Waiting on Wednesday (166)

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

The Ever After by Sarah Pekkanen  

(June 5, 2018!) 

In this intricate and enthralling domestic drama, perfect for fans of Big Little Lies and The Affair, the internationally bestselling author of the “gossipy page-turner” (Glamour) The Perfect Neighbors goes deep into a marriage in crisis, peeling back layers of secrets to discover where the relationship veered off course—and whether it is worth saving.

Josie and Frank Moore are happy…at least Josie thinks they are. As parents of two young girls in the Chicago suburbs, their days can be both busy and monotonous, and sometimes Josie wonders how she became a harried fortysomething mother rather than the driven career woman she once was. But Frank is a phenomenal father, he’s handsome and charismatic, and he still looks at his wife like she’s the beautiful woman he married more than a decade ago. Josie isn’t just happy—she’s lucky.

Until one Saturday morning when Josie borrows her husband’s phone to make a quick call—and sees nine words that shatter her world.

Now Josie feels as if she is standing at the edge of a sharp precipice. As she looks back at pivotal moments in the relationship she believed would last forever, she is also plunging ahead, surprising everyone (especially herself) with how far she will go to uncover the extent of her husband’s devastating secret.

With her “conversational writing style and a knack for making readers care about her characters” (The Washington Post) bestselling author Sarah Pekkanen paints a vivid, kaleidoscopic portrait of a marriage before and during a crisis—and of a woman who fears that the biggest secret of all may be the one she’s hiding from herself.

Since The Wife Between Us (Sarah's book with Greer Hendricks) was released in January I wasn't expecting another book from her this year. So I was beyond excited when I stumbled upon this on Goodreads. Sarah is one of my favorite contemporary writers (if you haven't read Skipping a Beat yet you're missing out big time!), and I can't wait to see how she explores life and marriage in this book. 

Add on Goodreads!

Find out More about the Author:

Website

Blog Tour: The Wife Between Us by Sarah Pekkanen and Greer Hendricks (Review!)

Summery/Cover Image from Publisher's Website: 

When you read this book, you will make many assumptions.
You will assume you are reading about a jealous ex-wife.
You will assume she is obsessed with her replacement – a beautiful, younger woman who is about to marry the man they both love.
You will assume you know the anatomy of this tangled love triangle.
Assume nothing.

Twisted and deliciously chilling, The Wife Between Us exposes the secret complexities of an enviable marriage - and the dangerous truths we ignore in the name of love.

Review: 

I've been a huge fan of Sarah Pekkanen ever since I read her second novel Skipping a Beat. It's a book I still consider to be one of my all time favorites as well as one I suggest to pretty much anyone who'll listen! Therefore, when I heard about The Wife Between, a book that's one of the most buzzed about of 2018, I instantly added it to my wish list. 

The Result? The Wife Between Us is SPECTACULAR! Featuring explosive twists, complex main characters, and stellar writing, The Wife Between Us quite simply blew my mind. It's a book I finished days ago yet it's still haunting my thoughts, and if that's not a sign of a good book, I don't know what is. 

In the synopsis it says "assume nothing," and I think that's the perfect way to describe The Wife Between Us. At first, I thought I had everything figured out, but then I got to around 50% and everything I had thought to be true was SHATTERED. I wasn't even mad - I was delighted. I loved being wrong in this case, because a book that manages to rock me to my core as much as this one did is rare. 

In addition to the explosive twists, Sarah Pekkanen and Greer Hendricks divulge into a lot of hard topics within this - abuse, mental illness, moving on after a failed relationship, etc. I thought they did an amazing job of bringing all these topics together in this one as well as presenting it in a way that was realistic and handled well. 

In all, I could go on about The Wife Between Us all day, but I don't want to give anything away. So I'll end with this....

I've read Sarah's books before, and they've always managed to impress me, but this book takes my appreciation of Sarah's writing (and Greer's!) to a whole new level. This is the kind of read that makes me remember why I love a good thriller, and more importantly, why a dual narrative (and a third person one at that) can work so incredibly well when done right. Basically, add this book to your TBRs - you won't regret it!! 

Grade: A+ 

The Wife Between Us will be released on January 9, 2018! 

