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The Wife Lie
My husband is missing.
And his wife is on my doorstep.
The wife I never knew he had.
Does that mean my husband's out looking for wife number three?
The more I dig... the more I find.
Ledger Stone is not the man I thought I knew.
What I'd thought was a whirlwind romance has turned out to be a hurricane laced with lies.
It started with one.
Will it end with another?
The Wife Lie is a domestic suspense novel where secrets are buried deep.
Penny Stone gave up everything for the husband she thought she knew -- and now she must uncover the truth: just how much of her marriage was a lie?
And is their love worth fighting for?
And his wife is on my doorstep.
The wife I never knew he had.
Does that mean my husband's out looking for wife number three?
The more I dig... the more I find.
Ledger Stone is not the man I thought I knew.
What I'd thought was a whirlwind romance has turned out to be a hurricane laced with lies.
It started with one.
Will it end with another?
The Wife Lie is a domestic suspense novel where secrets are buried deep.
Penny Stone gave up everything for the husband she thought she knew -- and now she must uncover the truth: just how much of her marriage was a lie?
And is their love worth fighting for?
312 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 6, 2020
About the author
Anya Mora
23 books263 followersAnya Mora relies on her experience as a wife and mother to form her creative expression. Her novels, while leaning toward the dark, ultimately reflect light, courage, and her innate belief that love rewards the brave.
You can discover more about the author at https://anyamora.com
You can discover more about the author at https://anyamora.com
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 532 reviews
June 8, 2020
Wtf was this?
Bruh. Idk why this book got so many good reviews bc it is awful. the characters actions were unrealistic and dialogue was corny as hell. You will only enjoy this book if you feel Lifetime Movies are cinematic masterpieces.
Bruh. Idk why this book got so many good reviews bc it is awful. the characters actions were unrealistic and dialogue was corny as hell. You will only enjoy this book if you feel Lifetime Movies are cinematic masterpieces.
May 24, 2020
There is a lot of repetition in the book and that got old. The story line was a bit different from a lot of other mysteries so I liked that. It was okay.
February 24, 2021
Another cracking tale by this author that had me gripped from the synopsis BUT another let down by her proofreader or editor !! It's not as bad as the first book of hers I read (which also only merited 4* for the same reason) but it does has some proper howlers in it, which is such a shame. Her stories are so interesting and I'm hoping that when I get to another by her I'll finally be able to award the coveted 5* !!
I whizzed through this in a day so it was clearly a real page-turning story and I was just dying to know what on earth was going to happen. There were some funny lines in it that had me chuckling at times. I did think Penny was a tad mean here and there and I was a little worn down by how often she was tired. I liked Jack and thought he was a better bet for Penny as he cared a lot for her. I did think the ending was all a little rushed and felt that could've been explained a little more comprehensively and wasn't sure how I felt about the actual END, either, but I still really enjoyed the actual story. It's just those mistakes that let her down......
The odd word was dropped from sentences here and there (...how in the world I am going survive this or it was him that sick) and I thought this sounded like atrocious English, "....couples fighting in front of other people-no matter how good of friends you might be," she wrote Manila and not manila and most of the time she wrote roller coaster but just the once rollercoaster instead. Another very odd mistake was using th and not the in a sentence !! And this sentence had me highlighting it and just writing 'Huh ?'...."...they want to pull me away because anyone looking at this body wouldn't know who it is".....I think she meant would know but it's anyone's guess, really !!
BUT more than once she spelt her own character's name wrong and for me that will always cost ANY author a star in any of my reviews. Something so basic ought to have been spotted before publication. Donovan was his name but twice it suddenly ended up being Donavon and nobody picked it up !! Then she also wrote Sherriff and not Sheriff just the once and that skated by any editing process as well. And then I really swore VERY loudly when she wrote Sheriff Barrett.......his name was Sheriff Dawson, Barrett was Jack's surname !! The editor or proofreader needs stringing up for letting this lot get through as they're doing a very sloppy job.
If she can just kick someone up the backside to tidy it up a lot more than they're currently doing then she's onto a sure-fire 5* next time !
I whizzed through this in a day so it was clearly a real page-turning story and I was just dying to know what on earth was going to happen. There were some funny lines in it that had me chuckling at times. I did think Penny was a tad mean here and there and I was a little worn down by how often she was tired. I liked Jack and thought he was a better bet for Penny as he cared a lot for her. I did think the ending was all a little rushed and felt that could've been explained a little more comprehensively and wasn't sure how I felt about the actual END, either, but I still really enjoyed the actual story. It's just those mistakes that let her down......
