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My Husband’s Lover
by Jess Ryder
Review

MY HUSBAND’S LOVER

Cover image of the book 'My Husband's Lover' by author Jess RyderAs my girlfriends and I sip wine and share secrets in the flickering candlelight of our remote Scottish hideaway, we all agree we need this break. Every morning we will swim in icy cold lochs and hike to remote beaches and each night we will sip wine and share stories, cosy beside the log burner.

It will be a break none of us will ever forget.

But behind my warm smile, there is ice in my heart.

One of my friends is my husband’s lover, and it’s only a matter of time before I discover which one. She thinks she has me fooled, but she’s not the only one with secrets.

I don’t let my smile slip, but as I get closer to the truth, it becomes very clear that in these remote Scottish hills, far from help, someone is going to pay for their lies with their life…

Cover image of the book 'My Husband's Lover' by author Jess Ryder

JESS RYDER

Image of author Jess Ryder - March 2023

Jess Ryder is the pseudonym of Jan Page, author, screenwriter, playwright and award-winning television producer. After many years working in children’s media, she has embarked on a life of crime. Writing psychological thrillers, that is.

She also writes books for children, teens and young adults as Jan Page.

With her many years’ experience as a scriptwriter, Jess loves watching television crime drama.

She is a passionate reader and particularly enjoys thrillers.

Jess lives with her partner in London, UK and has four grown-up children.

Cover image of the book 'My Husband's Lover' by author Jess Ryder

FIRST LINES

ONE

SOPHIE

“Sophie struggles up the bank, legs shaking, swimming shoes baggy with water. Her breath swirls in the cool morning air. Grabbing her dryrobe from the rock, she puts her arms through the loose sleeves and drags up the chunky zipper. The lambswool lining licks the water off her skin.

How different to those childhood holidays on Cornish beaches, she thinks as she gazes across the lake. She always stayed too long in the sea, jumping in the waves, emerging with blue lips and shivering limbs. Nan made her a changing tube out of an old beach towel, gathered at the neck. It was thin and rough and became sopping wet within seconds. She remembers Nan rubbing her all over in her no-nonsense way – drying her with love”

Cover image of the book 'My Husband's Lover' by author Jess Ryder

MEMORABLE LINES

“She’s been trying to hold the broken pieces of their relationship together, stuck with the glue of forgiveness, but eventually she’s going to have to take her hands away. Will everything stay in place, or will it shatter? She can’t be sure, can’t risk it yet”

.

“Men are genetically predisposed to scatter their seed as widely as possible, he told her. Whereas she, as a woman, only needed one partner – a strong man to build the shelter, bring home food and protect her and the children from attack. It was her responsibility to hold on to her husband while purely natural forces pulled him in the opposite direction. When he crossed the middle line in that tug-of-war, it was her fault”

.

“She’s spent too much of her life puzzling over her relationship with Ryan. The sad truth is, it has never been right. There has always been something rotten at the heart of it, a bed smell lingering in her nostrils”

.

“Ultimately children need happy parents, regardless of whether they’re together or apart”

.

“Her body feels heavy, as if her thoughts are physically weighing her down”

.

“Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you react to it”

Cover image of the book 'My Husband's Lover' by author Jess Ryder

REVIEW

“A wife. A mistress. A week away with no escape…”

I’m not certain just how much I can say about this storyline to whet your appetite, without giving anything away, but here goes nothing!…

Sophie and Ryan have two young sons aged nine and ten years old, but their marriage is going through a rocky patch, since Sophie discovered that Ryan had been cheating on her. Ryan appears contrite, although he seems to think that telling Sophie that it was only for sex, is going to put things right more quickly.

In an effort to have some therapy time for herself, Sophie establishes ‘Sophie’s Swimmers’, a wild swimming club, where she and five other women who have joined her, meet once a week at the lake of a local Nature Discovery Park. Fern, Ariel, Keira, Grace and Elise, come from diverse backgrounds, although they meet purely for the swimming and actually know little of one another’s private lives. Fern is obviously the most well-to-do of the group and it is she who suggests that they should go away for a week’s swimming break as a group. The location she chooses is in a remote part of Scotland, a two mile hike from the nearest car park and many miles from any village or town. The cottage is basic in the extreme and has no facilities, so they will have zero contact with the outside world for the duration of their stay, at least that’s what they believe! It is however, both close to the coast for sea swimming and has its own loch nearby, for those all important early morning, wild swimming dips.

Ryan is far from happy about her plans, even though Sophie has arranged for the children to visit their maternal grandparents for the week, so he won’t have to be responsible for their care. However, when Sophie shows him a group picture of ‘Sophie’s Swimmers’, he becomes positively apoplectic, although he refuses to say why. He begs her not to go, however Sophie digs in her heels, even when one of their number does have to cry off at the last minute. The journey up country is long and arduous for Sophie, as the only driver, made much worse by the garbled phone call she exchanges with Ryan from a motorway services, where he confides in her part of his reticence for her making the trip, whilst still refusing to be completely truthful with her.

