It’s book club day! It’s book club day! I’m so excited it’s finally here. I finished The Other Woman weeks ago and have been dying to discuss it with you guys. February’s historical fiction pick is definitely different from the last book and has been highly recommended to me by multiple people. I have a feeling it’s going to be a good one. But let’s start with a discussion of last month’s book first…
Discussion of The Other Woman
I chose this book mainly because it was one of Reese’s Book Club picks and I’ve really loved all of the books she’s recommended so far. This was my least favorite out of the ones I have read, but it was still a good, fast read and I had to know what happened in the end! I gave it a B rating, but I know a lot of you loved it and I definitely want to hear about why you did or didn’t.
The twist: I did end up figuring out the twist pretty early on, mainly because it was so similar to The Wife Between Us and The Last Mrs. Parrish. Did you see it coming? For the record if you haven’t read any of these three books and want to start with one, The Wife Between Us was my personal favorite.
The female lead: What really got to me, however, was the fact that Emily put up with her husband and the whole situation for so long. Adam seemingly had no redeeming qualities and she saw flaws in him from the very beginning. Obviously love can be blind and I’ve been in relationships in the past with some questionable characters, but this seemed way over the top.
In The Wife Between Us and The Last Mrs. Parrish, the men held something over the women’s heads (fear in one and blackmail in the other). In this case, I wanted to keep screaming at Emily to leave him and start fresh! The situation with her mother-in-law and his defending her was obviously out of control. Did anyone else feel that way?
The antagonist: Although she turned from antagonist to side kick at the end, Pammie was by far the best part of this book! She was so deliciously evil and pretty smart in her schemes actually. I mean clearly she was also a crazy person and Emily should probably have stayed far away from the whole dang family.
What did you think? Comment below to let us know and if you want to continue the discussion about this book and any others that you’re loving, join my new Lemon Stripes Book Club Facebook group.
February Book Club: Beneath a Scarlet Sky
When I wrote about my love for WWII novels, I got so many recommendations for Beneath a Scarlet Sky that I bought it immediately. But then I needed a break from the genre because it is so depressing. Now that I’ve given it some time, I am ready to jump back into the WWII books with this one! I started it two nights ago to make sure it was something I really wanted to read with you guys and I’m already hooked.
If you’re joining me this month, be sure to read the preface because the author writes about how he interviewed Pino Lella, the main character in the book, and did years of research to write a fictional story based as closely to reality as possible. Pino was a driver for a top Nazi official in Italy, and I am excited to see where his story takes us.
The book is on the longer side, so I’m going to give everyone a few days to get it in-hand and then a full four weeks to read it. So we can reconvene here on March 13th to discuss.
Don’t forget to join the Lemon Stripes Book Club Facebook group! Photo by Julia Dags.
I feel the same about Emily!!! I mean from the start her lover was awful and she was defending him no matter what I was soooo mad at her!!! I knew right from the beginning that he was a bad men, but I really thought Pammy was too, that maybe evil was running in their blood ! I didn’t think for one second that she was protecting Emily!! I really liked it, and I am so proud that I read it in English!!!
Exactly. If that was your fiancé and MIL situation, wouldn’t you be out of there in a heartbeat?
Clearly i would!!!
I am usually pretty bad at catching onto the twists and I knew something was up but didn’t really expect the ending! I was so annoyed with Pammie the whole book and felt like she was so over the top. I questioned Adam a lot but it wasn’t until she caught him cheating that I was like she needs to move on! The ending made me really sad when he was beating her and I didn’t think it would go to that level. I really did like how everything came together in the end though! It was a quick and easy read and I really did enjoy it overall!
The fact that she stayed after the cheating was absolute insanity. It made me so angry at Emily!
When I saw your instastories this morning, I said “oh hell yes” out loud. This has been on my list for awhile and I’ve seen it recommended via some other bloggers I follow. I’m hoping to start it this month and follow along with the discussion.
Yay! So happy you’re on board. It’s gonna be a good one.
Hi! I had mixed feelings about The Other Woman. It was a great premise but some of the writing was just plain cheesy at times! That made me want to toss the book! But once I was invested in Emily I needed to know what happened. My other big problem was I was wondering why did Emily even STAY with Adam so long?!? Like you said he had no redeeming qualities and I feel like their relationship wasn’t fleshed out enough too so it was like why are putting up withall this Emily?! But it was a fun read and you just have to except those books for what they are. Excited to read the next book? I have been reading A Man Called Ove and that is really witty and a little dark for sure but good, very well written.
If you like A Man Named Ove, I highly recommend (5/5) the author’s other book, Beartown!
Thanks Ang! I will check it out from the library!
My book club is reading Beartown this month. I have heard it is amazing!
I liked this book, but felt like Emily’s alert radar or intuition was up from the beginning about Adam…but she didn’t trust herself enough to pay attention. Obviously, we see that she finds out what her husband was really like, and how the entire family dealt with their craziness. It makes you wonder – parent or not – how far you would go to protect someone or cover for someone? Pammie had me fooled – I thought she really hated Emily. It goes to show you that sometimes you really don’t know the people you think you know. I enjoyed this fast read. Looking forward to the next one!
I didn’t guess the twist, despite having read those other books (which I did guess). But agree that my biggest gripe was that she stayed with him to begin with. He just wasn’t a great person so with a crazy MIL that would just be over the top. I did have to keep reading though because I wanted to figure it out.
I agree, it was my least favorite. The husband really was not loveable, to me he has to have all these great qualities for it to be a page turner. I have read all three books mentioned and the others had significantly more depth and intrigue. But, I still had to finish because I needed to know exactly how it would play out! But if you liked this one, read a few books and put some distance between the other two… I read The Last Mrs. Parrish and the next book was The Wife Between Us and they were far to similar.
Excited for this months book! Thanks for putting in the time and effort! ♥️
Totally on the same page with everything you said. I had to finish it too but kind of wished I didn’t want to so badly the whole time. This month’s book is fantastic, though!
I saw the twist coming and kept wanting to yell at Emily. That whole relationship with Pammie was so unhealthy and was clearly never going to work in her favor. It was frustrating.
The kindle version of Beneath a Scarlet Sky is free to those with amazon prime right now! Might want to let readers know!
Awesome, thanks for sharing!
Amazing! Sharing on the FB group now!
While reading this book I kept thinking that you never would have picked it if you knew ahead of time what a doormat Emily was! You are all about women being strong, outspoken and independent. Emily was the opposite and it was SO frustrating. She put up with too much from Adam and did not stand up for herself. Although the book somewhat redeemed itself in the last few chapters, I really did hate it overall. I was disappointed Reese would pick it, young women CANNOT think this is acceptable behavior in a relationship. The way she willingly let him use her for sex and begged for him for attention (including sex) was disturbing.
I don’t blame you for picking this book because I too warmed to read it, but I am disappointed I wasted time on it. Yes, I wanted to find out what happened in the end, but the Emily character made me so angry I was just happy to finish the book and never see it again!