The odd word was dropped from sentences here and there (...how in the world I am going survive this or it was him that sick) and I thought this sounded like atrocious English, "....couples fighting in front of other people-no matter how good of friends you might be," she wrote Manila and not manila and most of the time she wrote roller coaster but just the once rollercoaster instead. Another very odd mistake was using th and not the in a sentence !! And this sentence had me highlighting it and just writing 'Huh ?'...."...they want to pull me away because anyone looking at this body wouldn't know who it is".....I think she meant would know but it's anyone's guess, really !!
BUT more than once she spelt her own character's name wrong and for me that will always cost ANY author a star in any of my reviews. Something so basic ought to have been spotted before publication. Donovan was his name but twice it suddenly ended up being Donavon and nobody picked it up !! Then she also wrote Sherriff and not Sheriff just the once and that skated by any editing process as well. And then I really swore VERY loudly when she wrote Sheriff Barrett.......his name was Sheriff Dawson, Barrett was Jack's surname !! The editor or proofreader needs stringing up for letting this lot get through as they're doing a very sloppy job.
If she can just kick someone up the backside to tidy it up a lot more than they're currently doing then she's onto a sure-fire 5* next time !
September 16, 2020
The ending surprised me but not In a good way. This was a solid 3 stars until the last 80% when it went from a 'what really happened to her husband' thriller to absolutely heartbreaking.
March 25, 2021
I did a lot of skimming to get to the end of this one.
There was too much going on, for one thing. A lot of it unbelievable (and not the 'faked death' issue, but the 'oh let me leave my kids with this stranger and trust her though I barely know her'). I guess I felt a bit like when someone is telling me a long story - I want to hear the end, but you are giving me way too many tangents and thought processes.
There was too much going on, for one thing. A lot of it unbelievable (and not the 'faked death' issue, but the 'oh let me leave my kids with this stranger and trust her though I barely know her'). I guess I felt a bit like when someone is telling me a long story - I want to hear the end, but you are giving me way too many tangents and thought processes.
June 15, 2020
The Wife Lie by Anya Mora
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One of the best books I've ever read. Stumbled upon this on the authors Facebook page and I'm so glad I did. This is one of the most suspensful and gripping books I've ever read. Brilliant. Go read! Highly recommended xxx
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One of the best books I've ever read. Stumbled upon this on the authors Facebook page and I'm so glad I did. This is one of the most suspensful and gripping books I've ever read. Brilliant. Go read! Highly recommended xxx
April 21, 2021
This was a fast read which was a good thing, because it was implausible and contrived. I gave it 2 stars because at least it kept me engaged enough to finish it.
September 20, 2020
I usually enjoy books with disappearing husbands, but this book barely earned 3 of my stars.
I listened to the book's audio version and it was 7 hours and 13 minutes long. The book easily could have been 2 hours shorter (and better!) by deleting a major portion of the main protagonist's repeated whining about her missing husband.
The book's narration, BTW, was superb and helped save the book.
The biggest problem that I had with this book was I felt that the author tried too hard to interject too many twists and turns into the book. By doing this, many elements of the storyline were contrived and implausible. Portions of the ending, in particular, had some major credibility issues.
To the author's credit, even though the book featured too much repetitive dialogue, the book did move and I was able to finish the book in its entirety.
I listened to the book's audio version and it was 7 hours and 13 minutes long. The book easily could have been 2 hours shorter (and better!) by deleting a major portion of the main protagonist's repeated whining about her missing husband.
The book's narration, BTW, was superb and helped save the book.
The biggest problem that I had with this book was I felt that the author tried too hard to interject too many twists and turns into the book. By doing this, many elements of the storyline were contrived and implausible. Portions of the ending, in particular, had some major credibility issues.
To the author's credit, even though the book featured too much repetitive dialogue, the book did move and I was able to finish the book in its entirety.
January 20, 2025
Oh wow. So much was going on at the end. Never have I cried reading a psychological thriller. This book is fast paced for the most part. The middle was a little drawn out with the main character having a lot of memories of her late husband.
January 12, 2021
Started well, made you want to keep reading. The middle dragged on for ages, it was hard to push through and then the ending was 150mph, so much happening all at once, it was page turning at the end, I just wish that was spread out in the middle more.
April 27, 2024
Totally gripped me at the beginning and then just went steadily down hill. Easy book to listen to while driving but honestly kind of a dumb book. Lots of holes, unrealistic and the narrator was hard to enjoy 😅
October 10, 2024
First and foremost I want to say that this is the first book and only book I’ve read from this author. I don’t know or believe that her other books are this bad, and I don’t want to bash the author for her work.
For the story itself, it’s extremely repetitive. There’s several page-long monologues about how “he’s the love of my life” and “tears welling up in my eyes,” and overall the same phrases over and over again. I could honestly skip those pages and still know exactly what was going on.
