Monday, May 25, 2015

The Husband's Secret

Oooh... I bet you thought Matt did something really wrong, didn't you? Sadly, nothing fun and salacious, just another book review!

The Husband's Secret - Liane Moriarty
The Husband's Secret
At the heart of The Husband’s Secret is a letter that’s not meant to be read

My darling Cecilia, if you’re reading this, then I’ve died...


Imagine that your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death. Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest secret—something with the potential to destroy not just the life you built together, but the lives of others as well. Imagine, then, that you stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive. . . .
Cecilia Fitzpatrick has achieved it all—she’s an incredibly successful businesswoman, a pillar of her small community, and a devoted wife and mother. Her life is as orderly and spotless as her home. But that letter is about to change everything, and not just for her: Rachel and Tess barely know Cecilia—or each other—but they too are about to feel the earth-shattering repercussions of her husband’s secret.

Acclaimed author Liane Moriarty has written a gripping, thought-provoking novel about how well it is really possible to know our spouses—and, ultimately, ourselves.


To be honest, I strictly bought this for the cover. As it turns out, my method of judging a book by the cover still works for me because this was a really good book. Easily this book would be a hit with reading groups and book clubs because there is so much that you could argue with this book. 

The book centers around three main characters: 
Cecilia: Finds a mysterious letter written by her husband which clearly tells her to not read it until after he's passed away. But things are kind of off in their marriage and as we all know, curiosity will kill the cat, and so she absolutely totally reads it. Oh shut up, we ALL would. Hell, let's be honest- if I found such a letter for someone else, I would probably still read it. But the contents of the letter are HUGE. 

Tess: She's maybe my favorite character. Mostly because Tess is approached by her husband and her cousin (who is basically like a twin sister to Tess) and is informed that they have fallen in love. THEN her husband has the balls to suggest that all three of them live together. Not to mention? Tess and her husband have a little boy, Liam, so the whole thing is absurd. So Tess does what we all would do, she packs up her boy and she travels to the other side of Australia to stay with her mother until she comes up with a game plan on how to handle this. Except she runs into an old boyfriend and everything gets exponentially more complicated. 

Rachel: My least favorite character. She's a widow and is reeling from the murder of her daughter years ago. She still has her son, his wife (who she doesn't like), and her beloved grandson. Except she is informed that they are moving clear across the world to New York, seemingly leaving her all alone in her grief. She's very much a "feel sorry for myself" and she desperately wants the man who killed her daughter to be arrested, but she's the only one who thinks he was involved. 

Cue a super tragic car accident to not only bring to light the revelations of Cecilia's husband, give Rachel closure, and help Tess make a decision. 

Overall? Really good read. I managed to read this book while letting Penelope nap on my chest and it was hard to put down. There was a few chapters where I felt like giving up once I read what the husband's secret was, but then I decided I really wanted to see what was going to happen to him, what would Cecilia ultimately do? I really thought the epilogue was fascinating because it's basically the "what could have been". 

There are so many secrets about our lives that we'll never know. - page413

There is another passage that just hit me, because I think any of us who has experienced some kind of betrayal in our marriage can relate to it: 

And once the waves (of hatred) passed, there would still be love. It was an entirely different feeling from the uncomplicated, unstinting adoration she'd felt as a young bride, walking down the aisle to that serious, handsome man; but she knew that no matter how much she hated him for what he'd done, the love was still there, like a deep seam of gold in her heart. It would always be there. - page 411

Doesn't that just... hit home? Of course it does. Because no matter what our spouse does, at the end of the day, you can't just shut off the fact that you love them. With time, two lives are so intertwined that you can't just untangle them and move on. That there is always that love, sometimes buried deep but it's there, and that? That's what you need to find to make the decisions to move a marriage forward. The couples married their whole lives? They never lost sight of that love, no matter what was going on in attempts to bury it. 

You can purchase this book on Barnes & Noble and Amazon

3 comments:

Jen Mc said...

I have been on the hold list for this book....forever!!!!!!! Thanks for your review.
I hope you are well!

Ruth said...

Thia sounds really good. I will have to look for it.

cpr040304 said...

I really liked this book. Tess was my favorite too, but I also liked Rachel for her thoughts and self-control in not voicing her true feelings about her daughter-in-law. It was a great read and I totally did not expect the type of ending.