This one has very mixed reviews but you know what? I really liked it. It starts as a slow burn that spends the first half setting up the three main characters’ toxic friendship. Aubrey, Kate, and Jenny were college roommates that became more like frenemies than friends. So toxic, so destructive. The way they talk about one another is awful, and they thought nothing of betraying one another. I guess I can see where many readers had trouble with the book because of how unlikeable all three young women were. But I don’t mind unlikeable characters at all and I feel compelled to stick with it anyway because I felt like there was Something Big coming. I felt like there was a point to the slow burn.

And there was! The Something Big was the second half. It’s a murder mystery taking place years later after Aubrey, Kate, and Jenny have graduated from college, moved on, and sort of established their adult-selves. They’re even more toxic to one another by this point, with even more betrayal. WHY they kept in touch and still called themselves friends was beyond me! Some of the secondary characters from their college years and the first half of the book play really large roles, so it pays to pay attention to the first half.

I loved trying to solve the mystery: was it murder or suicide? And who is responsible? Who is the last person that saw the victim alive? I tried to solve the mystery as I was reading, as more clues were discovered. And I was wrong! It was a lot of fun for me to play detective because every single one in this group of people could have been guilty. And the ending completely shocked me! I loved it.


I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to St Martin’s Press!

Very good and fast paced read. Kept me guessing until the very end. Thought several different things throughout the book and was still left surprised

I enjoyed this book! I would give it four stars for really holding my attention. I have been reading mostly romances so this was a great change of pace. The plot and characters were not super memorable but they got the job done. I actually happen to read this while on vacation at our lake house. This is the perfect summer read! It is interesting but someone light and not too many trigger warnings are needed.

Another example of how money doesn't always buy happiness. Or that even the people with the most money still have lots of skeletons in their closets.

This book had me so engrossed I finished it in one sitting! It was a refreshing to find something perfect to get me out of my reading slump. This one is highly recommended for those that need a really great read to get into from start to finish!

It's a good book. It got me hooked and I end up continuously reading it until the point where, I'm actually done with it. I like the story and how the author writes.

Note: clearing old books from before 2019

Did not have time to read this book - still on my TBR. Thank you for the opportunity and my apologies for not getting to it.

I have since purchased a copy of this book for my own pleasure.

EXCERPT: Present Day - the night of her fortieth birthday

She stumbled through the dark woods, the trees dripping raindrops onto her hair and her party dress. Her shoes were covered in mud, and she trembled from the cold.

'Hey,' she called out. 'This is crazy. My shoes are soaked.'

'Just a little farther.'

She was out of breath, and her feet were killing her. It wouldn't be good for the baby if she tripped and fell. Then they rounded a bend. She got an open view ahead, and knew finally where they were. When she saw the ghostly shape looming in the distance, she stopped dead.

'Why?'

'You know why.'

In a matter of minutes, they reached the foot of the bridge. A frigid wind blew in her face, carrying the scent of decaying leaves and ice-cold water. There were barriers across the bridge now, blocking access, and a profusion of warming signs. Danger. Private Property. No Trespassing. The signs were there for liability reasons, but from what she understood, the local kids still liked to make the breathless leap into the river. The more people who died here, the bigger the dare. Kids had no fear; they were young, and didn't know better. She could have told them. Somebody dies, and it changes the lives of those left behind, forever.

'I don't know what kind of point you're trying to make, bringing me here,' she said, her voice shaking with tears. But she didn't turn back.

They walked forward a few paces, stepped over an old, tumbled-down metal fence and kept walking until they got to where the centre of the bridge used to be. There it was, the abyss that he'd fallen through, the night he disappeared forever. She looked down and saw the water roiling against the rocks. The town had done a crappy job of boarding it over. They'd 'fixed' it many times over the intervening years, but they were too cheap for the one fix that would work, which would have been to tear the evil thing down once and for all. Below, the water swirled and foamed. She could hear the roar from up here, over the pounding of her heart.

'No,' she said, backing away from the edge.

'Go ahead.'

'Go . . . ahead?'

'Go ahead and jump. You know you want to.'

ABOUT 'IT'S ALWAYS THE HUSBAND': Kate, Aubrey, and Jenny. They first met as college roommates and soon became inseparable, even though they are as different as three women can be. Twenty years later, one of them is standing at the edge of a bridge . . and someone else is urging her to jump.

How did things come to this?

As the novel cuts back and forth between their college years and their adult years, you see the exact reasons why these women love and hate each other—but can feelings that strong lead to murder? Or will everyone assume, as is often the case, that it’s always the husband?

MY THOUGHTS: A book of two halves. I didn't much enjoy the story of the girls college years. And to be quite honest, I didn't think that it held together that well. I could see the necessity for it, but did there have to be so much of it? I got the idea pretty quickly, honestly. I was ready to move on long before the book was.

I much preferred the parts of the story where they are all adults, and I am using that term very loosely, because some things never change.

Jenny is still trying to keep a firm rein on both Aubrey, who has married up and is living in the same town as Jenny, and Kate, who eventually married Griff or, more accurately, his trust fund. Kate is the poor little rich girl, who dazzles and bewitches, towing Jenny and Aubrey along in her self-destructive wake.

The three are bound together in an uneasy truce of secrets and lies, Jenny not quite ever trusting either Aubrey, or wildcard Kate. Her whole life has been built on the successful cover-up of a scandal, so when Kate does something that threatens to bring the whole mess crashing down around them, Jenny goes into crisis management mode. But does this former 'good girl' know where to draw the line any more?

There were so many ways this could have ended, and Michelle Campbell did a wonderful job of suggesting them all, leaving the truth hanging until the very final moment.

I can't say that I enjoyed this read. I was tempted during the first half to throw in the towel. I am glad I didn't, because the second half of the book had me rapidly flipping the pages as the feeling of impending disaster intensified.

This is a good mystery. The characterisation is excellent. I didn't like any of the characters, but I didn't need to. I was invested in the plot, built on greed, envy, dissolution, secrets, lies and betrayal.

Campbell obviously knows a lot about her subject and the setting, which is like a foreign country to me. This is her first novel. I am definitely going to be a starter for her future ones.

⭐⭐⭐.3

#ItsAlwaystheHusband #NetGalley

THE AUTHOR: Michele Campbell is a graduate of Harvard College and Stanford Law School and a former federal prosecutor in New York City who specialized in international narcotics and gang cases.

A while back, she said goodbye to her big-city legal career and moved with her husband and two children to an idyllic New England college town a lot like Belle River in IT’S ALWAYS THE HUSBAND. Since then, she has spent her time teaching criminal and constitutional law and writing novels.

She's had many close female friends, a few frenemies, and only one husband, who – to the best of her knowledge – has never tried to kill her.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to St Martin's Press via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of It's Always the Husband by Michelle Campbell for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage

So what did Kate have that made her such a powerful leader to her friends?
The friends who said they would stay loyal to the bitter end.

None of these characters appealed to me, but that’s ok, I’m not that kind of reader where I don’t like a character so I dislike the book. I’m quite ok with ratty, I likeable written characters, it usually challenges me to try to find out why they act the way they do.
It didn’t happen in this though.

Many times I was confused over it all......but.....
The latter part of the book was much stronger.

I listened to this on audio and I wish I hadn’t. I found the narrators voice a bit jarring at times.

When action in dialogue speeded up all I could take note of was
“He said”
“She said”
So I missed the gist of the sentences as it was constant.

Overall though, the plot was good.

This book was just an okay read. Although there were a few twists in it the story overall was quite predictable and did not keep me interested.

I finally got around to reading this book. This book had a great plot and the ending was shocking. The characters were dysfunctional and likable.

This was a little underwhelming, probably because I was expecting more of a thriller. The first half of the book is in-depth background of the characters, and then the second half goes into the present day circumstances. I kept reading because I wanted to find out who did what, but it did drag a bit in places.

The title caught my attention. The story of college friends and the secret that ties them together until one of them is standing at the edge of the cliff and someone is telling them to jump. This was my first book by this author and it won’t be the last. A psychological thriller that keeps you guessing.

Wow - this book was an unexpected hit for me! I went in completely blind, just knowing that it had mixed reviews. I think that was the best way to do it, because while reading other reviews when I finished, some readers felt disappointed or misdirected from the synopsis. I, on the other hand, really enjoyed the heck out of this one. My only reason for 4 stars instead of 5, was two-fold. First, it dragged on a bit too much at about the 30-40%. Secondly, I didn't think bringing the character of Owen into the storyline with Kate, other than to be the sheriff, was necessary. I thought the writing flowed nicely and it always hooked me to want to read another chapter. If you are hesitant about this one, I'd encourage you to go in blind and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did!

St. Martin's Press and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of It's Always the Husband. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

Kate, Aubrey, and Jenny: an unlikely trio put together as roommates by their college. Through tragedy, scandal, and strife, the friends have stuck together for 20 years. When a huge secret threatens to topple their carefully constructed world, will the revelations change their lives forever?

The biggest problem that I had with It's Always the Husband is the fact that there are no likable characters among this ensemble cast. The story was too familiar and failed to capture my attention in a meaningful way. I am a huge fan of mystery/thrillers for their suspenseful twists and convoluted plots, but the author did not hit all of those marks with It's Always the Husband. The author had to have the last word but, in doing so, cut off the ending in a way that did not allow for the reader to use their imagination. For these reasons, I would be hesitant to recommend It's Always the Husband to other readers.

Absolutely one of the best books I have read. Great writing and delivery. When I began reading this book, I didn’t want to stop till I was finished. Great characters and an unforeseen ending. I kept guessing the entire time as to what would happen next — so full of twists, turns, and dark secrets with past and present colliding.

I do hate it when I really didn't enjoy a book and I have to write a review for the people who supplied it to me, but sadly that was the case with 'It's Always the Husband.' Right from the start I found the jumping around between time and character perspective incredibly confusing - and it continued to be confusing!
Apart from the opening scene which doesn't really seem to fit anywhere, the book is divided into two parts; in the first part, we meet Aubrey, Jenny and Kate. I must be honest here, but there was very little going on in the way of story. I was on the point of giving up when I arrived at part two. Twenty two years later and the girls are together again; grown up and married, their secrets from their college years begin to catch up with them! Part two was slightly better, but only because I felt that the end, and resolution, was close.
All in all, in my entirely subjective opinion, I would describe this as a tedious read; it was hard going and took me far to long to get to the end.
I give 'It's Always the Husband' two stars.

I was mildly interested in the beginning, and the body of the plot was really good, but I felt let down by the ending.

I know many have torn this book to shreds, but I actually enjoyed it. Even though not an-edge-of-your-seat thriller, it was still suspenseful all the same. It left me wondering the entire time. I am looking forward to reading more from this author and I reccomend.

This book was super hard for me to get into. The prologue hooked me. But then, the first chapter fell completely flat. The suspense felt in the prologue had nothing to do with the next however many chapters before I dnf'd. I liked how the prologue was at Present Time and the first chapter was from 22 years ago. But even when it went back to a semi-present time, the suspense was just not there. It's definitely slow-paced, and I'm a fast-paced kind of gal with thrillers.

I wish I would have read some Goodreads reviews before going into this one. I was expecting a domestic thriller of some sort, especially based off of the title. What I got was in the complete opposite direction. Now, I never read reviews before jumping into a book, so who knows what would have happened. After reading some of the reviews now, I am not sure I could pick it back up. I'm already disappointed. Sometimes, it is hard to come back from that.

One thing I would have loved to see is more of the thriller aspect up front. The tiny prologue did hook me, but then I would have liked a flashback to a few months ago, then 22 years ago. It was just such a big time jump. Overall, I think this book had so much potential. Unfortunately, it was a miss for me.

RATING: 1.5 STARS
(I received an ARC from the NETGALLEY)
(Review Not on Blog)

This novel is not very suspenseful even though the description leads you to believe it is psychological
thriller. I would say this is more like a loooooong episode of Gossip Girls. The three women meet in college and some how become friends, but as the story unfolds it becomes more of frenemies situation. Then one of them dies and while "it's always the husband" is it in this case?

The one bad thing about suspense novels being all the rage at the moment, is you get stuck with something like this. I don't know what is going on, but I keep going as I want the suspense promised on the cover. Then I finish it...and I don't even now what I read or why I didn't give up. This one wasn't for me.