When I went on holiday in July, I was a reading machine. I hadn’t read that much in such a short space of time for years. I forgot how much I adore getting into a good book. Alas, it didn’t last when I got home. It’s so easy to let life get in the way (and Netflix), and get out of the habit of doing the things you love. With books, I’m all or nothing. I either binge read. or go cold turkey. It was my birthday in August and one of the things I wanted was some new books to read. When we went to London at the beginning of August I saw a book being advertised called The Wife Between Us. It sounded right up my street, so luckily, Tom bought it for me.If you have read Gone Girl or Girl On The Train, you will love this book. It’s the first time I have read something that is by two different authors. I think they did well, however, you can tell in places as the writing becomes clunky and they forgot the golden rule of writing – show, don’t tell. In some places in part two, the author/authors go into far too much detail, leaving nothing to the imagination of the reader. Despite this, it still has plenty of twists to keep the reader enthralled and left guessing.The book is written in three parts. The first part is narrated by Nellie and Vanessa. I think this part of the novel is extremely clever as no one would guess that Nellie is in fact Vanessa. We have past and present Vanessa, but this is not revealed to us until part two. It’s clever because it makes you think that Nellie is the woman who has stolen Richard off Vanessa and that Vanessa was left with nothing after their break up, and she somehow deceievd Richard and she pushed him into the arms of another woman.Without giving too much away. Vanessa and Nellie are worlds apart, even though they are the same person. You are taken on an emotional rollercoaster with her as it’s hard to know when she is being real and how calculating is she? Emma is the other main character. Again, I think the reader can struggle at times with who she is and what her motives are. The authors do a good job of creating manipulation around both Vanessa and Emma and to how they want the readers to feel about them.What I enjoyed most about this book, was never knowing what was actually happening with Vanessa. Emma is a peripheral character at times, but she has her own agenda that we discover towards the end of the book. There are enough twists and turns to keep the reader intrigued and wanting to keep reading to find out what happens. It wasn’t as intense as Gone Girl or Girl on the train, but the style is very similar. I’m not sure two authors work for a book, as the narrative can sometimes become dull and irrelevant to the storyline. Overall, it was a good read, a book I didn’t put down, but mainly because I’m impatient and needed to know what happened, not necessarily because the writing was intricate. Great book for a holiday read! But not inspirational or a huge talking point, like the books it was trying to imitate.
Gemma and Life 