A Good Marriage by Kimberly McCreight
When May 1st came around, I was SOO excited because that meant that Book of the Month released their 5 books that they feature. BTW, if you haven't signed up for this monthly book subscription, click HERE for $5 your first month. May's Book of the Month pick for me was this thriller. "A Twisted thriller that packs lies, domestic dramas and dirty little secrets into a whirlwind murder mystery" That's what pulled me in and naturally, I added it to my cart and was good to go.
MY RATING :
⭐️ ⭐️ / 5
Right away, I'm going to start off my saying that this book is slow. It took me about a week to finish and I usually finish a book within 2 days if I get invested in it quick and it took me a long time to get invested. I didn't find myself reaching for this book. I couldn't get invested in the characters.
The story follows 2 very different women and their marriages, Lizzie and Amanda. Only thing is …. Amanda is dead.
Lizzie is a associate lawyer at a big time law firm. She is married to writer, Sam, who is an alcoholic. Amanda is a housewife and stay at home mom , who is married to self made millionaire businessman Zach. They have a very distant marriage. I almost get a feeling very early on that their marriage is very lacking in love and seems more of a business transaction kind of marriage.
At the very start, Lizzie gets a phone call from a old college friend ,Zach,that she lost touch with. He needs her help. He was arrested for assulting a police officer, after they were called because Zach discovered his wife dead after they came home at different times from a party.
Really? They want to arrest this man for some BS charge after he just found his wife dead? But of course, they always suspect the spouse when someone has clearly been murdered. There is just so much blood. So much blood.
Lizzie from the time Zach asks for her help does not want to do it. She is not into handling violent cases. Her dream from the very early on was to work for the US Attorney's office and be a prosecutor, which she did , but due to her husband's alcoholism, put them in debt after he got fired from all his jobs and got sued.
But lets back up a little bit. This is how to story seems to be written. It goes back and forth from the points of view from each woman. First, of Lizzie after Amanda's death, then of Amanda's point of view before she died. And before she went to the party...the sex party.
Ohhh, yea. I hadn't mentioned that yet. So, Amanda and her friends , Maude and Sarah are out to dinner. That's when Sarah mentions that she's so excited for this party that Maude and her husband, Sebe host every year when the kids from their neighborhood go to camp. These parties seem to get a little wild and even though Sarah and her husband, Kerry have never participated, Maude and Sebe open up their upstairs bedrooms for people to take advantage of and people go up their with other than their spouses and do sexual activities and its all very discreet.
Wow, these people are crazy. I guess what you have to understand as the picture that is painted of the neighbor its that its the typical rich, kind of snobby neighbor we all have seen in movies. The types that you don't think will patriciate in this kind of of action..
That's why it was so hard for me to get into this book. It wasn't believable to me. I do not see people just sleeping around with other people in this kind of neighborhood and it stay so discreet. Nobody talks about it after the party is over. WHAT? Do you believe that ? I sure as hell don't. Especially in this day and age. With social media and hackers.....
Hackers.....ahhh, another thing going on in this novel. This very exclusive school that the kids of these parents go to was hacked and the parents were receiving emails , saying that if they don't pay this money to the hackers that they were going to expose all their dirty laundry that they hacked on their computers, including porn, pictures finances, things of that nature.
So, it seems Zach is never around because he is always "working" so Sarah, who has quickly become Amanda's best friend since they have moved to this neighborhood, about 6 months ago, is always sending her husband Kerry over to Amanda's house to help and when Amanda is over at their house, Kerry always makes her feel welcomed.
Amanda is a little crazy, too, though. I mean, she is a grown woman and she refers to her father as Daddy. But she feels like he is stalking her. She always feels likes she is being followed. Its all very weird.
So, as Lizzie is interviewing witness's she starts putting pieces together. She interviews Maude/Sebe and Sarah/Kerry. There's also police interviews with other party goers.
SPOLIERS AHEAD
If you haven't read this book and still want to, STOP READING!! SPOILERS AHEAD!
