Sunday 25 November 2018

Book ~ "The Loyal Wife" (2018) Natalie Barelli

From Goodreads ~ She thought they had the perfect marriage ... 

Tamra never dreamed she would marry someone like Mike Mitchell: handsome, rich, a wonderful husband ... until she finds out that Mike is having an affair.

But Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned and Mike Mitchell should have remembered that before he made a fool of her. Because Tamra knows something about Mike. Something he did. Something evil. And she was prepared to carry the secret to her grave.

Not anymore.

To make matters worse, Mike’s daughter, Madison, has come to visit for a few days and Madison doesn’t like Tamra. Well, that's too bad, because Tamra doesn’t have time to argue. She’s too busy ruining Mike’s life while remaining, on the surface at least, the perfect, loyal wife.

But when Tamra's plan spirals out of control, she finds that things are not what they seem. And now, it's too late.

Tamra is in her early thirties and has been married to successful older businessman, Mike, for about six years.  Tamra thinks all is well in their marriage until she discovers he is having an affair.  He had cheated on her four years ago but they had moved on ... or so she'd thought.  Because he is secretively in the process of leaving her (and if he does, she will be left with nothing), she decides to strike first and get her revenge.  She knows something about Mike that is going to bring him down and she sets on a course of action to make that happen.  The author doesn't reveal all the details of this event right away and the reader keeps learning more and more as the book goes on.

This is the first book I've read by this author and I liked it.  The story is told in first person perspective from Tamra's point of view so we are able to get inside her head.  I like the writing style ... I found it amusing and a bit quirky.  The editing could have been better as there were a couple typos.  As a head's up, there is swearing.

Tamra had started out with nothing.  Her mother had left the family when she was twelve, her father drank himself to death and they lost their house, her brother left when he was 18 and she has no idea where he is, and she had lied to her husband when they met about her job and education.  So she is now always conscious about how she looks and acts (though she does still err sometimes on the trashy side) and is grateful and appreciative for what she has today ... hence her need for revenge since it's being taken away from her.

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