Pretty Little Wife

by Darby Kane

[Quirky Cat]

I have to admit, one of the things I really adore about BOTM is that it puts new books and authors in front of my face. For example, I can't promise that I would have heard of, or tried, Pretty Little Wife without it.

Pretty Little Wife is the debut novel of Darby Kane, and let me tell you, after this one book, I already know that she's going to be an author worth keeping an eye on.

By all appearances, Lila Ridgefield lives the perfect life. But appearances can be deceiving, can't they? A fact that Lila knows all too well. Her dark past is about to collide with her present, as her husband goes missing. It sets off a series of events – and revelations that would bowl the average person off their feet.

“As soon as the rush of flaming heat arrived, it evaporated. Dried up and disappeared in the space between breaths.
She felt nothing.”

Pretty Little Wife is one of those books that totally shocked me. I knew that it was going to be a domestic suspense, and thus I went into it with a few assumptions and expectations. What I ultimately got? Was more than I had bargained for.

To be clear, that's a good thing! Great, really. I dove in expecting a fun but fairly run of the mill domestic suspense slash psychological thriller. I was pleasantly surprised by what I actually found though. Kane wrote a complex tale here, one that is very dark and twisted, but also highly satisfying.

What I'm trying to say is, this is not a book you want to let slip under your radar. Lila's story gets pretty dark at times, and I'll be the first to say that it isn't for everyone (there are a lot of trigger warnings for this book!), but it was so thrilling to read!

There's another thing that I really adored about this book; the debate and discussions it brought up. There's the first thought, which is a debate about ethics and morality. But it also discusses things like public opinion, and how quickly the court of the public can turn. It was fascinating to see this take, and arguably at least a little bit poignant.

I'll admit that there were just a couple of points that threw me off, which is why I'm not giving this book a higher rating. Not much, just a few 'gotcha' points where it felt like information had been intentionally withheld (mainly because it had). It didn't ruin the overall read for me though, so I can't complain all that much.

All things considered, I really enjoyed Kane's debut novel, Pretty Little Wife, and cannot wait to see what she comes up with next!

Check out more reviews over a Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks