I was sent My Husband's Wife by the author in exchange for an honest review :)
My Husband's Wife is a contemporary adult novel following wife and mother of two Rosie Tipcott as she goes through the toughest period of her life so far. Content and happy with her peaceful and ordinary life in Cornwall with her husband and Phil and two adorable little girls Naomi and Leona, Rosie thinks life cannot get any better. But then Phil drops a bombshell. He has met someone else, and he's moving out. Just when things cannot get any worse, tragedy strikes, and Rosie is forced to evaluate everything. How do you build your life back together when it seems unfixable?
Intrigued? Check out the blurb here...
Once a week, Rosie Tipcott counts her blessings.
She goes to sit on her favourite bench on the north Devon cliffs, and thanks her lucky stars for her wonderful husband, her mischievous young daughters, and her neat little house by the sea. She vows to dedicate every waking hour to making her family happy.
But then her husband unexpectedly leaves her for another woman and takes the children. Now she must ask the question: what is left in her life? Can Rosie find the strength to rebuild herself? More importantly, does she even want to?
I thought that one of the greatest strengths of My Husband's Wife was its honest, unflinching portrayal of family life. Browse effectively and sensitively showcased family life at its most joyful, its most mundane, and at its most fragile. The cast of characters were all realistic portrayals that most readers could relate to, and I thought they were all really well developed. I enjoyed reading about the interaction between characters, particularly between Rosie and her brother-in-law, her mother-in-law and her father-in-law. I also thought Rosie's father was a really interesting and well-developed character, and I enjoyed figuring him out. Although I didn't enjoy reading about the imaginary exchanges between Rosie and her mother (too cringe-worthy for me, unfortunately), I enjoyed the whole backstory to Rosie's childhood, and about her parents. I felt this added a much-needed depth to Rosie's emotional and psychological position as a mother, and explained her reaction to a lot of the things that happened to her in the story.
Another strong point of the novel for me, and probably one of my favourite parts of the novel was the dialogue of the children, and particularly their interaction with the adults in the story. I thought everything they said was really authentic and it was very enjoyable and heartwarming to read. I loved the character development of the girls and their reaction to the events that were happening around them. I felt like they were very much at the centre of the action, without being aware of it, and it's always interesting to see the reaction of children to sometimes very adult events that are occurring in their world.
Whilst the relationship between Rosie and her children was very complex, I felt that the relationship with Rosie and Phil could have been made to be much more complicated and realistic. I didn't really get a sense of the tension and underlying strain on the relationship until everything came to blows. I think there could have been a bigger build up to the actual falling-apart of the relationship, which would have created a bigger emotional impact for me. I wanted to care more about the relationship, but I couldn't. I deeply cared about Rosie, however I couldn't stand Phil. I thought he was selfish and insensitive, and really couldn't care less about his children and his ex-wife and the consequences of his actions. I thought the ending of the book was perfect and I was really pleased about the way everything came together.
One of my favourite parts of the whole book was undoubtedly the scene between Gerri and Rosie. I found myself turning the pages like a madman and I thought Gerri was such a great character - I love a subtle evil side to characters, and this really worked. The tension in this scene was definitely an example of the powerful, emotional punch Prowse packs into her writing, and how sharply her deep care of her characters shines through.
Overall, I enjoyed My Husband's Wife and it is definitely a book you can get lost in this summer. If you haven't checked out Amanda Prowse before, I would highly recommend that you do so!
Buy My Husband's Wife here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/My-Husbands-Wife-Greater-Courage/dp/1784977764
Check out Amanda Prowse here: http://amandaprowse.org
Until next time :)
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