This book was sent to Traveling With T for review consideration.

The Third Wife

Three wives. 5 children. 1 happy man.

Or maybe not?

Adrian is a man who loves love. He’s on his third marriage- to the young Maya. He has 2 ex-wives and 5 kids with those wives. Maya meets Adrian, falls for him and expects life to be happily ever after.

Here’s the thing- when you are the third wife, you are the last in line with the family. You may be the apple of the eye of your husband- but to the kids, you are just the woman who stole their daddy. To the ex-wives, you are the lady who took the children’s father away.

Let’s say, though, your hubby considers his whole family a modern family. Unconventional. Supportive of their father in all of whims. Ready and willing to accept the new wife and eventually the new baby that the husband hopes to happen.

Sometimes, some families don’t want to see the cracks till it’s too late. Adrian learns a painful lesson on not seeing the cracks till it’s too late.

Traveling With T’s Thoughts:

This is my first Lisa Jewell book and I was hooked from some of the more tantalizing lines in the hard cover jacket. The lines twisted in my head, weaved their ways into my mind and compelled me to read this book- although I did not get to it as quickly as I wanted.

So, we’ve established that Lisa and I have no history and I was kind of going into this book blind- but knowing that Helen @ My Novel Opinion loved it (we tend to like similar books) I felt good about this book.

Then I met the character Adrian. What a whiny man child. Seriously. He marries 1 woman, divorces her, marries another, divorces her and then marries a third and expects all the wives, the children and the child he hopes for desperately with the third wife to be a big ole happy family. MAN-CHILD.

Adrian was classic when “the going got tough, the man leaves and finds another woman to marry”. Love was his drug. It was not pretty.

Now, I’m sure you are thinking “Oh, T! You hated this book!” Nope. Didn’t hate it. Could not stand Adrian- felt such a reaction to his man-child ways that I thought I might have to drink a bottle of wine each time he annoyed me- but the book- pure ugly look into the lives of a family- a family that is trying to adjust to the whims of the father and then deal with the fall-out what happened to Maya.

THE THIRD WIFE reveals the story of Maya on the worst night of her life- and then takes the story in 2 different directions- one with Adrian slowly coming to terms with the death of Maya and learning many, many, MANY things about his beloved family and the other direction- what it was like for Maya to be the third wife.

There are some red-herrings to this story and some pieces are put together by the alternating current and past tales. As Lisa Jewell lets us into the truth of all that really happened- you, the reader, will root for Maya and wish the events of the night had turned just a bit differently.

Final thoughts: THE THIRD WIFE is definitely worth checking out. It combines a family drama with a touch of a psychological thriller and will keep you turning pages to see the whole story!

 

*This book was sent to Traveling With T for review consideration by Atria Books. All thoughts and opinions are mine alone.*

 

 

Happy Reading and Bookishly Yours,

T @ Traveling With T