Book Review - My Husband's Wife by Amanda Prowse

My Husband's Wife

By

Amanda Prowse

Once a week, Rosie Tipcott counts her blessings.

She goes to sit on her favourite bench on the north Devon cliffs, and thanks her lucky stars for her wonderful husband, her mischievous young daughters, and her neat little house by the sea. She vows to dedicate every waking hour to making her family happy.

But then her husband unexpectedly leaves her for another woman and takes the children. Now she must ask the question: what is left in her life? Can Rosie find the strength to rebuild herself? More importantly, does she even want to?

*CONTAINS SPOILERS AND SWEARING*

Ok, so first of all I was enjoying this book and found the humour really funny, especially "Rosie Shitstar". The children were delightful and their conversations and interactions with the adults lifted the story. It then became a quite difficult read as I had a friend whose husband left after a very long marriage and the book made me angry for her and Rosie.

However I couldn't quite understand the character of Gerri. What was her aim? Why did she pick Phil? Why did Rosie's in-laws and best friend get taken in so quickly by her, if they genuinely cared about Rosie? For instance when Gerri went all psycho on Rosie at her house, why did Rosie's best friend immediately side with Gerri. Surely she would have taken Rosie's side?

The book seemed to build up to Phil leaving (although if you read the blurb, you know this is coming) and then concentrate on Gerri's plan to destroy Rosie's life by moving the children to another school and cutting their hair. Then almost as quickly as her life is destroyed, Phil appears and says "You were right Rosie, I'm sorry, Gerri was a psycho!" - or words to that effect!
I found myself shouting at Rosie "Tell him to piss off for f**ks sake,he ruined your life, took your children and now he wants to come back and start again!"

Thankfully Rosie doesn't return to Phil, but realises that his brother Kevin is her true love.

I found this book to be funny and emotive, but when Phil leaves Gerri, I felt that part was rushed. It was almost as if the author hadn't got enough information to tell us about Gerri, so she moved on to the ending.

I have enjoyed Amanda Prowse's work before though and to say I hated this is an overstatement.

3* 

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