Armed with a little knowledge, which they do say can be a dangerous thing, Sophie disengages from the group more and more, as she begins to try and unravel the truth from the limited amount of information Ryan gave her. With revenge on her mind, aware that she in return, is being hunted, and with the disadvantage of not knowing who her adversary is, Sophie hopes to set up a final and maybe fatal showdown and so a very deadly game of cat and mouse ensues. However, there are other members of the group who also have their own agendas and are not as innocent as everyone believes. They too, are busy setting their individual plans in motion, and so a wily and potentially catastrophic chain of events is set to unfold on several unconnected levels, which are every bit as lethal as one another, and each of which seem to wrap themselves around Sophie, dragging her down until she doesn’t know where to turn.

Finally, with a perplexing crime scene left in the less than capable hands of the local police, what is left of the group are free to head home, with a seemingly traumatised Sophie needing space and time alone to make preparations for her new life going forwards. However, she will only realise that goal after she has finally destroyed her nemesis, with the biggest secret of them all. This is one tough cookie, determined that the future is going to happen on her terms, and hers alone!

Don’t get mad, get even. If you can’t get even one way, then find a different way!!

And how those unexpected twists and turns just kept coming – from the very first, to the very final word!…

The story is predominantly told in two voices, those of Sophie and her unknown antagonist, called simply ‘The Swimmer’, a format which worked brilliantly once I got to grips with it, which didn’t take long at all.

This well-structured, multi-layered storyline was powerful, well-paced, highly textured and intense.  The cut-it-with-a-knife atmosphere, for the most part was desperately cloying and claustrophobic, yet totally immersive. The tension mounted exponentially, with a situation which had at first seemed manageable, fast careening out of control.

There was not a single facet of this storyline which was simple or uncomplicated, as more and more clues were drip-fed into the narrative little by little. Nothing was quite as it seemed and the twists and turns just kept on coming – and I mean right to the very end, complicating the tangled web of lies and secrets which overlaid everything, until I just didn’t know who to believe any more. In fact, the reveal of the antagonist at about the 75% marker, didn’t make a shred of difference, as the suspense was maintained right up to the turn of that last page. Don’t assume anything is over, until it’s over!

The story predominantly takes place in the remote, sometimes beautiful, but often harsh conditions of the Ardnish Peninsula, in the Highlands of Scotland. Even though, with all the terrible things going on around them, the ladies may not have had either the mental capacity or inclination to notice the scenery they had hoped to enjoy during their stay, author Jess Ryder still made time to use the full palette at her disposal, to paint the physical location with a rich colour and vibrancy, taking in the sights, sounds and smells, which lifted this place which time forgot, off the page, offering a truly inclusive experience for the reader. As a confirmed ‘armchair traveller’ I could feel myself being transported to another world, although I have to admit that personally, I do prefer my amazing scenery to come with a few mod-cons and little luxuries. Oh! and as a non-swimming, fear of water, confirmed landlubber, some of the excruciatingly detailed water scenes were ‘hands covering the eyes’ moments.

I can honestly say that, despite the entire cast of characters being well defined and described in vivid detail, none of them were in the least bit likeable or authentic. I tried to take into account that many of them were ‘damaged goods’ in one way or another and by varying degrees. However, I found them simply too manipulative, malevolent and duplicitous, to be in any way compelling or with any depth I could invest in.

Sophie and Ryan are the perfect match for each other and I found it difficult to work out which was the biggest liar of the two, the one with most secrets. Except for when she was in the company of her young sons, Sophie was definitely the hardest hearted of the couple and always had been. Ryan was always the inherent victim of any situation, prone to laziness and rather spineless, although in reality, he really did just need a good kick up the bottom and there is no way I would have put up with him. However, I’m not sure I would have been quite so evil as Sophie, in case it affected any one else who was innocent – although there was little chance of that in this book.

As you can probably tell, I became really invested in this storyline for its duration, although I was more than happy to walk away from it when it was over, as it was possibly a little too all-consuming – Job Done, I would say, Jess!

Image of author Jess Ryder - March 2023

A complimentary kindle download of this book for review, was made available by publisher Bookouture and supplied by NetGalley.

Any thoughts or comments are my own personal opinion, and I am in no way being monetarily compensated for this, or any other article which promotes this book or its author.

I personally do not agree with ‘rating’ a book, as the overall experience is all a matter of personal taste, which varies from reader to reader. However, some review sites do demand a rating value, so when this review is posted to such a site, it will attract a well-deserved 5 out of 5 stars!

Thank you for taking the time to read my review, I appreciate your support.

 

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Written by
Yvonne

I can’t remember a time, even as a child, when I haven’t been passionate about books and reading.
I began blogging, when I realised just how many other people out there shared my passion for the written word and I have been continually amazed at the wealth of books that are available and the amount of great new friends I have made, from literally 'The Four Corners Of The World'.

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Written by Yvonne