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Abandoned by Booklikes

Government drone by day and book lover and geek girl by night!

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What Do You Do if the Other Woman is His Mother?

The Other Woman - Sandie Jones

Please note that I received this book via NetGalley. This did not impact my rating or review.

 

So I am of two minds. This was a good thriller, however, I wanted to yell at the main character (Emily) for being so clueless sometimes. Love is not the answer if you think your fiancee's mother is out to get you. I am always shocked at women who just blithely continue on with things when they think someone near them has murderous intentions, but hey, I watched every episode of Forensic Files, so apparently there's a lot of people out there who stick their head in the sand when they start to get bad vibes off of people.

 

I did get a kick out of this thing, although I will say that the ending though not expected, didn't really work with what we know of the characters at this point. I also thought some things dragged the book down. Emily being obtuse about what an ass Adam (the fiancee) was being with regard to her and her best friend Seb. Also, Emily was being way too passive aggressive to me in parts. She wanted Adam to stand up and choose her, but shoot, even 10 percent in I knew that wasn't going to happen. 

 

"The Other Woman" is about 20 something Emily who finally meets the guy she thinks she is supposed to be with forever. Emily's meet-cute with Adam, and their subsequent dating has her knowing that she is in love almost immediately. I personally didn't get it myself, but to each their own. Emily after ensuring Adam has met her two best friends (Pippa and Seb) is nervous about meeting his mother Pammie. Adam thinks his mother is perfect (warning sign #1) and after a disastrous first meeting with Pammie, Emily is wondering if she imagined the digs that seem to be coming from Pammie (she didn't warning sign #2). When Adam and Emily are finally engaged, Pammie starts to do what she can to thwart Emily at every time (warning signs #3 through infinity).

 

I have to say that after a while I lost all sympathy for Emily. She keeps hoping that Adam is just going to realize his mother is a horror and when she starts hanging out with Adam's brother James, she starts hoping he will see it too. Pretty much Emily just tells people things that Pammie has said and waits back for them to take action. I would have hightailed my butt out of there at first whiff something was off, but then again, I have seen "Get Out" and I have a healthy fear of people who seem too good to be true. 

 

Image result for get out gif

 

Emily is also a contradiction at times. She wants Adam, but she also seems to want Adam's brother James to want her too. I was glad that Seb called her out on that whole thing. She sees Adam as being controlling and a jerk, but she excuses it all because she seems so focused on being with him. You have to wonder besides the hot sex they were having, what else was there to Adam.


The other characters were developed well I thought. Pammie was a smiling snake. James was doing the most, Pippa and Seb were 100 percent loyal. 

 

The writing I thought worked well. I felt tense pretty much right after Emily meets Pammie and it never lets up. I was waiting for something horrible to happen and you get the death by a thousand cuts that Pammie seems intent on inflicting. The flow was off a bit though. We seemed to be having way too many time jumps happening. Jones does set it up though since a remark will be made so you can figure out how long time has passed, but still, maybe a chapter heading with 5 months later or something would have been helpful. 

 

The ending though didn't feel true. I mean I can definitely see parts of it with the setup that is provided to us readers, but I think that some of it didn't work very well. We get an epilogue showing us months later I assume (see what I said about chapter heading with timeline established above).