Source: eARC provided by publisher via Netgalley 

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Buy Links: 

Publisher | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | BAM | IndieBound | iBooks 

Review: The Best of Us by Sarah Pekkanen

Summary/Cover Image from Publisher's Website:

An all-expense-paid week at a luxury villa in Jamaica—it’s the invitation of a lifetime for a group of old college friends. All four women are desperate not just for a reunion, but for an escape: Tina is drowning under the demands of mothering four young children. Allie is shattered by the news that a genetic illness runs in her family. Savannah is carrying the secret of her husband’s infidelity. And, finally, there’s Pauline, who spares no expense to throw her wealthy husband an unforgettable thirty-fifth birthday celebration, hoping it will gloss over the cracks already splitting apart their new marriage.

Languid hours on a private beach, gourmet dinners, and late nights of drinking kick off an idyllic week for the women and their husbands. But as a powerful hurricane bears down on the island, turmoil swirls inside the villa, forcing each of the women to reevaluate everything she knows about her friends—and herself.

Review:

After reading the heartbreaking yet spectacular Skipping a Beat, Sarah's sophomore novel, I have been determined to read more by her. However, I didn't get around to it until recently when The Best of Us, her newest book, ended up in my hands. Thankfully, The Best of Us was an amazing and well crafted tale that brought laughs as well as tears and pulled on my heartstrings constantly. So basically, I'm now beating myself up for not reading more by her sooner!

The Best of Us tells the story of four women, three friends since college and one newcomer, who are brought together for a friend's lavish, week long birthday celebration in Jamaica. For Tina, the trip means finally getting a break from her adorable but exhausting children and getting closer to her husband Gio. Allie, on the other hand, hopes the trip will put her mind at ease at a recent and shocking revelation, one that may change everything for her and her precious family. Savannah, a soon to be divorcee, hopes the trip will also provide distraction... from her impending divorce and the feelings she still feels toward her husband. Last but not least, Pauline, the organizer of the party and wife of the man who the party is for, hopes this celebration will serve as a way to get to know her husband's friends among other things. What will happen to each of these women and their husbands? Only time and more pages will tell in this shocking and page-turning tale that will have any reader dying to know what will happen next.

As mentioned before, I'm always a little hesitant to begin books that are told from multiple POVs. However, I'm happy to report this tactic worked quite well for The Best of Us. Sarah did a great job of digging into each women's lives and bringing their unique voices to life. I felt that each was well developed, and truthfully, I came to root and like every one of them....even though they did all have their moments. What I liked most about Allie, Tina, Pauline, and Savannah, though, was that they were just average, ordinary women, trying to make it in this world. Each was faced with hard and sometimes deadly problems within the book (from tumultuous diseases to marriage problems to stay-at-home-mom blues) and the solution to them weren't always easy and cookie-cutter clean. Instead, it took work and some mistakes to make things work, which made The Best of Us even better, in my opinion.

Moving on, I really enjoyed the plot in this one as well. I'm always happy to read contemporary, especially when tropical vacations are involved. Like I said above, the book had a lot to do with each woman and her problems, and this really kept the book moving along. I was constantly dying to know what would occur next. Like whether or not Savannah would end up back with her husband, or what exactly Allie was facing. Plus I especially enjoyed the little twists and turns introduced half way through. One in particular really managed to shock me, but I won't say any more about that.

Sarah's writing was also fantastic. She did a great job of developing each character and keeping the book moving. However, at times, I did feel that the book was occasionally a little stilted, especially at first when everything was setting up.

In all, The Best of Us is an enjoyable new addition to the adult contemporary genre, and while I didn't enjoy it as much as Skipping a Beat, it's still something I highly suggest. I can't wait to see what Sarah has up next!

Grade: A-

The Best of Us (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads) will be released April 9!

Source: Publicist- thanks Emily! 

Skipping a Beat by Sarah Pekkanen

Summary/Cover Image from Author's Website:

What would you do if your husband wanted to rewrite the rules of your relationship?

Julia Dunhill, a thirty-something party planner, seems to have it all: Married to her high school sweetheart and living in a gorgeous home in Washington D.C., she imagines her future unfolding very much as it has for the past few years, since she and her husband Michael successfully launched their companies. There will be dinner parties to attend, operas to dress up for, and weddings and benefits to organize for her growing list of clients. There will be shopping sprees with her best friend, Isabelle, and inevitably those last five pounds to shed. In her darker moments, she worries that her marriage has dissolved from a true partnership into a façade, but she convinces herself it’s due to the intensity of their careers and fast-paced lifestyle.

