The Secrets of Married Women

‘Losing a baby feels like the end of an unwritten story, I’ve spent hours visualizing her life from birth to old age.’

Goodreads Synopsis

Falling in love is easy. Staying in love is harder.
Jill and Rob are happily married and still very much in love. Then everything changes when they discover that Rob is infertile. Having children has never been the be all and end all for Jill. Yet, admittedly, a tiny part of her now wants what she can’t have. But more than craving the impossible, Jill just wants her marriage back to the way it was. But Rob has taken the news badly. He won’t touch her. They never have sex anymore. And worse still, he won’t talk about it.
Frustrated and unsure what to do, Jill is drawn into being an unwitting ‘ear’ for her best friend Leigh who is having a steamy extra-marital affair. Married to a man who is eager to please but fails to satisfy, Leigh has decided that life is too short to put her own happiness last. She has given her affair an expiry date: six weeks and then she will end it.
Then there is Wendy, who is married to handsome Neil, a top policeman. Wendy is one of those friends who never lets her guard drop – a content mother and a wife whose trust and faith in her husband seems to know no limits.
But are things ever what they seem?
Does life ever go according to plan?
How well do we ever know our husbands, our best friends, or even ourselves?
Jill is about to find out when she faces infidelity and the truth head on…

Review

I wasn’t really sure what to expect going into this book, especially as I knew it was the debut novel of Carol Mason but what I found was that this book was far less ‘fluffy’ then I had originally anticipated, although I don’t necessarily find this to be a bad thing, It did have some parts of the book were painstakingly predictable, there was enough unpredictability to keep me engaged.

The characters themselves were all unique and well fleshed out which was great to read but it was their decisions that had me pulling my hair out. Okay yes the thought processes they had behind them were explained and sure the majority of the time I could see where they were coming from but still that did not stop me from internally screaming at them. As I mentioned the plot itself did have points which took me by surprise just not as many as I would of liked and I did think (without giving away any spoilers) that one story-line involving Wendy was not given as much attention as it deserved as was included to add more shock value then to really be explored. Saying that the girls really did have a lot going on between them so perhaps it is to be expected that not every plot point can elaborated on too greatly. The main reason I deducted stars however as it really was an enjoyable read was that I was not too sold on the ending, it does make sense that it ended like that but I felt it would of been a stronger ending to end it about 20 pages beforehand. Either way it was a very promising first novel and I will definitely be keen to try more in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 3.5/5

Would I read again: No

Would I Recommend: Yes

Would I read another book from this author: Yes