OK, so like I have been saying, I didn't really enjoy this novel. It did have its plot twists towards the nd that I did not see coming, but I didn't enjoy it like I had hoped.
Turns out, Zach wasn't as rich as we thought because when Lizzie went to him and told him that she needed money to pay for their own investigators and things like that, sure he signs over his power of attorney for his accountant but when she goes to him, he informs her that there is no money. So, basically, at the end Lizzie ends up doing all this for free.
I'm just gong to come out and say it. Zach did not kill his wife. Even thought, they were in a loveless marriage, he did not kill his wife. Remember when I told you that there was something weird about Amanda. She thought that her "Daddy" was stalking her.
Turns out...her daddy was dead. She killed him at least 12 years ago, when she walked in on him drunk abusing her friend that at that point he had already killed on accident because he was drunk and trying to rape her.
WHAT? What kind of shit is that? I don't understand. What in the actual f**k? She gets so paranoid , that she leaves the party after she was getting threatening text messages from someone, which I thought, do you not recognize the number. I know getting anonymous calls is a thing and having people hang up is a thing, but you can look up a number from a text message. She runs home from the party and she things her father is following her .
But there is someone following her. This person get inside of Amanda's house and Amanda freaks out. And she is fighting this person she falls down the stairs and hits her head so many times and that's what kills her.
But who is this person? Its not her father. He's dead.
HA!!! Kerry, Sarah's husband thinks that since he goes to Amanda's house and helps her and are friendly to each other that they have developed some sort of relationship that eventually they fell in love with each other. Amanda never implied any of this. Which goes to show, being nice is not flirting!!!
So, Lizzie gets Zach off but as she is, he had told her that he was the one hacking into peoples computers and since Zach had blackmailed Lizze into doing this trial for him for free, she turned him in and that was that.
I don't know. I did not care for this book. And I feel really bad saying that, but this just wasn't my cup of tea. Have you read this? What did you think? Let me know in the comments. I'm sorry if you liked this one. I usually LOVE thrillers and suspense novels. I don't know why this one just didn't get to me in the right way. I's sorry. Does anyone have any recommendations on what I should read next??
Until next time.... ☮
Next book:
Copycat by Kimberla Lawson Roby
Right away, I'm going to start off my saying that this book is slow. It took me about a week to finish and I usually finish a book within 2 days if I get invested in it quick and it took me a long time to get invested. I didn't find myself reaching for this book. I couldn't get invested in the characters.
The story follows 2 very different women and their marriages, Lizzie and Amanda. Only thing is …. Amanda is dead.
Lizzie is a associate lawyer at a big time law firm. She is married to writer, Sam, who is an alcoholic. Amanda is a housewife and stay at home mom , who is married to self made millionaire businessman Zach. They have a very distant marriage. I almost get a feeling very early on that their marriage is very lacking in love and seems more of a business transaction kind of marriage.
At the very start, Lizzie gets a phone call from a old college friend ,Zach,that she lost touch with. He needs her help. He was arrested for assulting a police officer, after they were called because Zach discovered his wife dead after they came home at different times from a party.
Really? They want to arrest this man for some BS charge after he just found his wife dead? But of course, they always suspect the spouse when someone has clearly been murdered. There is just so much blood. So much blood.
Lizzie from the time Zach asks for her help does not want to do it. She is not into handling violent cases. Her dream from the very early on was to work for the US Attorney's office and be a prosecutor, which she did , but due to her husband's alcoholism, put them in debt after he got fired from all his jobs and got sued.
But lets back up a little bit. This is how to story seems to be written. It goes back and forth from the points of view from each woman. First, of Lizzie after Amanda's death, then of Amanda's point of view before she died. And before she went to the party...the sex party.
