The second novel from Laura Pearson, Nobody’s Wife, was published on March 28th 2019.
I have read and reviewed Laura’s debut novel – Missing Pieces, which I loved, so I had high hopes for this new book. The story was well written and had a good rhythm to it, but I have to confess I did not like the protagonist. When I read books I like to root for the central character, but I found it hard to identify with this one – this is not a fault of the writing, in fact, that I disliked the character means that the author succeeded in provoking an emotional reaction in me, but because of my dislike of the character, I didn’t feel satisfied with the story.
The plot follows Emily and her sister Josephine and tells the story of their lives, loves and relationship together. The storytelling unfolded at a nice pace and at first I liked Emily and learning more about her life. However Emily goes on to betray her husband and her sister and it was when this started to unfold that I grew distasteful about her. At the end of the book there was an incident where you’d say ‘the worst happened’, but even when this awful event occurred, I didn’t feel that Emily had gotten her comeuppance. I want her to suffer more for destroying lives.
It would have been nice if Josephine – Emily’s sister had the conclusion of everything working out for her. It would have been nice to feel that she had a chance at happiness, or something hopeful and positive to end on. But I did feel that the end of the story was a little rushed and could have been developed more.
In my review of Missing Pieces, I noted that the author’s style was developed and mature – I was surprised that Missing Pieces was a debut novel. It is only after reading Nobody’s Wife that I learned in the acknowledgements that Nobody’s Wife was in fact the first book that Laura wrote, and Missing Pieces, despite being a debut novel, was the second. This makes sense to me now, having read the ‘first’ book. I do like this writer, but not this particular story. However as I so enjoyed Missing Pieces, I’ll be keen to read Laura’s book number 3 for what I assume will be experienced handling, insight and entertaining dialogue.
The publisher’s promotional copy for this book states:
Nobody’s Wife maintains the emotional and addictive staples of Laura’s writing, but shows off a new side, too: it’s a little bit racy, and it’s a little bit dark. Nobody’s Wife is the perfect, unputdownable afternoon read. You’ll race through it.
I did indeed race through it, it was a decent holiday read but I wish it had been as amazing as her debut book. I’ll await book number three in anticipation.
You can buy your copy of Nobody’s Wife on Amazon here.
To learn what other bloggers thought of Nobody’s Wife, visit the official Blog Tour! Details of who is publishing a review and on what date are below!
