The Husband's Secret in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

Jul 25, 2020 Jessica Haider rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction

3.5 stars

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Jul 06, 2015 Nadine in NY Jones rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, audio, chick-lit, womens-day

I ended up feeling mostly disappointed in this book. It's not that it's not good - it is good, and I enjoyed listening to it, I laughed out loud at times, and felt like crying at others, and I really CARED about the characters. But I cared so much that I got really bummed when it didn't end the way I wanted it to for some of them!

The story is about Cecelia, and Tess, and Rachel. Each woman grapples with a pain that no one would want to carry. There is really no happy ending for any of them, not I ended up feeling mostly disappointed in this book. It's not that it's not good - it is good, and I enjoyed listening to it, I laughed out loud at times, and felt like crying at others, and I really CARED about the characters. But I cared so much that I got really bummed when it didn't end the way I wanted it to for some of them!

The story is about Cecelia, and Tess, and Rachel. Each woman grapples with a pain that no one would want to carry. There is really no happy ending for any of them, not with the hands they have been dealt. But I still found myself deeply disappointed in how some of the ends were tied up at the end.

This is the second book I've read by Ms Moriarty this year - the first was Big Little Lies - and this book follows the same formula: three women whose lives intersect in a school. In this one, the women don't know each other well when the book starts. First, we have Cecilia, who has just found an old letter her husband wrote to her, addressed "to my wife, to be opened only in the event of my death." Next is Tess, whose husband is confessing that he's in love with another woman, and that woman is her cousin and life-long best friend (this happens at the very beginning, so it's no spoiler, and I think it might be good to know going in). And finally there is Rachel, who works as a secretary a the school, and is a generation older than Cecilia and Tess. Rachel's story is the saddest, but the peace she finds at the end is the most satisfying of the three, for me.

The three women's stories are intertwined, but I felt a certain off-balance between the three. Rachel's story and Cecelia's story could not happen without the other, but Tess's story - while deeply moving - never felt central to the main plot. I was glad Tess was in the book, though, because she was the character I identified with the most.

I listened to the audiobook, and I was able to keep Rachel straight because the reader, Caroline Lee, used a slightly different voice for her. But I had a hard time keeping Tess's story straight from Cecilia - I kept thinking "wait, is this the one whose husband is cheating on her? or is this the one with the envelope?" - I don't know if that would have happened if I had been reading the book, maybe not.

The big reveal of what the letter says is not until (view spoiler). (if you're wondering, and spoiler tags if you're not) ...more

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Oct 25, 2018 Dina rated it really liked it

Enjoyed this one almost as much as Big Little Lies. This one would make a great movie. I did something I never do and skipped ahead to read the letter. lol Looking forward to Nine Perfect Strangers next month.

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Dec 31, 2013 MacDuff rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2014

Another book club selection. I really think the title kills this book...it wasn't as chick-litty as it seemed. Although, all while I was reading it, I was saying "I have to find a new book club." ...more

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