Adultery for Beginners
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
Shortlisted for The Romantic Novelists' Association "Joan Hessayon Debut Romantic Novel of the Year"
When the Freeman family return to England after ex-pat life abroad, Neil settles down immediately while Isabel realises her life is crying out for something more. But, after years of being defined as Neil's wife, what? Despite Neil's misgivings, she finds a position working for the disorganised - if dangerously attractive - Patrick and, although her head is telling her to think of Neil and the children, Isabel is drawn to her new boss. But if lust can turn to love, so love can become obsession. Is Neil as contented as he seems, though? And does her new friend Justine really have Isabel's best interests at heart or is she working to a different agenda? Isabel is thrown into a whirl of conflicting loyalties, desires and responsibilities at whose heart lies the agonising question: can an adulterous wife be a good mother?
"A gripping portrait of an affair gone bad" - Kirkus Review
"An extremely gripping romantic novel with the page-turning qualities of a thriller" - The Daily Express
"An engrossing read" - Woman Magazine
"An astute view of modern morals and marriage, well handled. Very good indeed." - The Bookseller
"A great read" - Bella Magazine
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Duncan's occasionally dark debut centers on a wife and mother's fraught first affair. Resenting somewhat her domesticity ("her life had turned from shopping and fucking to socks and sex"), Isabel begins sleeping with her new boss, Patrick, while Justine, the false friend who introduced them, takes the opportunity to sleep with Isabel's husband. When, after a hard-fought breakup with Patrick followed by the breakup of her marriage, Isabel learns about her husband and Justine, and she finally thinks to ask whether it was his first dalliance, which, of course, it wasn't. The story of Isabel's sexual and personal awakening is solidly plotted, and her situation-that of a longtime expat wife returning to England after years of trailing her husband from country to country-offers a little novelty. The pieces fit together neatly, and the whole thing has the light coat of wit readers have come to expect from British commercial women's fiction, but there's nothing surprising in Duncan's story.