Another giant issue is that some random woman shows up, tells you that she’s your husband’s first wife, and you just instantly believe her? Not only that, you trust her enough to leave her ALONE with your children, even though you’ve known her for about a day.
The MC being completely oblivious to Jack’s (Jake? Idk I can’t remember his name) feelings for her is also something that really irks me. This man is out here saying “you’re so beautiful and I care for you so much” way too often for it to be brushed off as a family friend thing. But that’s exactly how she treats it, and is shocked when he eventually outright confesses his feelings.
The ending felt almost rushed, and kind of random with the whole cancer diagnosis but ok. I gave this book a 2 star rating only because it kept my attention until the end.
If a book, or any piece of media really, has to state that it’s a “psychological thriller that will keep the viewer hooked and shocked with an unexpected twist” on the cover or in the title or something, it’s probably trying to compensate for the lack of an actual interesting story line.
Any good piece of media that’s a psychological thriller or similar doesn’t have to state it, it’ll just show it through its actions. That’s what makes it good and what makes the “twist” even more shocking.
For the story itself, it’s extremely repetitive. There’s several page-long monologues about how “he’s the love of my life” and “tears welling up in my eyes,” and overall the same phrases over and over again. I could honestly skip those pages and still know exactly what was going on.
Another giant issue is that some random woman shows up, tells you that she’s your husband’s first wife, and you just instantly believe her? Not only that, you trust her enough to leave her ALONE with your children, even though you’ve known her for about a day.
The MC being completely oblivious to Jack’s (Jake? Idk I can’t remember his name) feelings for her is also something that really irks me. This man is out here saying “you’re so beautiful and I care for you so much” way too often for it to be brushed off as a family friend thing. But that’s exactly how she treats it, and is shocked when he eventually outright confesses his feelings.
The ending felt almost rushed, and kind of random with the whole cancer diagnosis but ok. I gave this book a 2 star rating only because it kept my attention until the end.
If a book, or any piece of media really, has to state that it’s a “psychological thriller that will keep the viewer hooked and shocked with an unexpected twist” on the cover or in the title or something, it’s probably trying to compensate for the lack of an actual interesting story line.
Any good piece of media that’s a psychological thriller or similar doesn’t have to state it, it’ll just show it through its actions. That’s what makes it good and what makes the “twist” even more shocking.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 5, 2020
Thank you Hidden Gems for the free ARC, I am giving this review voluntarily.
Not sure how to feel about this book ... the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The reason I am giving this 3 stars, and not less or more, is it was generally an enjoyable read.
Let me start with the good:
The book managed to keep me reading, so that is definitely a plus. There were times where I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. It was engaging, most of the time, so hence the three starts.
The bad:
There was so much whiny, lovey stuff that it got irritating, that I ended up skim-reading a lot of the pages so that I could skip the marshmallow-fluff.
The ugly:
The repetition, of feelings and events, actually made me so frustrated that I was skim-reading so that I wouldn't have to endure anymore.
As you can see ... I did a lot of skim-reading with this book and even then it took me a lot longer than normal to read.
Having said that, the blurb on the book definitely did even come close to expectation, as I was really expecting a suspense with a shocking twist ... that I saw coming from a mile away.
So my suggestion ... read this if you enjoy the marshmallow fluff with a bit of suspense. I definitely won't be reading anything else from this author.
Not sure how to feel about this book ... the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The reason I am giving this 3 stars, and not less or more, is it was generally an enjoyable read.
Let me start with the good:
The book managed to keep me reading, so that is definitely a plus. There were times where I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. It was engaging, most of the time, so hence the three starts.
The bad:
There was so much whiny, lovey stuff that it got irritating, that I ended up skim-reading a lot of the pages so that I could skip the marshmallow-fluff.
The ugly:
The repetition, of feelings and events, actually made me so frustrated that I was skim-reading so that I wouldn't have to endure anymore.
As you can see ... I did a lot of skim-reading with this book and even then it took me a lot longer than normal to read.
Having said that, the blurb on the book definitely did even come close to expectation, as I was really expecting a suspense with a shocking twist ... that I saw coming from a mile away.
So my suggestion ... read this if you enjoy the marshmallow fluff with a bit of suspense. I definitely won't be reading anything else from this author.
February 26, 2021
Not suspenseful. No shocking twist.
I wasn't expecting much, just a basic thriller. I wasn't thrilled. I'm fact, I wasn't sure why I bothered to finish it. The premise wasn't bad: Penny's husband Ledger disappears in a terrible accident. Then Emma shows up on Penny's door and claims he is actually her husband Henry - who faked his death in an accident and disappeared 5 years earlier.
