Book Review - My Sweet Revenge by Jane Fallon - #AroundTheUKIn144Books #GreaterLondon

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Title: My Sweet Revenge

Author: Jane Fallon

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Michael Joseph

Publication Date: 12th January 2017

Rating: 3 Stars

I want to make my husband fall back in love with me.

Let me explain. This isn't an exercise in 1950s wifeydom. I haven't been reading articles in old women's magazines. 'Twenty ways to keep your man'. That couldn't be further from the truth.

I want him to fall back in love with me so that when I tell him to get the hell out of my life he'll care. He won't just think, 'Oh good'.

I want it to hurt.

Paula has had Robert's back since they got together as drama students.
She gave up her dreams so he could make it.
Now he's one of the nation's most popular actors.
And Paula's just discovered he's having an affair.

She's going to remind Robert just what he's sacrificing.
And then she's going to break his heart like he broke hers.
It will be her greatest acting role ever.

Revenge is sweet. 
Isn't it?

I started off really enjoying My Sweet Revenge, but the longer everything was drawn out for the more my interest started to wain. I am not sure that I could do what Paula does in this book, which is find out my husband has been cheating on me, and not let on to him at all, for months until she is ready to try and enact her revenge.

There was a lot of porky pies being told by Paula, but also by Robert, Saskia and Joshua, the focal characters of this book.  In some ways I do admire Paula, as her initial plan for revenge seemed solid, by making her husband fall back in love with her, before admitting she knows the truth and kicking him off. 

However as the story progresses she realises that won't be enough, and that she really needs to try make sure he and his piece on the side have broken up, so that he can't have either of them. It is from those thoughts that she attempts to befriend Saskia, the other woman. 

What I have neglected to mention is that Robert and Saskia work together on a drama series, as does Saskia's husband, and they are both trained actors. So when Saskia and Paula start meeting up, it is hard to know what information to trust. 

My personal thoughts about the characters personalities aside, this is a likeable book, with a story that will certainly appeal to others. I enjoyed Jane Fallon's writing style, and  there were moments where I was loving the book. I really enjoyed the few times Alice was mentioned, she is Robert's sister, and is self obsessed and reckons she is an actress too. I also really felt for Georgia, their daughter, at some points, especially since this was all happening during exam time. 

Towards the end I think I was more confused and befuddled than anything else, as I couldn't work out who was supposed to know what, and I had lost track of what the truth for any character really was, which is unfortunate as I don't like feeling confused in the run up to the end of a book. 

If you like books with complex revenge plots against a spouse, and involve manipulation of people's emotions then My Sweet Revenge will be your sort of story. 

Thank you to Michael Joseph and Netgalley for this copy of the book that I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.