REVIEW: The Three Mrs. Wrights by Linda Keir

Title: The Three Mrs. Wrights
Author: Linda Keir
Narrator: Teri Schnaubelt
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Publication Date: September 2020
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Buy the Book: Amazon | BN | Audible

Description: Mr. Wright has everything. All that’s left to give him is what he deserves.

Lark has good things coming: a career as a board-game designer and a whirlwind romance with a handsome investor. Trip is so compassionate and supportive, he’s almost too good to be true.

Jessica has always been cautious, but she can’t resist Jonathan. The brilliant TED-talking visionary has big plans for his inspiring medical start-up. Now Jessica is invited to be part of the team—and to partner with the founder outside the office.

Holly has settled into a comfortable life with Jack, her husband of nearly twenty years. They’ve raised three children, they own a beautiful home, and they’ve founded a worthy charity. She’s proud of building a marriage that has endured—she just doesn’t want to look too closely at the cracks.

Lark, Jessica, and Holly are three strangers with so much in common it hurts. Their one and only is one and the same.

The charming Mr. Wright’s serial lies are about to catch up with him…

My Thoughts: My first time reading this author and I loved this story. Let me begin by saying my least favorite plot device is adultery and this book is full of it as well as bigamy, fraud, lying, gaslighting and Mr. Wright is guilty of it all. I really wanted to see him suffer for his crimes and I felt so much empathy for each of these women. Usually society wants to blame the other woman for getting involved with a married man, but this story clearly shows how the heart can be deceived, especially when the man is presenting himself to be someone other than who he really is. This guy is a real piece of work, even going so far as using a different name, lying about already being divorced and slandering his first wife Holly by depicting her as mentally unstable.

This story flowed so well with the chapters rotating points of view between Lark, Jessica and Holly. I paired the reading of this book with the audiobook narrated by Teri Schnaubelt, which was also exceptional. Her performance brought the characters to life and drew me more fully into the story. I had no idea what to expect or what the outcome would be after my initial thought before starting was that these women discover the truth at Mr. Wright’s funeral, but death would have been too easy and he needed to suffer so much more for his actions. I honestly can’t understand how he managed to juggle three different women at the same time while keeping all of his lies and stories straight. I am looking forward to reading more of Linda Keir’s work.

My Final Verdict: Overall, this story kept me on the edge of my seat in anticipation of how these women would be vindicated and I wasn’t disappointed, though I really wanted to take a baseball bat to his kneecaps myself! I highly recommend this story to fans of women fiction as well as stories where the karma bus delivers justice in the most well played out way.

Thank you to the publisher, Lake Union Publishing, who provided an advance reader copy of this book via NetGalley.

REVIEW: In Sickness and in Death by Alana Ling

Title: In Sickness and in Death (Murder, She Tasted #1)
Author: Alana Ling
Publisher: Alana Ling
Publication Date: May 2018
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Buy the Book: Amazon

Description: I didn't know I had a taste for murder until I was thrown into the middle of one.

Joanna Christie is trying to make it as a party planner in her hometown of Haven-on-Sea, on the south coast of England. She's procured a big gig planning Poppy Guildford's wedding, one of the town's many elite.

When she thinks she has everything under control, Joanna finds Poppy murdered at her wedding rehearsal.

With her business at risk, an eager and secretive assistant, and her ex-brother-in-law, Detective Anderson, on her case, Joanna has no choice but to find out who killed her client, before the murderer sets their eyes on her and her prying tongue.

My Thoughts: This book is the first title in a (so far) three title series featuring a party planner who finds herself neck deep in a murder investigation when her client is found dead at her wedding rehearsal. I didn’t shed any tears for the victim because she was the epitome of a bridezilla. Unfortunately for Joanna, the murder has cast a shadow on her business with clients cancelling left, right and center, leaving her no option but to figure out who the killer is so her business doesn’t go under.

One of the interesting aspects of this story is that Joanna has a condition called visual-gustatory synesthesia which means she can taste people, or rather, people give off a taste just as they give off a scent and Joanna can taste it as if the item is in her mouth even if the taste isn’t real.

Joanna also has a creep of an ex-husband that keeps showing up who is unable to grasp the fact they are divorced. The story leaves a lot of loose threads regarding this so I expect more will be revealed in future stories, especially since her ex-husband’s brother is the lead detective on the case.

My Final Verdict: Though the story flows well and kept me engaged, it doesn’t pack any walloping surprises. I enjoyed it and recommend it to fans of cozy mysteries as well as readers who like their murder and mayhem drenched in flowers and icing.

Thank you to the author, Alana Ling, who provided an advance reader copy of this book via NetGalley.