But most of the rest of the novel was Penny (the narrator) blithering on and on. Was her husband a liar? He died - I can't go on without him! Or did he fake his death to start a new life with another woman? Didn't he love me? No - we were different - he loved me... Didn't he? I must stay strong for the children - they miss him. We can't go on without him! But he.loved us - didn't he? And on and on as nauseam. I get it already! Just tell the freaking story, author!! Didn't you have an editor?
Penny was totally irritating, and this stream of thought was. So. Incredibly. Repetitious. Honestly, the book could easily have been half as long to tell the story. And if you actually care to learn about Ledger and Penny, be prepared for a long, slow, boring read until you find out. Cause I'm not telling.
I wasn't expecting much, just a basic thriller. I wasn't thrilled. I'm fact, I wasn't sure why I bothered to finish it. The premise wasn't bad: Penny's husband Ledger disappears in a terrible accident. Then Emma shows up on Penny's door and claims he is actually her husband Henry - who faked his death in an accident and disappeared 5 years earlier.
But most of the rest of the novel was Penny (the narrator) blithering on and on. Was her husband a liar? He died - I can't go on without him! Or did he fake his death to start a new life with another woman? Didn't he love me? No - we were different - he loved me... Didn't he? I must stay strong for the children - they miss him. We can't go on without him! But he.loved us - didn't he? And on and on as nauseam. I get it already! Just tell the freaking story, author!! Didn't you have an editor?
Penny was totally irritating, and this stream of thought was. So. Incredibly. Repetitious. Honestly, the book could easily have been half as long to tell the story. And if you actually care to learn about Ledger and Penny, be prepared for a long, slow, boring read until you find out. Cause I'm not telling.
March 24, 2024
i’m giving this book a 2.5 but rounding up because i’m nice. the premise was intriguing but it was just a lot longer than it needed to be and there was some random twists that probably didn’t need to happen
April 22, 2024
4.25/5 🌟
July 16, 2024
* 3.5 Stars
This is the first book I’m reading from this author and I really enjoyed it.
It’s a psychological thriller with a nice twists and turns. I enjoyed following the story of the main character.
My only qualm was that there were some twists and turns which didn’t read necessary to me.
All in all an enjoyable read.
This is the first book I’m reading from this author and I really enjoyed it.
It’s a psychological thriller with a nice twists and turns. I enjoyed following the story of the main character.
My only qualm was that there were some twists and turns which didn’t read necessary to me.
All in all an enjoyable read.
September 26, 2023
I love Kindle Unlimited – I have discovered so many authors and read so many great books all FREE on KU and Her Husband’s Wife was my latest discovery.
Set in a small town in the US, Penny is 25 years old, married to her soulmate and the mother to an adorable pair of 4 year old twins. She works part-time in a diner, lives hand-to-mouth barely surviving on her paltry pay-cheque and her husband Ledger is a long distance truck driver who spends weeks away from home.
She’s not living her original dream life of moving away from the small town and becoming a famous writer, but she is living a happy life with her young family having had to settle down when she found herself unexpectantly pregnant at 20 years old.
However her life is turned upside down and inside out the day Ledger’s truck is involved in a horrific accident and has driven off the road into a ravine. Totally devastated and grief stricken Penny gets an unexpected visitor the day after the accident. She says her name is Emma and that she is also Ledger’s wife – except his name was Henry then and 5 years ago he also died in a traffic accident.
Now Penny has to re-examine her life with Ledger and look for clues… has he been lying to her for the past 5 years? Is he really dead? Can she believe Emma?
At 237 pages Her Husband’s Wife is a quick and easy read. I was gripped within the first few chapters and really wanted to know what had happened to Ledger. It has a few surprises and twists and certainly kept me entertained for the day. If you are looking for a quick read with an interesting plot, then I would recommend this one.
Set in a small town in the US, Penny is 25 years old, married to her soulmate and the mother to an adorable pair of 4 year old twins. She works part-time in a diner, lives hand-to-mouth barely surviving on her paltry pay-cheque and her husband Ledger is a long distance truck driver who spends weeks away from home.
She’s not living her original dream life of moving away from the small town and becoming a famous writer, but she is living a happy life with her young family having had to settle down when she found herself unexpectantly pregnant at 20 years old.
However her life is turned upside down and inside out the day Ledger’s truck is involved in a horrific accident and has driven off the road into a ravine. Totally devastated and grief stricken Penny gets an unexpected visitor the day after the accident. She says her name is Emma and that she is also Ledger’s wife – except his name was Henry then and 5 years ago he also died in a traffic accident.
Now Penny has to re-examine her life with Ledger and look for clues… has he been lying to her for the past 5 years? Is he really dead? Can she believe Emma?
