The Ever After

Author: Sarah Pekkanen
Genre: Women's Fiction
Type: e-book
Source: NetGalley
Publisher: Atria Books
First Published: June 5, 2018
First Line: "So this is how you discover your husband is having an affair, Josie Moore thought".

Book Description from GoodReads: In this intricate and enthralling domestic drama the 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.

My Rating: 2 stars (meh)

My Review: I picked up this book after a quick glance at the blurb and the knowledge that it was from Sarah Pekkanen, the author of The Perfect Neighbors , a book which I loved two years ago. 

The book has an intriguing premise about a marriage in crisis. Since it deals with a marriage unraveling and imploding, I expected lots of emotion and issues raised as Josie peeled away the layers of her husband's deceit. But as Josie unearths his secrets, the focus is on her obsession with his lies and not much happens with the information she finds, leaving readers with many overly wordy passages that didn't seem to have direction. I wanted more from the story, some kind of twist, some momentum and energy but after the first couple of chapters it's clear that this will be a quiet read about a broken marriage filled with distrust  ... and that's about it.

This is a domestic drama that focuses on a broken marriage and readers who connect with the issues raised may enjoy the book more than I did.  While I enjoyed reading how the author came up with the concept for this book, overall this book wasn't my cuppa tea.

Disclaimer: This Advanced Reading Copy (ARC) was generously provided by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.