My Thoughts in a Nutshell
Bookouture publishes another fun holiday read filled with friends, family and quite a bit of drama! Difficult Husbands will have you laughing about the ridiculous scheme that three scorned women hatch to get rid of the men in their lives for the Christmas holiday. There are some lovely characters in this story and overall it was a fun read.
The Details
Difficult Husbands by Mary de Laszlo
Publication Date: October 31, 2014 by Bookouture
What’s the Story?
Difficult Husbands – In sickness and in health, for better but definitely not for worse…
Newly divorced Lorna is struggling to adjust to life on her own. When she discovers that her beloved godfather has left her the grand (and crumbling) Ravenscourt House in the heart of Sussex, she soon has a project on her hands.
Nathan sells delicious goodies at Mulberry Farm. When he meets Lorna at a Christmas market, neither of them can ignore the chemistry. But as they get to know one another, Lorna wants to know one thing – is he after her or the house?
Together with Gloria – whose marriage to alcoholic Adrian has hit rock bottom, and Rosalind – struggling to deal with her womanising husband Ivan, the three friends hatch a plan. They’ll ditch their difficult husbands at Ravenscourt House and enjoy stress-free Christmases with their families. But nothing is ever that simple…
My Review
Difficult Husbands is a novel about three women in their forties that have increasingly grown irritated with the men that their husbands (and one recent ex-husband) have become over the years. It’s a bit overwhelming to have three ‘main’ characters, though the focus is mainly on Lorna and Gloria; Rosalind is thrown in almost as an afterthought and although she’s a good friend to the two gals, her character doesn’t do much for the plot or storyline.
The men in their lives are halfway through their sixties and are beginning to experience the effects of age taking it’s toll on their mental, physical and social well-being. They’ve all dealt with more than their fair share of crap from these men and yet, they still manage to put up with them. Their lives are filled with grief and despair at losing the men that they married to these disgustingly difficult men.
The only bright spot in their lives (besides good friends) are their lovely children. However, their husbands’ behavior is embarrassing to their children to the point that they don’t want to come home from uni for the holiday or spend time at home if their father will be around. Each family has a different issue but it all boils down to the fact that their husbands are lacking and they don’t do anything about it. Together they decide that this year is going to be different.
Lorna receives a rather perplexing gift from her godfather’s passing, a crumbling estate called Ravenscourt that needs more than a little TLC to be fixed up and fully habitable. With Ravenscourt newly in her possession, Lorna and her friends come up with a ridiculous, yet brilliant plan. They intend to get their husbands out of the house for Christmas and into Ravenscourt for a boys weekend of sorts, in order to persuade their children to come home and spend the holiday with them. The events that happen in coming up with their plan and in attempting to make it actually happen, are quite entertaining.
There are some lovely characters in this story and overall it was a fun read. Despite the grief that people go through in life, there is always the possibility of things getting better. You generally have to work for it because it won’t always be handed to you in a neat little package. Sometimes enough is enough and there will come a time when you have to fight for what you want out of life, even if it scares you. In order to be happy in life, you must make decisions to move on from your grief and allow yourself to live the life you want and deserve.
My Rating: 4/5 Stars
Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for providing me with A Review Copy in exchange for an honest review!
About the Author
Mary de Laszlo
Author Bio found on Goodreads:
Long ago my two great interests were clothes and writing so I decided to become a fashion journalist. Fortunately for me you didn’t need a degree for this and I got a job at Queen Magazine as a ‘dog’s body’ (surely such a description would be politically incorrect today!) in the fashion department. It was a great job, lurking in the background among the great designers, models and photographers, watching them work.
Later I got a job in Paris at Jardins des Modes and worked on the Paris Collections – photo shoots of the clothes all night, attending the shows by day. The models had lovely slim figures but there were no size zeros then or huge salaries so we all got on so well. Being Paris the food sent into the studios was delicious and we all enjoyed it without stressing about putting on weight etc. I loved my time there but I didn’t do much writing that was left to the copy editor.
I met my husband and returned to London to live and contacted another glossy magazine for a job, but they would not even see me, saying ‘married women have babies’. I was upset at the time but it was that putdown that that started me writing fiction – I did have babies (3, now grown up and 2 grandsons). While bringing them up I wrote short stories and novels having discovered that fiction was what I was happiest with.
I have now had 11 novels published and have various others in the pipeline.
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