My Husband’s Wife, by Jane Corry | Book Review #364

Trigger Warning:
Rape mention,
Stalking,
Murder,
Murder Mention

When young lawyer Lily marries Ed, she’s determined to make a fresh start. To leave the secrets of the past behind. But then she takes on her first murder case and meets Joe. A convicted murderer whom Lily is strangely drawn to. For whom she will soon be willing to risk almost anything.

But Lily is not the only one with secrets. Her next-door neighbor Carla may be only nine, but she has already learned that secrets are powerful things. That they can get her whatever she wants.

When Lily finds Carla on her doorstep sixteen years later, a chain of events is set in motion that can end only one way.

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This review contains spoilers.

Let me just start this review by saying that I did not enjoy My Husband’s Wife. At all. And the more I focus on My Husband’s Wife, the more I find myself hating it. I found that the synopsis was interesting enough to try and read this book, but that’s about it. 

My number one main concern for My Husbands Wife, was that the story would be plain and boring. I can tell you that the story definitely isn’t boring, but it is plain.

In the first few pages we read the prologue, and the prologue itself starts mid-scene. But the scene is one that I could tell right away that it takes place later on in the book. And then My Husband’s Wife starts over again in late September of 2000. I agonized over the fact that this book seemed to take place over a few years. Which, ordinarily, I wouldn’t have minded. Something just irked me that My Husband’s Wife story starts back in 2000.

I dreaded was that there were two very different points of view. The first POV we read from is Lily. In the first half of My Husband’s Wife, we see how anxious Lily is. Both in her career; as she just started out working as a criminal defence lawyer, and in her personal life, where she just got back from her honeymoon to her new husband. Whom she met less than 6 months ago. Yikes.

In the latter half of My Husband’s Wife, we see Lily who has grown into herself. She’s no longer anxious in her career, and she’s comfortable in her marriage.

…And then Carla comes back into Lily and Ed’s life.

The second point of view is from Carla, who back in 2000 was, I’m guessing, around 10-years-old. From the synopsis we’re given quite a bit of shady information on Carla, and frankly I knew from the start that Carla would end up being a character that I would dread reading from. Carla’s character is one of the few that I’ve actually ended up hating. She’s a character that I wish I never read, to be honest. I was truly disgusted by how Carla acted in the second part of the book. Both because of how coy Carla thought she was acting, and how Carla weaselled her way into her (then) new living quarters.

I didn’t like how predictable My Husband’s Wife was. I’ll say that there were parts here and there that I had predicted which did not come true. However, there were some pretty big moments in the story that were completely predictable.

There are definite highs and lows on each page. A plus side to My Husband’s Wife is that the writing makes me want to continue on since whenever I started reading more of the story, I was immediately placed in this novel and my world fell away.

There’s one thing that I ended up liking about My Husband’s Wife, and it’s a quote that Lily thinks to herself:

“I’m aware that I will never be considered beautiful, even though I take pleasure in the fact that I have grown into my skin. Perhaps that’s a good thing.”

I really admire that Lily grew into her own skin. That’s really the only thing that I liked about My Husband’s Wife.

I give My Husband’s Wife, 1.5 stars.

Happy Reading!
— Adele