Set in Sydney, Australia, this novel is about secrets being revealed. First there's Tess who lives in Melbourne with her husband Tim and runs a successful business with him and her cousin Felicity with whom she's done everything together with since birth. Tess is massively shy and must find ways to overcome it in her job. Now, Felicity who has spent her entire life massively overweight has spent the last six months losing weight and now she looks gorgeous and she made a beeline for Tim who has fallen for her too. They haven't slept together out of respect for her and she tells them to go ahead and get it out of their systems and for Felicity to give her her husband back when she's finished because she doesn't want to put their six-year-old son Liam through a divorce like she went through. Meanwhile, she and Liam will be in Sydney taking care of her mother who broke her ankle and needs help.
Then there's Rachel whose daughter Janie was murdered at the age of sixteen many years ago. The last person to see her alive was Connor Whitby and she snags onto him as her murderer and develops a deep hatred for him especially when he gets a job working at the same primary school as her teaching gym while she works in the office. Her husband has passed and her son who was younger than Janie and whom she has kinda given the short shrift over the years due to her grief is married to a career woman and they have a son Jacob who is two and the light of her life. But they're moving to New York for two years for her job and it will likely turn permanent and she'll miss out on seeing Jacob grow up.
Then there's Cecila who's the queen of Tupperware and the Parent-Teacher group at school (P & F). Her life is organized to the last detail. Until she is up in the attic getting something and stumble upon a letter her husband wrote years ago with her name on it to be opened in the event of his death. Should she open it? He's in Chicago on business and when he calls she tells him about the letter and he says its just something embarrassing and to throw it away. But she can tell he's lying. The next day she's decided to open the letter but he's arrived home three days early which is very suspicious. What is in that letter? Is he really gay? One of their three daughters said that he was looking at Isobel funny so was he a pedophile? One of their other daughters caught him crying in the shower and she remembered that before they met he tried to commit suicide so was it a mental disorder? After they go to bed to sleep and she hears him in the attic looking for it even though he has claustrophobia she goes to where she put the letter and reads it and is shocked to her core.
This book was a real page-turner. And I really liked the characters. Moriarty shows you the characters one way and then gives you another look at them. I think Tess will outgrow her shyness without Felicity there to reinforce it. Cecilia will have to rebuild her life from scratch but she's a strong woman and she can do it. Rachel will adapt. These are strong women who can overcome the obstacles that have been thrown at them and thrive. You can't stay mad at any of them or hate any of them for the entire length of the book. She won't let you. Maybe that's a flaw, but I don't think so. It makes for an enjoyable book. I give it five out of five stars.
Quotes
Anway, weren’t women allowed to be sexist for the next thousand years or so, until they’d evened up the score?-Liane Moriarty (The Husband’s Secret p 3)When you didn’t let a woman help, it was a way of keeping her at a distance, of letting her know that she wasn’t family, of saying I don’t like you enough to let you into my kitchen.-Liane Moriarty (The Husband’s Secret p 311)Mothers can’t be in love. They’re too old.-Liane Moriarty (The Husaband’s Secret p 337)Falling in love was easy. Anyone could fall. It was holding on that was tricky.-Liane Moriarty (The Husband’s Secret p 361)Marriage was a form of insanity; love hovering on the edge of aggravation.-Liane Moriarty (The Husband’s Secret p 378)
LIsted On Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0451490045/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i2
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