Perfect Marriage

by Booth Alison

[zooloo1983]

What I loved about this book, is although you feel like nothing much is going on so much really is going on, even if you have figured out the ending.

The story follows Sally, it is the journey she has been on and the journey she is currently on. It touches on mental and physical abuse behind closed doors which can be a tough subject to write about and how it impacts the people around you. The book if you haven't guessed, focuses on the past and on the present day, and the author pretty much teases you with both throughout the book. Just as you are hooked on the past, the chapter stops and you are brought back to present day, making the book more exciting and intriguing and I didn't want to put it down. (Unfortunately life didn't let me read this as quick as I wanted!)

The two men in the book could not be more polar opposites if they tried. Jeff the husband, the abuser and betrayer. Anthony the lover, the friend and carer. I appreciated how Sally's past was dark and clouded as she was living through the ordeal, but when we moved back to the present the shift in her character when Anthony was in her life, made it lighter. There was emphasis on Anthony Blake being someone Sally recognised. At one point he was compared to Celia, I was waiting to see a big revelation with this but it did not come. The only thing I could think is that they are both perceived as happiness to Sally, and she associates this by comparing the two together.

Charlie, her daughter, and Zoe, her friend, are the women in her life, her rocks and you feel that emanate from the pages. All joined together by their links to the same man, Jeff. When all revelations have been made at the end of the book, you, the reader, feel like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders as you have live those moments with Sally and there is a sense of peace. I loved the relationship that Zoe and Sally have, a bond, one that could never be broken. The theme of hope, redemption and forgiveness all played a part here by the three side characters of Anthony, Zoe and Charlie.

*I received a copy of this book on Net Galley from Red Door Publishing for my honest review*

Go buy the book, what are you waiting for?