Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

Two Dead Wives by Adele Parks

1 review

yvo_about_books's review

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2.0

 Finished reading: December 10th 2023


"It's always the husband. Trickier when there are two."

*** A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by Netgalley and MIRA in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***

WARNING: it's unpopular opinion time again!!

I really enjoyed Lies, Lies, Lies back when I read it in 2020, and I've been meaning to try more of this author ever since. There was something about the blurb of Two Dead Wives (published as Just Between Us in the UK) that had me fully intrigued, and I couldn't resist adding it to my shelves. I've been looking forward to pick it up, but sadly it didn't turn out to be the reading experience I hoped it was going to be. In fact, I came close to DNFing more than once... I'll try to explain briefly why.

I can't deny that the premise itself is still intriguing, but what I wasn't aware of is that this book is actually a sequel of Woman Last Seen (which I didn't read). The blurb of that book sounds pretty similar, so I'm just wondering how different the two books are... Although Stacie's POV seems to be missing there. Two Dead Wives can quite easily be read as a stand-alone though; at least I didn't feel like I was missing any important background or information. That said, I'm starting to wonder if I would have enjoyed the first book better than this one.

What I didn't realize is just how front and center both the pandemic and the amnesia angle were going to be. I'm not a big fan of the whole COVID element in stories (although I understand why authors might add it), but I can tolerate it as long as it's not too present. In this case, I think the pandemic actually overshadows the rest of the plot, and it really put a damper on things for me. The amnesia angle can go both ways for me, and there was just something about the way it was incorporated in Two Dead Wives that really started to irritate me.

I also struggled considerably with the multiple POV structure and the characters themselves. I was never able to warm up to any of them, and as a result I wasn't invested at all in what happened to them. To make things worse, I guessed the truth about Kylie and Stacie almost straight away, which made it even harder to keep slogging through all those minor thoughts and drama. I confess that I started skimreading long before the halfway mark, and I only made it to the end because I kept hoping I was wrong and something interesting would happen. Sure, the last part is slightly more eventful, but it was all a bit too little, too late for me.

Between the spotlight on the pandemic, amnesia angle, unlikeable characters and slow pace, sadly I can't say that I enjoyed my time with Two Dead Wives. I seem to be in the minority though, so it might just have been my fickle reading mood acting up again... The fact remains that I came really close to DNFing more than once though. 
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