I'm absolutely loving reading at the moment and ever since I got through Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine a few months ago I've just been going through book after book. Aswell as reading lots of different books I've also been really enjoying writing reviews of them, and whilst I'm sure mine are nowhere near as detailed or explained as well as lots of other bloggers, I've been finding them really fun to put together and it's just been nice to get all my thoughts down. I mentioned in my books to be read post that I got The Husbands Secret for Christmas a few years ago but for some reason it had taken me this long to finally start it.
'Mother of three and wife of John-Paul, Cecilia discovers an old envelope in the attic. Written in her husbands hand, it says: to be opened only in the event of my death. Curious, she opens it - and time stops. John-Paul's letter confesses to a terrible mistake which, if revealed would wreck their family aswell as the lives of others. Cecilia wants to do the right thing but for who?'
My review
After finishing Gone Girl (review coming of that soon too!) I decided to give this a go and I ended up finishing it within a day! I don't want to give too much away but the main story lines are, Cecilia who has just discovered the letter from her husband and is now intertwined in this secret herself. Tess who has been betrayed by her husband and her cousin and soon finds herself getting to know old flame, Connor. And finally Rachel, a woman who is grief stricken over the death of her 17 year old daughter Janie, and convinced after years and years that Connor is the murderer.At first I did find it a little confusing going from one person to another but it soon started to make sense and I ended up really enjoying seeing each persons story unfold. I liked finding out more about each of the women and the way it was written really allowed you to properly get in their head as you went along. I thought the way their stories intertwined was really clever and I love the way it slowly built up to the reveal of John-Paul's secret. Once the secret had been revealed (which I don't want to ruin for you if you haven't read it) I did instantly sympathise with Cecilia. When something so big is revealed to you, what are you supposed to do? It definitely made me think about what I'd do in that position, could you really break up your whole family over something that happened such a long time ago and was really never meant to be your secret to deal with? I don't know how you possibly begin to process it all, but I do love when a book really makes you stop and think. Then with Tess, I was desperate for her to get a happy ending. I loved the small bits we got to see of her and Connors friendship, I just wish they'd been more of that, in fact I'd love a whole book just about Tess as I think her own story was really interesting. And then Rachel, how could you not feel for her? Losing her daughter so long ago but never knowing who was to blame.
On the whole I generally loved this book, the mystery, how we were kept guessing and each of the characters in their own different way. That being said though the ending did feel a bit flat to me. After such a big build up, everything was in a way wrapped up but I just felt like there could have been more. I almost feel for each of the 3 women things were left on a cliffhanger, we can guess that they each went on to live happy lives and things were as okay as they could be but once I finished the last page, I felt like it should have carried on if that makes sense? I think one more chapter to fully round it all off would have been great and made the book even better. Overall though I do think it's worth a read. As I said I got through it in a day and that's because I just couldn't put it down. All of the suspense leading up to the reveal and constantly being kept guessing, I loved that element of it, and it's so unlike any of the other books I've read this year, it's just the ending that left me feeling a bit confused. But maybe that's just me?
I think Liane Moriarty who is now mostly known for writing the novel Big Little Lies, is a brilliant author though and I'm desperate to read more of her books. I was hooked throughout the whole book and her way of writing and connecting each of the women together was so clever.
I'd love to know if you've read this too and what you thought of the ending? Or are you currently reading anything interesting at the moment?
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