Book Review: The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen

´This was our patterns: I challenged Richard by trying to assert my independence, and he made me pay for my transgressions´.

I must confess that I made all the wrong assumptions about the main woman character from The Wife Between Us, my second book by the writing team Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen. It may be the intention of the authors to completely confuse the reader and build up smoke mirrors reflecting the previous smoke mirrors, But I may confess as well that it was really hard to keep myself interested until the end - which has a spectacular unexpected twist. 

I am a fast and hard-working reader, and I can read a 200+ pages book in one day, but this time it took me almost two weeks, not because the writing was not good but due to the very slow pace that made me reconsider several times if I will or not finish the book.

On the other hand now, at the end of the reading journey, I dare to say that the pace was good for the kind of problem featured: domestic abuse, violent, narcissist and manipulative husband. In a ´real´ relationship it takes a lot of time to acknowledge such aggressive patterns and it takes even more time for the others to switch sides on behalf of the victim. Was it an intended effect of the writers to the reader, I don´t know, but the story made me think about it for sure.

There are three women, two actual ex-wives, one about to become one, deceived in this story. Deceived by a charming, successful and rich man who doesn´t necessarily need their love but needs to control and subdue them. Love and affection depends on interpretation and intention and sometimes the intersection between the two reveals either an error of judgment or the aim to manipulate.

I appreciate the fine net of meanings and interpretations spread all over the book, but felt that the pace and the coherence of the story was missing focus. 

Besides the wise insights into abusive relationships hard to pattern as such, The Wife Between Us is at the same time a warning about how our decisions may influence for good or for bad other people´s lives. Hence, how important is to think before we act, no matter how strong our passions may be.

Rating: 3 stars