Title: The Husband’s Secret
Author: Liane Moriarty
Publication Date: July 30, 2013
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 396
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My darling Cecilia, if you’re reading this, then I’ve died…
Imagine that your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death. Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest secret—something with the potential to destroy not just the life you built together, but the lives of others as well. Imagine, then, that you stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive. . . .
Cecilia Fitzpatrick has achieved it all—she’s an incredibly successful businesswoman, a pillar of her small community, and a devoted wife and mother. Her life is as orderly and spotless as her home. But that letter is about to change everything, and not just for her: Rachel and Tess barely know Cecilia—or each other—but they too are about to feel the earth-shattering repercussions of her husband’s secret.
The Husband’s Secret is another hit thriller by Liane Moriarty. The book starts with Cecilia Fitzpatrick who stumbled across a letter addressed to her by her husband to be opened after his death. Cecilia has a decision to make: to honor her husband’s wishes and wait to open the letter or to go with her curiosity and open it now; to open and read a letter that could change the trajectory of their entire lives by revealing her husband’s deepest, darkest, harrowing secret. This book is told from three points of view: Cecilia, Rachel, and Tess. Even though they don’t know each other well, their lives unexpectedly intertwine, and the repercussions of John-Paul Fitzpatrick’s actions create an avalanche that no one can stop.
My favorite character in this book was Cecilia. She felt like the most three-dimensional character to me. She had so much depth that others couldn’t even begin to imagine, and I also found myself empathizing with her the most. As always, Moriarty’s characters felt real to me. This was also yet another book that keeps you guessing. I found myself not even wanting to sleep because I wanted to reach the end of the book while simultaneously wanting more to the story. My favorite part of this book was the climax. Seeing everything come together was as pleasurable as biting into a triple layer fudge cake. This book made me laugh at times, but I didn’t find myself wanting to cry even though it did get emotional.
The only thing I disliked about this book was Rachel. Without spoiling anything, all I can say is she was one-dimensional to me, and she was also just extremely annoying. I found myself wanting to throw my book across the room, and then I got mad because I it was a library book so I couldn’t. She was an overbearing grandmother, a lackluster parent, a terrible mother-in-law, and she tended to see what she wanted to see and to ignore what she didn’t want to see. For many reasons I found it difficult to care about Rachel.
This book was another amazing five star read for me and I would DEFINITELY recommend it to others!
