Sunday, February 21, 2010

A Reliable Wife

From the product description:
He placed a notice in a Chicago paper, an advertisement for "a reliable wife." She responded, saying that she was "a simple, honest woman." She was, of course, anything but honest, and the only simple thing about her was her single-minded determination to marry this man and then kill him, slowly and carefully, leaving her a wealthy widow, able to take care of the one she truly loved.

I chose this book because so many people suggested it to me, and I know that I started it expecting to love it.  I should never do that.  It's possible that my expectations were just too high.  It was a good enough story, but I saw every "twist" well before it came and knew the ending when I still had about half of the book to go.  The lust was overdone, and some of the scenes where nothing much happened went on for much too long.  I was impressed with most of the characters, which is what kept me reading to the end.  They stayed true to who they were which made the story more predictable, but that saved it for me. Confused? All I can say without spoilers is that I was glad that the characters didn't break away and become something inconceivable.  I would rate it between a 2 1/2 and a 3 out of 5....hard to decide.

4 comments:

Jennifer @ Mrs. Q: Book Addict said...

I hate when my expectations are very high, and the book falls short. I try to not do that, but it happens anyway.

Christine said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Glory Bee said...

Love the new blog look.

Literary Feline said...

I'm sorry you didn't enjoy this more, Christine. I have a copy on my TBR shelf that I'll get to someday. Probably not anytime soon.