At 237 pages Her Husband’s Wife is a quick and easy read. I was gripped within the first few chapters and really wanted to know what had happened to Ledger. It has a few surprises and twists and certainly kept me entertained for the day. If you are looking for a quick read with an interesting plot, then I would recommend this one.
March 30, 2021
I just wasted four hours of my life on this. The story was so repetitive and the protagonist really presented as immature. Describing the color of someone’s eyes as “pine green” might evoke an image one time; when the same description is used over and over, it gets pretty annoying. Save your time and read something worthwhile.
August 17, 2024
I was right at a point several times when I was ready to quit. This seemed so trite and so cheerful and filled with happy ever afters that I could not handle it. Nothing in real life is that wonderful and perfect.
The book is from the wife’s point of view and in her voice. I finally know her name is Penny. Until this point it’s all Ledger , Ledger, Ledger! He dies in a terrible truck crash. At the end of that awful day when she gets the news of his death, she opens her door to a woman who describes her own meeting with Ledger only with a different name. This woman also married the guy, had a child with him and felt like her life and her time with the guy were perfect. She claims her husband died in an identical way and his body was never found. What a twist! Instead of laying it aside I continued with new interest.
So a few chapters later and I’m sick to death of how wonderful life was with Ledger. He was perfect. He was wonderful! He was a perfect husband. Why oh why is he dead? The story continues with more about the perfect husband, Ledger. There are some things that make this a good story and those things kept me reading right to the end. I give up easily so by telling you all I finished it, please know that means it was an okay book but not above average.
September 7, 2024
3 stars. I enjoyed the overall story, but the middle dragged on much longer than needed. The twist was a bit shocking, but not unbelievable.
January 8, 2025
Will definitely read more from this author!
January 24, 2021
Lots of twists and turns
Wow! What a suspenseful read! I figured out the truth about a couple of the characters from the beginning, but the end of the book held quite a few surprises. Well done!
Wow! What a suspenseful read! I figured out the truth about a couple of the characters from the beginning, but the end of the book held quite a few surprises. Well done!
January 11, 2025
This review is going to have spoilers and I'm not even going to try to make one without. So, you've been warned.
I want to start this review with a line from the book that hit me so hard that I stopped reading and started to laugh hysterically. I then read the line out to my wife and she paused her reading to say "You're F***ing Joking, right?". There is some necessary context here though, just to start. This line comes a couple chapters after our protagonist finds out she has cancer...or maybe it was the next chapter. The point is that a bit of time has passed since her diagnosis, and this situation was not related to her cancer.
"I shake my head, my cancerous blood pulsing in fear."
That is a REAL line in this book. A real line that you're supposed to take seriously. If you can read that line with a serious face, then I commend you, because you are a stronger person than I.
The rest of this review will just be bullet points of my thoughts and things that I found to be absolutely terrible about this book...
1. The author is REALLY bad about saying the same thing over and over. Every chapter has a section that goes on and on about how much she loves Ledger and how much Ledger loved her. The beginning drones on about how sad she is. The middle is all about how he wouldn't kill himself, and the end is a constant non-stop reminder that "she has the cancer", and that she doesn't trust Emma because she has a criminal past.
2. Trusting some strange woman that claims to have been married to your husband just because she has some photos of them together is not a smart thing to do. I understand her husband just died, but she went WAY overboard in letting this woman into her life.
3. The company somehow had video evidence of Ledger taking Benadryl then driving his car. How TF did they know he took a benedryl? Because he bought benadryl before the video? He was also on anti-depressants. How do they know he wasn't taking an anti-depressant? Or an Aspirin? Or a vitamin D supplement? There is no way this would hold up in court and to imply otherwise is silly. They also claimed that they could prove ledger tampered with the brakes... I Don't remember if there was video or just the fingerprints... but the fingerprints wouldn't prove anything. It was his truck! Oh, AND HE DIDN'T EVEN DO IT, JACK DID! So they found Ledger's fingerprints on his own truck where the brake lines was cut, and not Jack's? Let's assume Jack wore gloves, Ledger's prints on his own damn truck DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING. It's his truck! No shit his fingerprints would be on it.
4. Benadryl doesn't cause everyone to fall asleep after taking it. Plus the protagonist claimed that he took it for allergies. Fun fact, Benadryl is NOT the only anti-histamine out there. If it put him to sleep, he likely wouldn't take it before driving. To imply otherwise is silly.
5. Fun fact; if someone takes a life insurance policy out on themselves, and then dies while committing a crime, that life insurance policy WILL NOT pay out. The most BASIC of research proves this. So that Life insurance policy that Jack took out on himself, the one that made the ending what it was, would have never paid out. That million dollar policy was worth exactly NOTHING.
