Hi guys. I'm Beth. Today we are going to
do a Book of the Month Club unboxing and a
review of the book The Wife Between Us.
Alright, so here's the thing. I don't
normally do book hauls or unboxings
because most of the books I get are
just one-off books through my Overdrive
app that I check out from the library.
But I do subscribe to the Book of the
Month Club.
They basically curate the top 5 books
for a given month that are about to come
out, and then you choose the one that you
want to read and then they'll send it to
you in hardback. Unboxings seem to be
really popular on YouTube, so I figured,
what the hey!
I'm gonna give it a try.
So here's my box. Let's open it. Don't try
this at home.
Alright what's in the box? What's in the
box? It's a book. Door. So they have this
box. It's lined. Isn't that pretty? It's
perfectly fitted to the book that they
send you. Here's the book. It is shrink
wrapped and usually it has a little
bookmark that has like a saying or
something like that on it ... nope no saying.
No words just a design but still it's a
free bookmark. Ooh,
stickers. So technically this was my
December book of the month but I'm a
little bit behind on my reading so I am
doing this for February. Oh well.
God knows when I'll do my January book.
I am going to read this and then come right
back in just a few moments by the virtue
of video magic to give you a review on
The Wife Between Us.
Well, would you look at that. From the
magic of video editing, it is suddenly
weeks later and I have finished and
enjoyed The Wife Between Us by
Sarah Pekkanen and Greer Hendricks.
This book
is on a lot of bestseller lists right
now, which is not surprising at all
because it really keeps the interest
throughout. Let me give you a quick
rundown of the of the plot. So we have
two women and one man. The man is named Richard. One of the women is his former
wife, Vanessa. The portrait that is drawn
of her is one of a woman unhinged.
She had basked in the glory of his love
for a decade. They were rich, fabulous, she
didn't have to work, she was taken care
of, but she she kind of lost it all on
her own virtue. She drank too much.
Nellie is the other woman in his life. Nellie is
younger. She teaches preschoolers.
She is fun-loving, but also she has this
undercurrent of fear around her at all
times. She's nervous about being alone
she's always afraid that someone's
following her. So she is not without her
demons. But she is young and aglow in the wash of Richard's love for her. So as the
wedding date for Nellie and Richard
grows closer and closer, we see Vanessa
becoming more and more unhinged. And then there's a twist. Not gonna tell you what
the twist is. I'm not gonna tell ya. But
what I will tell you is that it's a
twist that tries maybe a little bit too
hard. So this book is really interesting.
It's a thriller. It gives a lot of good
good villainous characters on all sides.
It raises questions about the
reliability of all of the characters.
It's interesting in that respect, but
ultimately I think The Wife Between Us
tries to pull too many rabbits out of
too many hats. What do I mean by that?
I mean it is too rife with twists and
turns. Now, I love a good twist just like
anyone else who enjoys the thriller
genre does.
But I think the twists in The Wife
Between Us feel a little bit forced.
Looking at the bio on the back of the
book jacket it looks like Greer and
Sarah have a long and storied career in
writing and journalism and in publishing,
so it feels like is almost that they
knew what would create a surefire
bestseller and they were right, because
it did and they hit all those marks. For
me, it made it seem almost like it was
writing for the bestseller formula, as
opposed to creating a really good story.
I hope that difference makes sense. Still
a good book. I do not want to turn anyone
off from reading it. I don't know, just
something in it to me felt a little bit
forced. When you think about pulling the
rabbits out of the hat, I'm thinking
in terms of a magician. Or the
comedian with the hair ... Carrot Top, who has this huge box of props and keeps pulling
things out, and I just keep thinking, "Oh, bless your heart, Carrot Top. Just make
your comedy strong enough that you don't
have to rely on this huge box of props."
And that's almost what all the twists
and turns felt like to me at one point.
Especially near the end where it seemed
like they were cramming in as many
twists as possible that really, they
could have left out easily and we
wouldn't have missed it at all. The story
still would have made perfect sense. So
as I was going through the books and one
twist was tumbling after another, I was
thinking of Carrot Top with his bag of
props.
It almost tried too hard. But again, let me
say it was still an enjoyable book! I'm
still glad I read it. Oh, I can't decide
whether to give it three or four stars.
Based on the ending, I give it a three.
It kind of brought
something up out of thin air and really,
it never fully explained why Nellie was
so nervous all the time. Traumatized, yes.
Emotional, yes.
Jumpy and scared for her life, not
really. Not really. Based on the book
itself, I would give it four stars, just
because it is a fun plot. It is fun to
watch these people. It kept my interest
throughout the book. I didn't find myself
having to force myself to pick it up to
read it. I enjoyed reading it. So I don't
usually do things in half-measures, or
else I'd give it three and a half stars.
So I'll just say three for this, four for
that. How's that? Alright, thanks for
watching guys. I will catch you next week.
Be sure to subscribe to the channel, like
the video, leave your comments of what
you thought about the book. Don't let me
discourage you from reading it. If you
enjoy it, enjoy without reservation. If
you had the same kind of hold backs
that I did, then just know you're not
alone. Alright, thanks for watching. Catch
you next time. Bye!
