The Wife by Alafair Burke- Battle of the Book

What's up everyone? 

I hope all is well!

The June book for The Spine Breakers was The Wife by Alafair Burke. 

Yes, another psychological thriller.  This book club group seems to be following the theme.
That being said The Wife was definitely the psychological thriller that I enjoyed the most. 

Angela (nee Mullen) Powell's husband, Jason is accused of rape and sexual misconduct toward two women.  
Burke's story follows Angela has she discovers his husband's infidelities and how her past that she worked so hard to keep buried in the past, might come to light. 

Is Jason innocent? Did he really do the things that he's being accused of? Will Angela always be faithfully by his side? 

In between character narratives and flashbacks, Burke weaves in emails and police reports to help tell this story. 

Burke made sure that the story wrapped up nicely at the end. (Which, is a big thing to me!).  I saw a few people on Goodreads had asked questions about if there would be a sequel.  I gotta be honest, I don't think that I would want there to be a sequel.  I liked it just the way it ended. 

Bookpage conducted an awesome interview with Alafair Burke.  You can check out the interview here. 

The Wife tackles topics that are very irrelevant for 2018.  Which, to me at least, kicks it up a notch. 

Jessica read the book before I did and I remember texting her being like "Colin did it, didn't he!?".  Followed up with "NO! It wasn't Colin.... It WAS Jason!"  I was all over the place with my guesses but that's what made it fun.  Trying to figure out what happened and the who done it.  I'm sure for some people, it's going to be totally obvious who did what - but for me, I had no idea. 

I definitely think that The Wife qualifies as a beach read. I give The Wife 4.5 coffee beans out of 5.  It was a definite page turner.  I liked how the ending played out and I thought it was well written and that it brought to light a topic that is very much real and happening in 2018. 

~JB

The Wife by Alafair Burke -- Battle of the Book

Hello Deweys!  And now for a short spine breaking review.....

The Spine Breakers Book Club chose The Wife by Alafair Burke as their latest selection.  I was apprehensive.  I'm starting to not find the thrillers so thrilling anymore.  But this book was different, it was fresh, and I liked it.

So rather than a thriller that centers so heavily of the psychological aspect of the novel, or on strange murders, this novel uses a marital relationship between two people.  So, your wife or your husband...How much can you really trust someone?  And how well do you really know your loved ones?  

So you can probably guess that this book centers around suspected infidelity at the fault of the husband of course.  *(Inset emoji with two hands up in the air here!)* But how far over the line was this infidelity? Was it flirtation?  Was it an affair?  Was it sexual harassment of the workplace? Was it rape?  So yeah, the novel does center around murder, disappearances, and "thrilling" thriller things, but it also centers around something which is so prevalent relationships, trust & cheating,  which makes the novel as a whole more believable.  

But, I didn't like the end.  I could do without the "twisty" endings.  It would have been more spine breaking without it.  

So Dewey Readers, I give you a rating of 4 out of 5 Coffee Beans. Let's see what Jillian thinks! 

~Jessica  

P.S.  I returned my copy to the library before I could take a #Bookstagram :(