6. A million dollars is NOT a lot of money. I mean, it is, but it's not "We're vacationing across Europe in the fanciest of places with our family of 4, my neighbor and her family of 3, and my mom and her boyfriend" money. I get that it was a "we're doing this because I'm dying" Thing, but then she found out that she wasn't dying....Like... they quit their jobs and vacationed in fancy places in Europe on $1M.... lol no. The average price of a house where they live is half a million, you aren't making out on one mil.
7. So let's talk about the money she got by suing the "testing company" that did the blood work. Abso-F***ing-lutely not. That is NOT how that works. I don't care if they were married, if they were together at the appointments, there is a near zero chance that there was a "mix-up" like that. Assuming the primary care office sends the blood work off for testing to a third party, their blood work would not go together like that. They would be treated as completely separate entities, there would be no connection, and they wouldn't be tested in a way that they could be mixed up like that. This nearly implies that the blood work facility only had their blood to test, and they did them at the same time and just mixed up the labels.
8. On top of this, Let's talk about "You have a high white blood cell count, so you must have a bone marrow biopsy RIGHT NOW!"...no. just no. I have what is considered a chronic Leukocytosis, meaning I have a high white blood cell count on what is pretty much a permanent basis. My first test it came back high, they asked if I was sick or had a rash or anything. I said no, so they scheduled me to come back in 2 weeks to test again. It was still high, they ran a few extra tests, had me come back in 30 days and do it again. It was still high, so they then had me talk to an oncologist and go through extra testing, None of which were bone-marrow biopsies. It was then determined that I didn't have cancer, and it was just a thing. I have to have blood work done every 6 months or so to make sure it doesn't go crazy and....that's it. NO DOCTOR would immediately say it's cancerous, they would establish a freaking baseline! Not to mention the fact that stress and inflammation can increase WBC count, so they would, again, ask about sickness, stress levels, medication, etc, then do it again. Oh, and a simple google search told me this- "Leukocytosis refers to a high white blood cell count, which can occur for a number of reasons. Rarely, a high white blood cell count can be a symptom of certain blood cancers, such as acute myeloid leukemia, chronic myelogenous leukemia and chronic lymphocytic leukemia." RARELY it can be cancer. RARELY. But yet it was IMMEDIATELY because it was cancer in this book.
9. I want to live in this mythical world where blood work can have results in the same day, especially when it's a 3rd party and not someone at the actual medical facility where you had the blood drawn. They had her blood drawn by 10, and were telling her it was cancer by noon, and were doing a biopsy by 3. That's not the American medical system that I know.
10. The cops just bought the story about how Jack tried to kill Emma, then Emma shot him because he was trying to kill Penny. No questions asked, no details needed. They also then accepted that she was duct taped to a chair because "Emma told Penny to restrain her until the cops showed up". My brother in christ, Penny would 100% be the suspect in this murder, not Emma. Penny would have been in cuffs IMMEDIATELY.
11. Ledger's truck went off a cliff a quarter of a mile after he jumped out, then Jack... kicked him off the cliff? Why was Ledger near the cliff? How was Jack able to throw him off the cliff? We are literally told, through expositional conversation, that he did this, but it makes no sense. It was the middle of the day, and no one SAW JACK THROW THIS MAN OFF THE CLIFF?! Not a single witness reported seeing the truck go down, then seeing a fight ensue where one man was thrown off a cliff?
12. Ledger somehow survived all this, being thrown off a cliff into a huge ravine/gorge, and lying there for about a week. Lol no. Also the search team that looked for his body didn't look a quarter of a mile up the road- I'm assuming they just looked at a 10ft radius and called it a day. This city is super incompetent.
13. If you are running from someone and you have to fake your own death to get away from them, maybe don't go with your deceased brother that the person knows all about? Maybe change your name entirely to something not related? Something that they wouldn't see and be like "WAIT A DAMN MINUTE THAT'S MY DEAD HUSBAND'S DEAD BROTHER'S NAME!!!" That'd be like changing your identity from Patrick to Pat Rick.
14. This book was terrible.
And that's about it :)
I want to start this review with a line from the book that hit me so hard that I stopped reading and started to laugh hysterically. I then read the line out to my wife and she paused her reading to say "You're F***ing Joking, right?". There is some necessary context here though, just to start. This line comes a couple chapters after our protagonist finds out she has cancer...or maybe it was the next chapter. The point is that a bit of time has passed since her diagnosis, and this situation was not related to her cancer.
"I shake my head, my cancerous blood pulsing in fear."
