Kate Fanshaw returns home from a weekend away to a house turned inside out by a party her son has hosted. As she scrubs the toilet, sweeps away the broken glass, and cleans vomit from the floor, she reaches her last straw. She will not continue her life this way. She’s a prisoner, trapped in a farce of a marriage to a man obsessed with sports and work. Her newly-turned 18 year old son son doesn’t seem to need her anymore, so it’s not a question of staying together for the child, so Kate does the hard thing and decides she will leave her marriage.

And it’s about time. The story goes back in time to follow Kate’s life from childhood up to the moment she decides to leave her husband. We watch as Kate is smothered by her mother, bullied into obedience, and unable to take a step without being criticized and watched. When Kate decides what she really wants in life is to go to catering school and open her own business cooking and baking, we see how it is that she’s pushed into teaching instead. We watch her fail at relationships and finally settle for the safe choice, a bland man who could care less that she’s around but for the one time a week he dresses up in military regalia and forces her to role-play for sex. It’s no wonder she’s bored and unhappy, she’s given up on everything she wanted for things that were easier. (more…)

Ellie and Dan Cooper are married and from the very beginning of their relationship, there’s another woman in the picture. But Dan isn’t having an affair, and no, neither is Ellie. The “other woman” is Dan’s mother.

Mothers-in-law are often the butt of many jokes about marriage. Talking about them can even be a form of bonding between married women. So Jane Green already has a built-in audience with this novel. Many married women will pick this novel up and recognize aspects of their own mothers-in-law in this story. Just don’t let your mother-in-law see you reading it ;)

Ellie’s mother died when she was young and her relationship with her father is strained, so Ellie is excited to be marrying into Dan’s family because she thinks she’s finally getting the family she never had. And at first, his mother, Linda, seems like the perfect mother-in-law. She’s poised, sophisticated, and very welcoming. Ellie even goes as far as to tell her friends that she’s lucky to have a mother-in-law that’s different from all the others. (more…)