Four Wives: My Review

I figured this would be light chick-lit about four women whose lives were intertwined. While I was right about the intertwined lives, it was not light reading; it was a dark book in a lot of ways. Who are the four wives?

• Marie used to work at a major law firm in New York. Now she has a part-time divorce practice in the suburbs and specializes in representing fathers in custody disputes. Her husband is an attorney also, but he hates his job and is spending more and more time on the golf course. Marie also has a new sexy young intern working in her office. She is working a case that troubles her.
  
• Love is a former child prodigy who is married to a doctor. As people in their community go, they are poor. They have three children and she is a full time mom. She is carrying two of the kids when she falls and hurts her back. The pain remains for a long time and yet the doctors can find nothing wrong.
  
• Gayle is an heiress who is married to an abusive man. She is also the mother of a son. Her cause is a charity women's clinic and the tie that binds the four women is a gala for that clinic.
  
• Janie appears to be the perfect mom and homemaker. However, she is having an affair that is purely about sex.

Is there something about wealthy suburban life that causes misery among women? These women are all miserable in their own way, but by book's end three have taken steps to fix that misery.

As I said, the book was dark throughout most of it, and if this is what being rich is all about, I'm glad I'm not. I did enjoy the book and if you like books like The Red Hat Club, Potluck Group or other "group of women" type novels, you'll probably like this one. There are no vivid sex scenes where we learn who touched whom where, but there is extra-marital sex and most words you don't want your kids saying are used at least once in the book, though I wouldn't say it is full of bad language.

The author, Wendy Walker, is a former commercial litigator and investment banker who now works at home writing and raising her children. You can read her blog here. Another one of her books, Chicken Soup for the Soul--Power Moms is in my TBR stack. Stay tuned for a review.

Thanks to the folks at Phenix and Phenix for providing the book.