That is a REAL line in this book. A real line that you're supposed to take seriously. If you can read that line with a serious face, then I commend you, because you are a stronger person than I.
The rest of this review will just be bullet points of my thoughts and things that I found to be absolutely terrible about this book...
1. The author is REALLY bad about saying the same thing over and over. Every chapter has a section that goes on and on about how much she loves Ledger and how much Ledger loved her. The beginning drones on about how sad she is. The middle is all about how he wouldn't kill himself, and the end is a constant non-stop reminder that "she has the cancer", and that she doesn't trust Emma because she has a criminal past.
2. Trusting some strange woman that claims to have been married to your husband just because she has some photos of them together is not a smart thing to do. I understand her husband just died, but she went WAY overboard in letting this woman into her life.
3. The company somehow had video evidence of Ledger taking Benadryl then driving his car. How TF did they know he took a benedryl? Because he bought benadryl before the video? He was also on anti-depressants. How do they know he wasn't taking an anti-depressant? Or an Aspirin? Or a vitamin D supplement? There is no way this would hold up in court and to imply otherwise is silly. They also claimed that they could prove ledger tampered with the brakes... I Don't remember if there was video or just the fingerprints... but the fingerprints wouldn't prove anything. It was his truck! Oh, AND HE DIDN'T EVEN DO IT, JACK DID! So they found Ledger's fingerprints on his own truck where the brake lines was cut, and not Jack's? Let's assume Jack wore gloves, Ledger's prints on his own damn truck DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING. It's his truck! No shit his fingerprints would be on it.
4. Benadryl doesn't cause everyone to fall asleep after taking it. Plus the protagonist claimed that he took it for allergies. Fun fact, Benadryl is NOT the only anti-histamine out there. If it put him to sleep, he likely wouldn't take it before driving. To imply otherwise is silly.
5. Fun fact; if someone takes a life insurance policy out on themselves, and then dies while committing a crime, that life insurance policy WILL NOT pay out. The most BASIC of research proves this. So that Life insurance policy that Jack took out on himself, the one that made the ending what it was, would have never paid out. That million dollar policy was worth exactly NOTHING.
6. A million dollars is NOT a lot of money. I mean, it is, but it's not "We're vacationing across Europe in the fanciest of places with our family of 4, my neighbor and her family of 3, and my mom and her boyfriend" money. I get that it was a "we're doing this because I'm dying" Thing, but then she found out that she wasn't dying....Like... they quit their jobs and vacationed in fancy places in Europe on $1M.... lol no. The average price of a house where they live is half a million, you aren't making out on one mil.
7. So let's talk about the money she got by suing the "testing company" that did the blood work. Abso-F***ing-lutely not. That is NOT how that works. I don't care if they were married, if they were together at the appointments, there is a near zero chance that there was a "mix-up" like that. Assuming the primary care office sends the blood work off for testing to a third party, their blood work would not go together like that. They would be treated as completely separate entities, there would be no connection, and they wouldn't be tested in a way that they could be mixed up like that. This nearly implies that the blood work facility only had their blood to test, and they did them at the same time and just mixed up the labels.
8. On top of this, Let's talk about "You have a high white blood cell count, so you must have a bone marrow biopsy RIGHT NOW!"...no. just no. I have what is considered a chronic Leukocytosis, meaning I have a high white blood cell count on what is pretty much a permanent basis. My first test it came back high, they asked if I was sick or had a rash or anything. I said no, so they scheduled me to come back in 2 weeks to test again. It was still high, they ran a few extra tests, had me come back in 30 days and do it again. It was still high, so they then had me talk to an oncologist and go through extra testing, None of which were bone-marrow biopsies. It was then determined that I didn't have cancer, and it was just a thing. I have to have blood work done every 6 months or so to make sure it doesn't go crazy and....that's it. NO DOCTOR would immediately say it's cancerous, they would establish a freaking baseline! Not to mention the fact that stress and inflammation can increase WBC count, so they would, again, ask about sickness, stress levels, medication, etc, then do it again. Oh, and a simple google search told me this- "Leukocytosis refers to a high white blood cell count, which can occur for a number of reasons. Rarely, a high white blood cell count can be a symptom of certain blood cancers, such as acute myeloid leukemia, chronic myelogenous leukemia and chronic lymphocytic leukemia." RARELY it can be cancer. RARELY. But yet it was IMMEDIATELY because it was cancer in this book.
9. I want to live in this mythical world where blood work can have results in the same day, especially when it's a 3rd party and not someone at the actual medical facility where you had the blood drawn. They had her blood drawn by 10, and were telling her it was cancer by noon, and were doing a biopsy by 3. That's not the American medical system that I know.