So as she arranges the molten chocolate cupcakes for the annual Opera benefit, how can she know that her carefully-constructed world is about to fall apart? That her husband will stand up from the head of the table in his company’s boardroom, open his mouth to speak, and crash to the carpeted floor… all in the amount of time it will take her to walk across a ballroom floor just a few miles away. Four minutes and eight seconds after his cardiac arrest, a portable defibrillator jump-starts Michael’s heart. But in those lost minutes he becomes a different man, with an altered perspective on the rarified life they’ve been living and a determination to regain the true intimacy they once shared. Now it is up to Julia to decide — is it worth upending her comfortable world to try to find her way back to the husband she once adored, or should she walk away from this new Michael, who truthfully became a stranger to her long before his change of heart?

Review:

Skipping a Beat is a book that caught my eye the first time I heard about it, because not only was the cover stunning but the premise sounded intriguing as well as promising. Thankfully enough Sarah Pekkanen's Skipping a Beat was a book that took a hold of my heart with its very first sentence and didn't let go until the very last.

Julia and Michael meet under some unusual and scary circumstances all those years ago and ever since that fateful day they have been hooked on each other. Though, as of lately everything between them is starting to drift apart. For one, they both have their own careers that keep them busy. For Julia it's her party planning business and for Michael its his self started business that over time has accumulated a wealth in the millions. And second of all, Michael's just a different person these days. He never seems to have time for Julia, and as of lately, she's been wondering if they should break it off for good. But then Michael goes into cardiac arrest and comes out a different person, a person who wants to make things right with Julia once and for all, a guy who wants to sell his mega-successful business so he'll have all the time in the world for her. Julia doesn't know what to think. At first, she just puts it off as Michael being crazy, but after she begins to believe him, and before she knows it she begins to fall in love with him once again. Though, with this comes shocking revelations and secrets, ones that will have any reader wondering what will happen between these two people as they begin to rewrite the rules to their marriage.

This novel was so fantastic that I don't even know where to begin, though I guess I'll start where I always do...with the characters.

One of the things I love most about adult fiction is the layers and layers of development and time the writers put into their main characters and the lives and relationships at hand and the same rang true with Skipping a Beat.

For one, I adored Julia. She was a character who I never failed to root for, even when she did some pretty silly things, because she just felt so real to me. She made mistakes, she wasn't the perfect wife or friend at times but that didn't stop her from being someone I completely admired as as person, and the same was true about her husband Michael. Michael is that typical sweet and nerdy kid in high school that turns out to be a fabulous and brilliant guy during adulthood. What I liked most about them, though, was their relationship. It was complicated beyond relief, filled with so many unsaid things, but yet I could easily see how much they loved each other even when they couldn't weren't able to. Better yet, I loved the questions Sarah brought about me with their relationship. Questions like, how far would I go to try to understand someone I used and still love? How much change is too much change? How far can a person go before loosing all faith in a person and calling it quits once and for all? How would I feel if someone asked me to rewrite the rules of my relationship? It was a thoughtproking read to say the least.

I also enjoyed the plot in this once again because of the layers and layers of details and twists and turns that will have nearly any reader on the edge of their seat dying to know what will happen next. Best of all, when mixed with the characters and Sarah's excellent writing, this book was one I couldn't put down, not even for a second.

Lastly, I have to say something about the ending in this, though I won't giveaway anything. It was heartbreaking to say the least, though the impact it left on me as well as the characters it involved made it worth it in the end, and it also shows just how brilliant of a writer Ms. Pekkanen is.

In all, readers of adult fiction, teen fiction, or a mix of both, you all must read this one! It's simply amazing, a heartbreaking and heartwarming book that I'm still thinking about even though I finished it several days ago.

Grade: A+

Skipping a Beat is now out! You can read the first chapter here.

Source: Publicist at Simon and Schuster. Thanks Cristina!

*Also, if you've had the chance to read this book, I would love to know your thoughts on it, especially the ending, so feel free to leave a comment, or send me an email.*

Oh, and I don't usually do this, but here is as song that I think goes along perfectly with book except for a few lyrics: