Posted on: https://readingbetweenthepagesblog.wordpress.com/
Date: 06/28/2017

This book is a quick, easy read (less than 300 pages) that gets your attention right from the first chapter.

Jacqueline “Jacks” Morales is a 4th grade school teacher and husband James is in sales. James travels a lot and has been having an affair, unknown to Jacks, with Dylan. Dylan Matthew is a 24-year-old waitress who is engaged to be married to Nick Ford, a fireman. The lives of these four dramatically changes with a simple knock on the door.

“Are you Mrs. Morales? Wife of James Morales?”

The book is told from the perspective of the two women, Jacks and Dylan. I really enjoyed how the story unfolds by alternating the chapters: Jacks Before, Dylan Before, and Jacks After. I found it to be a fresh approach in storytelling. I really like that is was strictly told from the point of view of these two women, not the men in their lives.

The first two-thirds of this story is about love, loss, betrayal, the search for answers, and closure. In the last third of the book the suspense picks up, the story becomes more intense, and I flew through it to see how it would end.

I didn’t love, nor did I dislike this book; it was a good book. With a large part of the book taking place in Maui, it made the perfect poolside read. I’m glad I read it and look forward to reading future books by these two authors.

Thank you NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing, and Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke for the opportunity to read and review this book for my honest opinion.

Books that are written by author collaboration generally fall into 2 categories: they are either a disjointed mess where you can tell more than one person had their hand in it (the screenplay for the new Mummy movie immediately comes to mind) or the dual creativity is blended so well you can’t tell multiple voices have been blended together to create one piece.

Thankfully this falls into the latter category rather than the former.

Liz and Lisa have created an intriguing suspense filled novel but that theme is so subtlety woven throughout this work you often find yourself wondering how these various plot points are going to be answered but the authors manage to provide everything you need to enjoy it in a binge worthy way.

The Hawaii setting created a nice contrasting tone to an otherwise dark storyline of 2 people meeting under terrible circumstances; their significant others are not only dead but had apparently been having an affair with each other.

You will surely want to read through to the end as the last pages will have your fingers glued to the paper in an ending you never saw coming.

This might be the best sneaky book I have read in a while. I was happily reading along, watching Jacks (Jacqueline) and Nick struggle to learn why their respective partners were having an affair and died in Maui but little twists kept popping up. Some of them were more intriguing than others, but combined it kept the book moving along and me engaged. The story is told by Jacks (present time) and Dylan (past). The women both disclose how they met and fell in love with the male in common, James. Frequently I wondered why we weren’t getting the male point of view, but the method worked well. Affair aside, James wasn’t a likeable character. I’m not sure if that was intentional or my own feeling. Maybe he was written that way so as to cast Nick in a better light? But seriously, the guy was already a fireman and was helping Jacks through her struggles dealing with James’ affair and death. He didn’t need any assistance in the hero department. I loved how I would get comfortable with the situation and then something new would pop up. In that manner the story was well laid out. The one issue I did have was the female’s names. Why give them both predominantly male names?

I was really excited about this book, and couldn't wait to dive into it. However, what I expected wasn't exactly what I got. I thought that it would be a nail biting, page turning thriller. What I got was a good setup for thrills, then kind of a romance, and a halfhearted thriller finale.

This was a quick read, and it was a perfectly good book. Just not what I had hoped for, from the description and even the cover.

This was a really good book. It had a few twists that I didn't see coming, but it also was a pretty easy and quick read. A few of the flashbacks confused me, given the way they were written into the story, but it didn't detract from the book overall. I'm very grateful to Lake Union Press and Netgalley for providing me with an advance copy of this book. A very enjoyable read and I look forward to more suspense novels from Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke!

The Good Widow is a story about the marriage of James and Jacqueline "Jacks" Morales. While her husband is off on yet another business trip she gets word that he has died. She is shocked to find out that he died while in Hawaii with another woman. While dealing with her emotions she meets Nick, the other woman's fiancée. Together they travel to Hawaii in search of more information about what was going on there.
This book started out slow for me but the last half was fast paced and I did not see the twist in the story at the end. I enjoyed this suspenseful novel.

my review is up on amazon:
If you could see me dancing right now, you would know how good this book is. Words dont do it justice and to tell you too much about why it is good will give away the plot. It is really interesting how the story unfolds in present and past, and you will just follow the twists and surprises that are set in place for you, leading you to a gripping and unexpected ending! Get this book, it is worth every penny!

I really enjoyed this book. Some of it was predictable, but other aspects were not. The ending definitely surprised me!!!

I liked how the authors did different points of view for Jacks & Dylan. I wish that we got a peak into James & Nicks head, but I suppose that's what leaves us guessing!

I'll be looking forward to the next book by these authors!!! 4.5 Stars

I received a copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the Good Widow. I plan to look for more books by Liz & LIsa. It was a great love story and very realistic. This book held my interest from start to finish. The first half I felt like I was reading a Nicholas Sparks romance then towards the end it got much more suspenseful.

This was a great beach book.

