Audio Book Review: Casting the First Stone by Kimberla Lawson Roby

Casting the First Stone by Kimberla Lawson Roby
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Published: January 2000

Reverend Curtis Black is the minister to a faithful congregation in Chicago. He and his wife Tonya are upstanding members of the church and community. But when rumors of Curtis start to spread around the church that he has been unfaithful to his wife with other church members, Tonya's not sure what to do. Whenever she questions Curtis, his first instinct is to lie to her and she knows it. How will Tonya find out what is really going on? And what lengths will she go through to do so?

I have read a few of Kimberla Lawson Roby's books in the past, even a few in this series, but I never knew how it all started. This book had me on edge. It's books like these that have people doubting the church, but it is also something that really goes on. I don't know what I would do if I suspected my husband of cheating, let alone if he was a minister who was teaching people right from wrong every day.

This book had me laughing out loud and dying to know what was going to happen next. If you have never read one of Kimberla Lawson Roby's books, this is a good one to start with.

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Review: Believe Me by J.P. Delaney

Believe Me by J.P. Delaney
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Published: July 2018

Claire Wright is an actress from the UK. She has a student visa to do acting school in the United States, but she isn't able to work. She is able to find odd jobs that help her to stay alive. One of her jobs is trying to catch cheating husbands in the act. When one husband, Patrick, doesn't take the bait, Claire has to explain this to his wife. Later, the wife ends up dead and the police suspect Claire, but she didn't do it. Then they team her up with the husband to find the real killer. But are the police after Claire or Patrick? Who is telling the truth and who is using their acting skills to the best of their ability?

Thank you to NetGalley & Ballantine Random House for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This book kept me on my toes the entire time. I didn't know what was going to happen next. I'm not a person who understands the visa process in the US. So knowing the difference between a student visa and a work visa, I have no idea. I don't know how I would have survived if I was not able to work while I was in school. So I can understand Claire trying to find work where she can in order to survive.

Being a professional cheater catcher is not something I would ever do, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do to get by. But when one husband doesn't take the bait that Claire throws at him, first she is shocked and then she is happy for the wife. But the wife is not happy and seems scared. She has good reason because she winds up dead. Claire is determined to clear her name as the person who didn't kill her. She agrees to work with the police to find the real killer. But are the police in her corner or working with the husband who they also think may have killed the wife?

You never know who to trust in this book. Who killed the wife and why? Is the husband innocent? Is Claire? What about the police, can they be trusted?

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Review: Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughn

Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When you marry a person, you think you know who they are. Sure, we all have our pasts, but those pasts make us into the people we are today. Sophie and James Whitehouse have known each other for a long time. They met and dated in college, went their separate ways and then met and dated again and eventually got married. They started a family had two beautiful children and James embarked on a political career with his long time friend who is now the Prime Minister.

James comes home one night with some devastating news for Sophie, he has cheated on her and the news will be all over the papers in the morning. He claims this is the one and only time this has happened during their marriage, but when more news breaks a few weeks later, Sophie begins to question everything she has ever known about her husband. Will she be able to stay with him after all of this? Will she ever be able to trust him again?

Thank you to NetGalley, Emily Bestler/Atria Books and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I was very excited to read this book. The premise of the story had me hooked from the start. Cheating husband with secrets...I wanted to know what those secrets were and how his family would handle them. Unfortunately this story fell flat for me. It was easy to guess what the twist in the story was although it may not have been obvious the character behind the twist. Once the biggest reveal was made the secret was never exposed in a way I would have like for it to have been. I was waiting for the bomb to drop which was why I kept reading. It was more like a BB Gun went off instead.

I give this 3 stars for the overall story was interesting and it kept me reading, but in the end, I was disappointed.

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Review--The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty

The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Husband's Secret focuses on three main characters.  Cecelia Fitzpatrick, married to John-Paul with three beautiful daughters.  Tess O'Leary who owns a business with her husband, Will and cousin, Felicity and has a son, Liam. And Rachel Crowley, who is still mourning the death of her daughter nearly 30 years after the fact.  How do these women's lives intersect, well....Cecelia finds a letter from her husband, not to be opened until his death...she opens it anyway.  Tess finds out that her husband and cousin(yes her business partners) have fallen in love with each other.  So she takes her son and heads to Sydney and enrolls him in the school which, Rachel Crowley is the secretary and Cecelia is the mother all other mothers love and hate.

The news Cecelia finds in the letter, the thoughts Rachel has about her daughters killer, and the actions Tess take after leaving her husband would make for one exciting story.

I'm afraid this story feel short of the exciting mark.  When I first picked it up and started reading, I was dying to find out what was in the letter, but I would have to wait for that.  Once the secret was out, I wanted to know what was going to happen next, with everyone's story.  But the excitement wasn't there.  This wasn't a book, that I had to hurry to get back to, which was very disappointing.  I couldn't abandon the book, though because I had to know.

Would Rachel find her daughter's killer? Would Cecelia be able to live with her husband's secret? Would Tess and Will be able to work through their marriage?  But getting those answers was not page turning and gripping.

I gave the book three stars because the whole premise behind the book was good, I enjoyed the story as a whole, but there was too much in between the good parts. Don't tell me about a secret letter at the beginning of the story and take three days to tell me what was in it....it's not fair.  And what was happening in those three days was not exciting enough to make me wait.  The moments just before the opening were the most thrilling.

Don't know if I will read more from Ms. Moriarty or not.


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