Title : The Accidental Husband
Author : Jane Green
Publication date : 14 March 2013
Publisher : Penguin
Purchase eBook: Kindle – iBooks
Purchase paper book: Amazon – Waterstones
Rating : 3 out of 5 LeeLee’s!
Jane Green’s “The Accidental Husband” is a powerful story about two women connected by an earth-shattering secret. Maggie and Sylvie are perfect strangers: two very different women, living very different lives on opposite coasts. But they share more in common than they could ever imagine. Both women have beautiful children on the verge of flying the nest, the home they worked hard to build and always longed for, and a handsome and devoted husband they can’t believe belongs to them. Both women think their lives are seamlessly secure, but they couldn’t be more wrong…For each is about to discover a secret that will shake their world to the very core, throwing into doubt everything they ever thought they knew, and bringing Maggie and Sylvie together in the most unexpected way.
My Thoughts
I know that this may come as a shock, prior to reading this book I hadn’t read any Jane Green before, I have heard a lot about her and how she is loved as writer of women’s fiction so this was my chance to find out why.
I was expecting this book to be rather happy and upbeat the title has a nice ring to it and the book is heavily themed around relationships and gossip.
Split into two parts, part 1 is primarily about Sylvie a woman who is carefree and happy, Sylvie lives with her Husband and her daughter from a previous marriage in California. Sylvie has a good life, a husband who supports her and her child although he may be away on business a lot their time together is always good.
On the opposite coast in suburban New England lives Maggie, she has the perfect life and home, three beautiful children and a husband who owns a million dollar business but she can only dream of having the kind of relationship with her family that Sylvie has with hers.
The story is told primarily from the points of view of Maggie and Sylvie, with the occasional input from the children.
My favourite character was initially Sylvie, her energetic personality and way of dealing with things is so positive, how could I not like her?
Towards the end of the book I found myself really liking Maggie and the person she had become after dealing with her struggles. She started out as a being somebody who was very false and stuck up, once she stopped trying to be something she’s not she became a very likeable person.
As always without giving away the plot this book covered topics that were shocking but realistic. I would have liked to hear some of the story from Marks point of view as this could have given the story more depth and explanation. Some parts were a little repetitive and it wasn’t difficult to see what was coming next, I’d have liked for the story to be a little more challenging in terms of knowing where the development of the plot was heading before it had actually happened.
If you’re looking for a book that is emotional, and centred around a serious subject that is easy to follow then this book is perfect. It can be a little predictable in places, having said that I still found it enjoyable to read which I put down to the characters being so likeable.
