• Title:  Such a Good Wife
• Author:  Seraphina Nova Glass
• Genre:  Thriller
• Rating:  3.5 out of 5

Melanie Hale is a devoted mother to her two children, a diligent caregiver to her ailing mother-in-law and a trusted neighbor in their wealthy Louisiana community. Above all, she’s a loving partner to her wonderful husband, Collin.

Then there are the parts of herself that Mel keeps hidden. She’s exhausted, worried and unfulfilled. So much so that one night, after a writers’ group meeting, Mel begins an affair with a successful local author named Luke. Suddenly she’s transformed into a role she doesn’t recognize–a woman who deceives with unseemly ease. A woman who might be capable of just about anything.

When Mel finds Luke’s dead body in his lavish rented house, she realizes just how high the stakes have become. Not only does she have to keep her affair a secret in order to preserve her marriage, but she desperately needs to avoid being implicated in Luke’s death. But who would want to kill him? Who else in her life is keeping secrets? And most terrifying of all, how far will they–and she–go to keep those secrets hidden?

This wasn’t a bad read, but I thought Mel’s sudden impulse and resulting affair with Luke was totally out of-character and without provocation—not to mention her senseless visit to his house when she finds him dead…and she somehow thinks she’s going to get away without anyone knowing she was there.

Everyone has secrets, of course, but Mel—and Collin—are hiding some big ones. With Mel, it’s almost like she has two separate personalities:  the devoted wife and mother and the devious woman willing to do anything or tell any lie to satisfy her own impulses. I think that, despite the solid writing, the characters just didn’t make sense to me and I didn’t care for them at all.

Seraphina Nova Glass has traveled all over the world. Such a Good Wife is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Harlequin/Graydon House in exchange for an honest review.)

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