Ohhh, yea. I hadn't mentioned that yet. So, Amanda and her friends , Maude and Sarah are out to dinner. That's when Sarah mentions that she's so excited for this party that Maude and her husband, Sebe host every year when the kids from their neighborhood go to camp. These parties seem to get a little wild and even though Sarah and her husband, Kerry have never participated, Maude and Sebe open up their upstairs bedrooms for people to take advantage of and people go up their with other than their spouses and do sexual activities and its all very discreet.
Wow, these people are crazy. I guess what you have to understand as the picture that is painted of the neighbor its that its the typical rich, kind of snobby neighbor we all have seen in movies. The types that you don't think will patriciate in this kind of of action..
That's why it was so hard for me to get into this book. It wasn't believable to me. I do not see people just sleeping around with other people in this kind of neighborhood and it stay so discreet. Nobody talks about it after the party is over. WHAT? Do you believe that ? I sure as hell don't. Especially in this day and age. With social media and hackers.....
Hackers.....ahhh, another thing going on in this novel. This very exclusive school that the kids of these parents go to was hacked and the parents were receiving emails , saying that if they don't pay this money to the hackers that they were going to expose all their dirty laundry that they hacked on their computers, including porn, pictures finances, things of that nature.
So, it seems Zach is never around because he is always "working" so Sarah, who has quickly become Amanda's best friend since they have moved to this neighborhood, about 6 months ago, is always sending her husband Kerry over to Amanda's house to help and when Amanda is over at their house, Kerry always makes her feel welcomed.
Amanda is a little crazy, too, though. I mean, she is a grown woman and she refers to her father as Daddy. But she feels like he is stalking her. She always feels likes she is being followed. Its all very weird.
So, as Lizzie is interviewing witness's she starts putting pieces together. She interviews Maude/Sebe and Sarah/Kerry. There's also police interviews with other party goers.
SPOLIERS AHEAD
If you haven't read this book and still want to, STOP READING!! SPOILERS AHEAD!
OK, so like I have been saying, I didn't really enjoy this novel. It did have its plot twists towards the nd that I did not see coming, but I didn't enjoy it like I had hoped.
Turns out, Zach wasn't as rich as we thought because when Lizzie went to him and told him that she needed money to pay for their own investigators and things like that, sure he signs over his power of attorney for his accountant but when she goes to him, he informs her that there is no money. So, basically, at the end Lizzie ends up doing all this for free.
I'm just gong to come out and say it. Zach did not kill his wife. Even thought, they were in a loveless marriage, he did not kill his wife. Remember when I told you that there was something weird about Amanda. She thought that her "Daddy" was stalking her.
Turns out...her daddy was dead. She killed him at least 12 years ago, when she walked in on him drunk abusing her friend that at that point he had already killed on accident because he was drunk and trying to rape her.
WHAT? What kind of shit is that? I don't understand. What in the actual f**k? She gets so paranoid , that she leaves the party after she was getting threatening text messages from someone, which I thought, do you not recognize the number. I know getting anonymous calls is a thing and having people hang up is a thing, but you can look up a number from a text message. She runs home from the party and she things her father is following her .
But there is someone following her. This person get inside of Amanda's house and Amanda freaks out. And she is fighting this person she falls down the stairs and hits her head so many times and that's what kills her.
But who is this person? Its not her father. He's dead.
HA!!! Kerry, Sarah's husband thinks that since he goes to Amanda's house and helps her and are friendly to each other that they have developed some sort of relationship that eventually they fell in love with each other. Amanda never implied any of this. Which goes to show, being nice is not flirting!!!
So, Lizzie gets Zach off but as she is, he had told her that he was the one hacking into peoples computers and since Zach had blackmailed Lizze into doing this trial for him for free, she turned him in and that was that.
I don't know. I did not care for this book. And I feel really bad saying that, but this just wasn't my cup of tea. Have you read this? What did you think? Let me know in the comments. I'm sorry if you liked this one. I usually LOVE thrillers and suspense novels. I don't know why this one just didn't get to me in the right way. I's sorry. Does anyone have any recommendations on what I should read next??
Until next time.... ☮
Next book:
Copycat by Kimberla Lawson Roby
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