The Husband's Secret

There are so many stories going on in this book, but I'll try to sum it up. First, Cecelia is that PTA mom with the perfect life and family. She's a lovely, sweet person, a great wife, and a great mom to her three girls. When she finds an old letter to her from her husband to be read only in the event of his death, she doesn't know whether to open it or not. But then she starts to notice how strange he's acting. In the letter is something that will change their lives forever. Secondly, Tess and Will are in a seemingly happy and comfortable marriage until Tess finds out something close to home that rocks her world. There is a third POV, but I honestly think it gives away the plot so I'm not going to mention it.

What I enjoyed:
I loved that all the characters were connected. There were many, many characters in this book who all had completely different storylines going on, but it was really interesting to see how everyone intertwined. It made me think about cause and effect and how delicate relationships are. Relationships we may not even know are significant can be changed in an instant. All of us are connected somehow, but we don't always see that.

After reading and loving Big Little Lies, I was determined to read Moriarty's other novels. BLL was so fast paced and kept me involved in the story. For the most part, The Husband's Secret was the same way. It was definitely fast paced, and I didn't get bored. Although some POVs were more interesting than others, I thought.

The epilogue. Y'all, the epilogue kind of made the book for me. It's kind of like a Sliding Doors situation. The tiny choices we make can have large consequences. The tiny choices we make can change our life forever. In the epilogue, the author gives us insight into what would have happened to many of the characters had they made different choices. I've never read an ending quite like that, and I loved it. 10/10 epilogue, would recommend. If I had gone home after an exhausting weekend instead of saying yes to meeting some friends for frozen yogurt, I would never have met my husband. I wouldn't be sitting her writing this review today. Thinking about chains of events and the tiny choices that set them off blows my mind.

What I didn't enjoy:

The third POV I didn't mention earlier because it gives away the secret. Honestly. The secret was so easy to guess, it's like I didn't even have to guess it. It was just there for me to take and acknowledge. Literally having the third POV is a straight up spoiler. It's obvious what Cecelia's husband is hiding almost from the very beginning. And although I still enjoyed the plot, I wish it hadn't been so obvious.
I also think the character (third POV) is unlikeable. But that's neither here nor there. I don't need to like every character. Just a side point and opinion.

I wasn't honestly sure I wanted to even say or include this because I'm so torn about it, but by the end, Tess's story felt a little out of place. As I said before, all the characters are intertwined so it wasn't that she didn't belong at all. But it just felt like filler at times. Like maybe it should have had a different novel altogether. I don't know, it just felt strange.

Would I recommend?
I would recommend this book for someone who enjoyed Big Little Lies or books like it. This is a very light mystery with little scandal, but overarching sentiments about choices and secrets.

I still don't know, how I feel about this story. Pretty good story line. However, I cannot get over, Rachel's decision to let John Paul off the hook. It was such a build up to be let down. I understand the situation surrounding Rachel decision, but come on. She was ready to burn Connor at the stake.That left me feeling, unsettled in a sense. However, the other characters storyline was okay.

I picked up The Husband's Secret because I'd been recommended it by a friend at work. I quite like domestic thrillers (or simply thrillers in general) when I'm in a reading slump. And this book did just the trick!

I enjoyed the story, although the big reveal came altogether too early in the plot I think. The characters were enjoyable and felt real. The ending felt a bit like a cop-out with all the endings neatly tied away. And we're not going to talk about the epilogue, because as far as I'm concerned that ruined the book.

3.5 stars. Good read that focuses on several women going through transitions in their lives. Reminds us that we don't know why things happen and how the future changes in unexpected ways based on the choices we make now combined with random events. Entertaining and interesting without being too heavy or deep.

I was not enjoying this - in fact, it made me angry for several reasons. (The fat-shaming, the woman-hating, the really unlikable characters, etc.) So, I skipped ahead to see how some things worked out because I'm curious (and apparently a glutton for punishment) and - thanks, I hated it! I haven't had this visceral a reaction to a book in a long time. I read to be entertained - if a book makes me laugh or inspires warm fuzzies, all the better. What I do not look for in a book is a misery-fest of unlikable characters, no-win situations, and situations that are only included to manipulate me into feeling something (presumably crying, in this case). It's especially off-putting when it all gets tied together semi-nicely at the end. Don't get me wrong, I prefer books with happy endings; this story just didn't deserve one.  