The story line is intriguing but some is a bit far fetched in my opinion. I debated to skip to the end, but I'm glad I didn't as I would have missed a nice, twisty and unexpected ending. 3 solid stars out of 5. I've reviewed this book on goodreads but am unable to attach the link

Jacks gets a startling visit from the police. Her husband was killed in a car accident.... in Maui. James was supposed to be in Kansas on business. Then Jacks gets another shock.... he was not alone when he died. There was a young woman by the name of Dylan with him. Dylan's fiance Nick contacts Jacks and wants her to go with him to Maui to find some peace with the events that happened and the betrayal of both of their partners. What they get however is an avalanche of discoveries that they never expected to find. I could not put this book down. It is full of surprises and makes you wonder how well you really know those closest to you.

Truly enjoyed this book. The twist was a pleasant surprise and the descriptions truly put you there. Loved it! Thanks NetGalley!

James and Jacks, Nick and Dylan – these are the characters in this tangled web of lies, duplicity, and relationships that have gone wrong. Unfortunately for me, the hand wringing, tears and blame went on far too long and I was worn down by it all. There were so many pages of bad choices, things that made no sense, things that I just didn’t care about. The lack of concern for the emotional and psychological damage that was going to be done by everyone to everyone was troubling. Did they all deserve it?

Thank you NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for an ARC.

This week I also read The Good Widow by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke. This book is their first stab at suspense and I liked the story but the really suspenseful parts happen towards the last 1/3 of the book!

Synopsis:

Elementary school teacher Jacqueline “Jacks” Morales’s marriage was far from perfect, but even in its ups and downs it was predictable, familiar. Or at least she thought it was…until two police officers showed up at her door with devastating news. Her husband of eight years, the one who should have been on a business trip to Kansas, had suffered a fatal car accident in Hawaii. And he wasn’t alone.

For Jacks, laying her husband to rest was hard. But it was even harder to think that his final moments belonged to another woman—one who had left behind her own grieving and bewildered fiancé. Nick, just as blindsided by the affair, wants answers. So he suggests that he and Jacks search for the truth together, retracing the doomed lovers’ last days in paradise.

Now, following the twisting path of that fateful road, Jacks is learning that nothing is ever as it seems. Not her marriage. Not her husband. And most certainly not his death…

Fans of these authors are really going to enjoy The Good Widow!

The story of Jacks and Nick who have both lost their partners and how they are working through their grief. James and Dylan were having an affair and Jacks and Nick go back to Maui to re create their last steps to try lay their grief to rest. A gritty story with an amazing twist.

Thank you Netgalley, bookouture and the publisher for allowing me to read this book. A FANTASTIC book. I devoured it in one go! I saved it to read on my holidays and actually read it in one go! I just couldnt put it down! Highly recommend it.

The Good Widow was a fab book. Jack thinks her husband James is in Kansas but he is found dead in a car accident in Maul with a younger woman.
A bit slow in places but I just had to keep reading to see what would happen next.
A great twist at the end that I did not expect.

Definitely one of the books of the year. The book is interesting throughout and the twist at the end makes it one of my favorite books!

Great read! Looking forward to reading more by this author!

I love domestic noir novels, and am always intrigued by writing duos – how do they do it? Who gets to write what? Anyway, spotting The Good Widow on Goodreads and seeing that it contains both, I just had to read it! Blame my trigger finger on Netgalley (again).

The book starts with two police officers knocking on Jacks’ Morales door – and honestly, what is more chilling than the thought that her world as she knows it is about to end! Her husband James, who she thought was on a business trip in Kansas, has been killed in a car accident. Except that the accident didn’t happen in Kansas, but in Maui, and there was a second casualty – Dylan, a pretty young blonde woman who had been James’ companion on the trip. As Jacks is trying to wrap her head around the fact that she is now a widow, she must also come to terms with the unpleasant truth that her husband lied to her, and cheated on her. Grieving and feeling betrayed, she is at her most vulnerable when another unexpected visitor arrives: enter Nick, the equally baffled and grief-stricken fiancé of the woman James had been having an affair with. Somewhat against her better judgment, Jacks agrees to Nick’s plan to travel to Maui, to the scene of the accident, to get closure.

Personally, the book was a bit of a slow burn for me and I was struggling at times to understand the characters’ motivation for their (often questionable) decisions. I fully get the need to find closure, but still found parts of Jacks’ decision to travel to Maui with her husband’s lover’s jilted fiancé a bit baffling. But then again – people do strange things, especially when they are grieving. That aside, it was about at that point in the story that I felt I needed a bit more motivation to keep me interested. James, the cheating spouse, sounded like a bit of an arse all around, and to be honest I did not care much about why he had died. Move on Jacks, sounds like you’ll be better off without him. I was wishing for bit more mystery and suspense, a sense of danger, a sinister undertone or some unexpected action to move the story along. That said, the book kept me interested enough to keep reading and see if my suspicions and predications were correct (Miss Marple investigates) – and they were.

In summary, The Good Widow is a slow-burning mystery following a young widow’s journey in coming to terms with her husband’s death and betrayal. Even though it contained few surprises for me, it was an easy read and kept me turning the pages to see whether my theories were right. The book may appeal to lovers of domestic noir who enjoy an emotional exploration of marriage, betrayal and grief – but readers who prefer lots of suspense may find it lacking.