair and then married her best friend Rose's husband, and how the two women eventually begin the path back to some form of reconciliation, or at least learning to co-exist. It also looks at the effect of this event on the wider family as events unfold.

[Archana Radhakrishnan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this story slowly builds up to you.
The start of the book was not too promising, I admit.. But somehow somewhere along the way, you realize the author has far more insight into human behavior and marriages that you end up getting quite a bit engrossed. That's what happened with me!
To read my full review, please visit the below link:
My Review

[Maya Fleischmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read Buchan's 2001 book, 'Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman,' and the story and characters appealed to me. This story resonated less so with me, feeling a little too 'overstated' for me at times. However, I do enjoy Buchan's sometimes light and tongue-in-cheek narrative voice and situations for varied aged women. I am looking forward to trying out at least one more of her titles. Perhaps I'll try 'Everything She Thought She Wanted," or "Separate Beds."

[Joyce · Rating 3 out of 5]

**Contains some spoilers**
Bold move writing a sequel from the mistress's point of view. Not a fan. Minty wasn't likeable in Revenge of the Middle Aged Woman and she's not likeable in this one, either. Maybe they approach things differently in England, but I found this book repetitive. It was never made clear if Nathan's estate was ever settled or if Poppy's situation was fixed. Plus, the ending, weird way to end the book. I tried, I gave it a chance, but it didn't move me.

[Sherri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just not my type of book. Almost ended up on my DNF list but found time to finish listening while purging my sewing stash. I didn't realize this was a follow up to "The Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman" I had read years ago but had forgotten. After I found that out the title finally made since. Many women will like this book so use your own judgement.