This was the first book I've read by this author and I couldn't put it down. Between work and Christmas preparations it was finished within three days and I was completely captured by its story. Rosie, a mother and wife who thought life was sorted for her but it was turned upside down when her husband left. It portrayed the battle she had with becoming a single mother and doing what she felt was right for her children.
It contained raw honestly alongside humour. It truly made me want to hold on to my partner every night feeling grateful that he remains by my side. I deeply cared for Rosie and loathed her husband Phil for leaving her. The diaglogue from her children was realistic and heartwarming adding empathy to the main character.
I loved how Rosie's relationship with her in-laws changed throughout the story following the decision from Phil and how this affected Rosie's whole life. The small part of the American character added a touch of reflection for the reader without being too strong throughout.
Overall I really enjoyed reading this story and couldn't put it down. I will definitely be picking another book by this author.
Amanda Prowse has written yet another beautiful, moving and heartfelt novel with My Husband's Wife, making me once again think, laugh and shed a tear.
With the most wonderful main character, Rosie Tipcott, we are taken on a true journey of the heart. I have to say, Rosie is one of my most favourite characters from any book. I loved her wholeheartedly. She is so happy with her lot in life, even though she doesn't have massive riches or a fantastic glamourous job, she loves what she has and in her eyes her world is just where is should be. How lovely and refreshing to meet anyone like that, real or fictitious!
When the love of her life, husband and father of her two adored daughters, Phil, leaves her for a rich and highly successful women (who, of course, we hate), Rosie thinks she should question her outlook on life. But ultimately she can't question what she loves and that was the life she had, as her husband's wife and mother to her children. That was her dream and she achieved it. Amanda has managed to really capture the true feelings of anguish and torment that Rosie endures in the months and all that transpires with Phil and his new mistress, with real finesse.
Many might question why this would be enough for a person, being a wife and mother - is it realistic someone would be like that? But Rosie didn't have that life growing up. Her mother left when she was born and she was raised by a good and decent single parent father. After her husband leaves, and she finds herself in receipt of a letter her mother wrote when she left, Rosie starts to see similarities in her mother and fathers relationship and her own with Phil and she is forced to re-evaluate the way she has always viewed her past, and look at her childhood more closely.
The relationship Rosie has with her father and step-mother is an amicable one and it is quite moving how the revelation of some truths helps to rebuild it to something more between them all. One particular gesture by her step-mother at the end of the book did actually make me cry.
Although a deeply emotion book it was never too intense or hard going and had some brilliant scenes of comedy - particularly the opening scene with her daughters, Naomi and Leona. It has been written with a light hand and I flew through it, enjoying every minute I spent with Rosie in her world. Even in some of the most dramatic scenes for Rosie, there was a hint of humour (I will never carry a bowl of coleslaw to a party...) and that made her even more relatable and real. The other characters within the book were also well portrayed and I loved how some of them behaved in the complete opposite way to which I was expecting them too.
All of this goes on in the small sea-side town of Woolacombe. With brilliant and vivid imagery I could practically taste the salt on my lips and the wind blustering through my hair up on Rosie's bench. I felt the location matched the character of Rosie perfectly. Sitting snuggled in the coast line of Devon is it unassuming and content, like Rosie, and blossoms in the summer with the influx of tourists, it lighting up with excitement when it has people to entertain. For Rosie, her world lit up whenever she was with her family, they are her tourists. During the cold season the town still sits and waits, the beauty the same, waiting, waiting for the tourists again to arrive.
Rosie was a character I really rooted for and I was so happy with the ending, it was a perfect fit for her.