10. The cops just bought the story about how Jack tried to kill Emma, then Emma shot him because he was trying to kill Penny. No questions asked, no details needed. They also then accepted that she was duct taped to a chair because "Emma told Penny to restrain her until the cops showed up". My brother in christ, Penny would 100% be the suspect in this murder, not Emma. Penny would have been in cuffs IMMEDIATELY.
11. Ledger's truck went off a cliff a quarter of a mile after he jumped out, then Jack... kicked him off the cliff? Why was Ledger near the cliff? How was Jack able to throw him off the cliff? We are literally told, through expositional conversation, that he did this, but it makes no sense. It was the middle of the day, and no one SAW JACK THROW THIS MAN OFF THE CLIFF?! Not a single witness reported seeing the truck go down, then seeing a fight ensue where one man was thrown off a cliff?
12. Ledger somehow survived all this, being thrown off a cliff into a huge ravine/gorge, and lying there for about a week. Lol no. Also the search team that looked for his body didn't look a quarter of a mile up the road- I'm assuming they just looked at a 10ft radius and called it a day. This city is super incompetent.
13. If you are running from someone and you have to fake your own death to get away from them, maybe don't go with your deceased brother that the person knows all about? Maybe change your name entirely to something not related? Something that they wouldn't see and be like "WAIT A DAMN MINUTE THAT'S MY DEAD HUSBAND'S DEAD BROTHER'S NAME!!!" That'd be like changing your identity from Patrick to Pat Rick.
14. This book was terrible.
And that's about it :)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 28, 2020
Hmmmmm, im torn...this is my first book by this author. I think it could have been good if it wasn't so depressing. I like the writing style but by 69% in the book only a couple of things are clear, her husband is likely dead from a truck accident (but his body was never found) and his first wife that Penny didn't know about shows up on her doorstep to rock her world even more, telling her he faked his death when he was married to her, to start this new life with Penny....so he was probably faking his death again...right? I mean His name wasn't even real...and his body wasnt found...but I am exhausted from all of her crying and wallowing in misery. The flashback memories of when they first met is just way too much for me. That's when I decided that even if something exciting or suspenseful happened it kind of wasn't worth slogging through the minutiae of tears and what if's... and the thoughts that their love story is the end all and be all of every other love story was just annoying. So yeah, im torn...liked it, but really didnt...the end was a little surprising, but then the very end was...um, i won't say...but um, yeah.... still torn....
March 16, 2024
This was just….painfully bad. I knew early on how this book would end and I found the main character so unbelievably naive that I found myself reading it out of spite. There are so many plot contradictions, the circumstances are out of touch with reality, the dialogue is cringy, and all the characters are overwhelmingly dense. SPOILER AHEAD.
No, really - SPOILER AHEAD.
OKAY, HERE IT IS: And the magic Disney kiss moment where the husband comes back to life? *groan* *rolls eyes* *shakes fists at the sky* *vomits*
I mean, c’mon. Law enforcement and EMTs are assuming he’s dead, they let you get up close enough to KISS THIS RAGGEDY, DEAD MAN and then you just FEEL IN YOUR SOUL that he’s still alive? Now you feel him barely breathing as you’re doing the tongue dance inside this half dead man’s mouth? Jail.
No, really - SPOILER AHEAD.
OKAY, HERE IT IS: And the magic Disney kiss moment where the husband comes back to life? *groan* *rolls eyes* *shakes fists at the sky* *vomits*
I mean, c’mon. Law enforcement and EMTs are assuming he’s dead, they let you get up close enough to KISS THIS RAGGEDY, DEAD MAN and then you just FEEL IN YOUR SOUL that he’s still alive? Now you feel him barely breathing as you’re doing the tongue dance inside this half dead man’s mouth? Jail.
June 24, 2020
Wow. This book was kind of meh for most of it. I felt bad for the main character because she was so young with a server job and two 4-year old kids. But then she starts investigating her husbands past and it gets more interesting.
But then in the end, it was a little unbelievable for me.
But I kept wanting to pick this book up so I'm giving it 4 stars.
But then in the end, it was a little unbelievable for me.
But I kept wanting to pick this book up so I'm giving it 4 stars.
August 8, 2022
This was like a terrible Lifetime movie combined with an over-the-top cheesy soap opera. The characters and plot line were all overly cliche and unrealistic. But like a bad car crash you can’t look away from, you keep reading thinking surely it has to get better (it doesn’t). If you’re looking for an audiobook you can sort of half listen to but still get the main storyline - this is it!
May 10, 2020
OMG! Anya Mora is on FIRE with this book. My mind spun in so many different directions with this story. This is beyond addicting!
August 4, 2020
Really terrific story. I read it in two hours; I could not put it down.
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