The Housewife, by Natalie Barelli (REVIEW) — Beneath the Veneer of a "Perfect" Life... Is Where the Rot Hides

A whirlwind courtship—followed by a lavish wedding in Beverly Hills, with a handsome, successful groom and his younger, beautiful blonde bride.

It sounds like a fairy tale.

But—as with many things that appear picture-perfect on first glance—something much darker lies just beneath the surface of this glamorous marriage... and is about to shatter the beautiful illusion, in Natalie Barelli’s twisted tale of marital bliss, The Housewife.

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Many women want a fabulous career... followed later by marriage and perhaps a family.

Not Jodie. With chef-level culinary skills and housekeeping wizardry, she’s always longed to become a housewife... the mistress of her own carefully-curated home, adored by her doting husband and the envy of their friends.

And, following a chance meet-cute with hunky Dr. Roy Davies—a psychologist, best-selling author, and esteemed resident of his tony Beverly Hills neighborhood—it seems she’s set to have precisely that.

But after the nuptials, the honeymoon phase is short-lived. 

Roy talks about his late first wife, Deborah, all the time... and gradually, Jodie realizes that Deborah was the adored wife... while she herself is merely a poor replacement in his eyes.

It’s not just Roy, either. His friends—and even the housekeeper he no longer needs (but refuses to fire)—clearly idolized Deborah... and view Jodie as the gold-digging interloper.

Slowly, Jodie becomes convinced that Roy, with his constant manipulations and little digs at her, was somehow behind his first wife’s untimely death.

She vows to make him pay... but struggles to find any actual proof.

And then there’s the matter of her own carefully-guarded secret coming out... something she just can’t risk.

Still, one way or another, Jodie will take down this man who is so admired... yet so evil inside.

Either that... or she’ll wind up as Poor Dr. Roy’s Dead Wife #2.

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The Housewife shares obvious plot points with Daphne du Maurier’s classic Rebecca—the dashing older man with a dead first wife, marrying an innocent young woman whom he proceeds to torment—but is by no means a simple retelling of the original.

Instead, The Housewife creates a tougher, more resourceful heroine in Jodie—one who refuses to stand by and be gaslighted by the man she married—and gives her a few secrets of her own. 

For me, Jodie is fascinating, as her many layers reveal themselves.

There are also several engaging side characters, from the surly housekeeper to the (unsurprisingly, mostly-terrible) Beverly Hills housewives to a new friend Jodie unexpectedly makes on a rare outing one day.

We even get sad glimpses into Deborah’s life, feeling her disillusionment as the storybook life she’d been granted slowly turned into a grim, dark tale. 

With clever twists, sharp observations, and shocking revelations, The Housewife shows how quickly a dream can become a nightmare... and I raced through it, dying to know just how this nightmare would end.
~GlamKitty

[My sincere thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are, as always, entirely my own.]