Liane Moriarty | Book Chatter

The Husband’s Secret
By Liane Moriarty
Berkley, 9780451490049, 2017, 496pp.

The Short of It:

Liane Moriarty has become one of my favorite authors. I discovered her books during the pandemic. She knows how to grab my attention and The Husband’s Secret delivered just what I needed.

The Rest of It:

As with many of her books, Moriarty’s stories often incorporate many characters and story lines that come together nicely but there is usually a main thread to pull you in and in The Husband’s Secret, Cecilia finds an envelope that is addressed to her, written in her husband’s hand. The instructions on the envelope ask that it be opened in the event of his death. His death? She wants desperately to read it, but when she mentions the letter to her husband John-Paul, who is very much alive, he begs her not to. Inside of that envelope is a secret he’s been keeping that will forever change their lives.

What I really enjoy about these novels is that Moriarty always manages to include the neighborhood in the story. The other characters are neighbors or friends or people you see at the school drop off. Their lives seem on the surface to be pretty perfect, but they are presented with challenges and not-so-pretty moments. Definitely not the shiny, sparkly moments captured on say, Instagram.

In addition to Cecilia’s plight above, we have Tess and Will who are happily married, or so they thought, until Tess’s cousin admits to being in love with her husband. We also have Rachel, a women who has had to deal with the grief of her daughter’s murder. A murder that was never solved and now her only son is taking his wife and son out of the country and Rachel will be without the distraction of her darling grandson, Jacob. How will she cope?

The Husband’s Secret was a satisfying read. The characters are so well-drawn and as a reader, you get the feeling that you are listening to a private moment between two people and I just love that. I think I have about three Moriarty novels left for me to read but so far, this is one of my favorites.

Source: Purchased
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

What Alice Forgot
By Liane Moriarty
Berkley, 9780425247440, 2012, 496pp.

The Short of It:

Took some time for me to get into this one but once I was in, I was IN. Moriarty is a storytelling queen.

The Rest of It:

Alice faints during a spin class and upon waking, realizes that she’s lost ten years of memories. She doesn’t remember having children, or that she’s in the process of divorcing her husband Nick. She has no idea why she’s at the gym at all having shunned exercise for most of her life and how can she be 39 years old when she was 29 just a little while ago? One other thing that she can’t remember is the death of her best friend Gina, who played such a large role in Alice’s life.

The first quarter of the book was bordering on silly but was also humorous and entertaining. Alice’s realizations about life as those around her continue to fill in the gaps, got some giggles out of me but can you imagine not remembering your kids or your husband?

Memory-challenged Alice finds that she’s not all that likable. She’s lost friends, alienated her husband and grown apart from her sister. She was this driven, busy person who did all the things class moms do but in total excess. Now, as she looks around at things she can’t make sense of, she wonders why? Why is she getting a divorce? What went wrong?

This turned out to be a very touching story about a woman who is given a chance to turn things around. Plus, it’s not just about Alice, it’s about her sister Elisabeth and her family and how the past few years have created a lot of tension, but perhaps the damage can be repaired.

I really ended up liking What Alice Forgot. It’s not as dishy as Big Little Lies and it didn’t center around a suburb like Truly Madly Guilty, but it was sweetly sentimental and I was satisfied when I turned the last page. It’s been optioned for a movie, actually has been for some time but I don’t see any mention of it actually being in production.

Have you read it? It does give you some food for thought and the questions in the back of my copy confirmed for me that it would make a good discussion book too.

Source: Purchased
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

Chatting with friends about books and life…