Review: The Secret Lives Of Fortunate Wives

March 2, 2008 by Rian
Filed under 5 Star, Glamour & Hollywood, Reviews

The Secret Lives Of Fortunate Wives
by Sarah Strohmeyer
Published June 6, 2006
NAL Trade
5/5 Stars

Welcome to Hunting Hills, a part of Cleveland, Ohio where the husbands are all financial analysts and the wives are impossibly fit, slim, calculating and perfect. Hunting Hills wives run the show, and they have some rules that must be adhered to at all times. Some of the rules include to appear busy at all times, even if you aren’t; never answer your home phone, since that would make it seem you are too available; the more you buy, the more your husband values you; and many more along these lines.

The key characters of this novel are Marti Denton, whose husband has pretty much “disappeared”, although she insists on keeping up the facade. Next there is Claire, the tall redhead who married John in a whirlwind marriage in Prague, and who is now having a little trouble fitting in with the perfect size 0 Hunting Hills wives. Then there are the minor character like Karen Goss, whose husband pays her to canoodle with his secretary, and Lisa, who is hopped up on amphetamines at any given hour of the day.

Despite the seemingly perfect wives and marriages of Hunting Hills, things are beginning to fall apart. Marti’s husband has made a huge mistake which may result in losing all of his friends’s millions of dollars. Meanwhile she has fallen for John, who seems to be in love with his new wife Claire. Claire is strong-armed into secretly writing a newspaper article for a town paper which John despises. Karen is caught in a most compromising position, and Lisa may know more about Marti’s husband’s whereabouts than she admits to. Will the glossy, shiny glue holding this upscale community give way to reveal the truth?

I absolutely loved The Secret Lives of Fortunate Wives. The author has a wonderful way of painting delicious details in every scene. Also, the catty yet somehow humane housewives and their shenanigans did not disappoint. This book can be considered a sort of “Desperate Housewives meets Jackie Collins” type of story.

Packed with romance, snobbery, good writing, surprises and even a little mystery, there is something for everyone in this book. My only complaint was a couple of small typos I found in the pages, and the ending which was a bit hard to grasp.

Overall, however, I highly recommend this book for a juicy glamour-lit read.