Review of The Husband’s Secret
I have been deliberating over this review for a couple of days now and I have had to take a breather to reset my overworked brain a little bit. Needless to say I am torn as to how to tackle this and will admit to rewriting this one a couple of times!
I was recommended this to read by a few friends, all of whom I know really enjoyed it. But (isn’t there always a but….) something about this book didn’t quite rattle my chain like I thought it would.
The essence of the main plotline was intriguing. Seemingly perfect family with everyone’s idea of a perfect life. Wife finds a letter from her husband containing life-altering secret and a great part of the first half of the book is her internal struggle as to whether to open or not to open?
Now had the story simply continued and followed this single story line I personally think that I would have enjoyed reading this book a whole lot more. However, after an initial introduction of Cecilia and the “letter”, the reader is then thrown into a boiling pot of storylines following numerous other, seemingly random, characters. This is where I feel the book didn’t work for me personally.
Enter Rachel, the second of three main women in the story. Again her part in the story took some time to develop and without giving a lot away, the contents of the letter are quite pertinent to her being in the book. Under the circumstances of the story I was surprised that I didn’t identify more with Rachel and found her to be, at times quite annoying and bitter. I had hoped to be more sympathetic towards her but found her quite cold and hard to relate to. Her story and her feelings and attitude towards her son Rob and also the situation with Janie would have made a great book on its own merits.
Then comes Tess and a storyline that I feel would have been better placed in its own separate book too. I still don’t really see what relevance her story and her inclusion in the book has to the story connecting Rachel and Cecilia.
I found myself for at least the first 40% of the book in a total spin, not knowing quite whom I was with and where I was. For the first half of the book it did feel that I was pushing myself through the book rather than finding it the intriguing page-turner I was promised! The second half improved and once the secret is revealed it opens the proverbial can of worms. However, in my opinion, the author seemed to rush to a conclusion of the story and ended it far too abruptly for my liking.
Then we get to the epilogue. And this is where I am still on the fence. It is clever in the sense that it makes you question the entire story. I have to say it’s a bit like Marmite is to an Englishman – you’ll either love it or hate it. It actually frustrated me and I almost shouted at my kindle, “How dare you mess with my head like that!” but maybe that is the genius of the book?
I feel that some of the side characters and sub stories, mainly the one involving Tess could either have been omitted completely without ruining the book or plot. That story may have made a second book to add to a series but in my opinion didn’t bring much other than additional muddle to the already hectic story.
In all it was an ok read and the plot line was, for me, the best part as well as the story from Cecilia’s perspective. I think on the whole she was the one character that I actually sympathized with and related to the most. I have thought a lot over the last few days about how I would deal with the secret and whether or not I would have dealt with things differently to Cecilia.
I give this a strong 3.5 stars but can’t quite bring myself to go to four. It is a very thought provoking read and for that I would say give it a go!