I do have to give the author some credit, however; this book had an enticing premise, the characters all felt realistic (I just didn't want to spend any time with them), and there were several questions I wanted to get the answers to, so I stuck with the book longer than I wanted to, but then the answers and/or the way they were resolved, made me regret I picked this book up to begin with. And now I'm stuck with this in my head, and I know I'll think about it from time to time, which will irritate me again, or worse, I'll wonder what I would have done if I were in these characters' situations. And this story just doesn't deserve the head space it's going to take up.    

That's not to say this is inherently a bad book. Some people might enjoy it. If this is your favorite book, that's great. It just wasn't for me. 

This book is based around 3 women and how their lives at the start of the book are separate but become inextricably linked by the end.

Cecelia is a woman with it all, 3 beautiful daughters and a loving husband. When she finds a letter in the attic from her husband to be opened in the event of his death. She opens it and uncovers a secret that devastates her family.

Rachel is a grandmother who is struggling to come to terms with the death of her teenage daughter over 20 years ago. Tess is betrayed by her husband who admits he's having an affair with her cousin.

This story brings them all together as the contents of the letter affect all of their lives. It is a good read, not too emotional or overly taxing.

I found the ending a little weak, I wasn't sure that I believed Rachel's character would have been so lenient or that after fighting for so long she'd be happy not to bring things to a head.

This is the second book I've read by this author and find her to be good but not outstanding. This seems to be a very popular read in the book charts just now but whilst it's good I'm not sure it's worthy of the hype.

Another good book from Liane Moriarty! I definitely liked Big Little Lies better but this was still enjoyable.

My favourite thing about thus author is the way she can easily and comfortably weave stories from various characters through the novel to then arrive at the conclusion which involves them all. All of the chapters flow nicely together despite changing POVs, it's not jarring like some books can be.

I will say that I thought this could have been a little shorter. It was a story line which kept my attention but could have still been trimmed down 50 pages or so.

All in all I'm glad I read it and enjoyed it a lot so I'll be looking for others from the author.

This is honestly one of the best books I have ever read in my life. I was engrossed in the story from start to finish, and the ending was one of the most shocking and heartbreaking endings I have come across, even more than some Agatha Christies I've read (which is saying a lot, she is my favourite author and I've read most of her books).
This is the book that got me into Moriarty and has kept me reading every subsequent book since. I still think about this one whenever I recall my favourite books, even though I read it years ago.

This is a page turning book, but not a book that I particularly liked. My mom gave it to me after someone gave it to her. I thought I would read it and pass it along to make room on my shelf.

Here are a few reasons I didn't like it:

1. It's skates on the edge of being made into a Lifetime movie. Not my genre at all.
2. The characters are unlikeable, and I didn't agree with any of their decisions.
3. The author's view of marriage, of men and women, of justice, of God, of life in general I don't agree with. It's bleak and bitter, just like her middle-aged characters, and is basically the reason Peter Pan didn't want to grow up.
4. The writing was confusing. Mostly, the book takes place in the heads of three women, one of whom is irrelevant to the main plot. You mostly are just reading their thoughts. Apparently they are all very reflective people who like to ponder every little thing. Interspersed with that is this “broadcasting” about the Berlin Wall. Oh, and also flash backs to some of the secondary characters' back story. Not cohesive. Plus—
5. Every once in a while the seemingly objective omniscient narrator comes through as ultra-opinionated and ultra-omniscient, which is just weird. The epilogue came out of left field. The rest of the book could have been written to accommodate it or it could have been eliminated at all, but it comes off as odd, as if the author wants to rub in your face how much more she knows than you.

Oh well! It was a quick read and it somehow was a page-turner, despite how quickly and easily you figure out “the husband's secret”.

Cecilia is the perfect housewife who finds a sealed envelope in the dusty attic addressed to her with her husband's handwriting “To be opened only in the event of my death”

I loved Moriarity's latest book, Big Little Lies which had the right mix of fun, intrigue and murder. This is the precursor with less fun but much of the same elements including the outwardly perfect and effusive mother, the social anxious single mom with child and a bright Australian suburban neighbourhood of Tupperware parties and school Easter egg hunts that hides a terrible secret.

Everything converges to single climactic point and the stage is abruptly swept clear. Perhaps a little too abruptly, it's like Moriarity wants to sweep the pieces off the board and get it set up for the next game.