A Reliable Wife [Review]

 

Stats:

291 pages

Published 7 Apr 2009

Synopsis:

"Abandoning her worldly life, traveling to a remote Wisconsin town in the dead of winter, trusting her future to a man she had never met - such was Catherine Land's new beginning. But there was an ending in sight as well, an ending that would redeem the treachery ahead, justify the sacrifice, and allow her to start over yet again. That was her plan." "For Ralph Truitt, the wealthy businessman who had advertised for "a reliable wife," this was also to be a new beginning. Years of solitude, denial, and remorse would be erased, and Catherine Land, whoever she might be, would be the vessel of his desires, the keeper of his secrets, the means to recover what was lost. That was his plan." Set just after the turn of the twentieth century, A Reliable Wife is the story of these two people, each plagued by a heart filled with anger and guilt, each with a destiny in mind. But neither anticipates what develops between them - the pent-up longings that Catherine discovers in this enigmatic man and the depth of her own emotional response; the joy Ralph experiences in giving Catherine the luxuries she has never known, his growing need for her, and a desire that he thought was long buried

My Thoughts: 

This was the June Book for the Clamhouse Book Club. I always feel so snooty and mean when I read books that I don't like. Especially when other people enjoy them.

This book was too wordy. It spent too much time describing such boring mundane things that were not that important or relevant to the story. In Part 2, the first chapter is all about Catherine buying clothes.

The plot as a whole was crazy: a huge soap opera. It wasn't a bad storyline, just insanely out there.