I was excited to receive this book because I'd heard so much about it and because the subject caught my eye. Unfortunately, the the quality of the writing made the book difficult to get through. It reads like a high school student's diary. I found myself skimming large sections, especially the "Before" sections, which add almost nothing to the narrative. The dialogue is incredibly stilted, and the author seems to be totally lacking in self-awareness. I don't post negative reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, so I will not be reviewing the book publicly.

Jen Waites writes a memoir about "What do you do when you discover that the person you've built your life around never existed? When "it could never happen to me" does happen to you?"
Based on the description, I guess I was expecting the book to tell about about ending up in a horrific relationship with what is stated by Jen to be a "psychopath/sociopath". Turns out, her husband Marco is pretty much a run-of-the-mill cheater and liar.
The author uses a dual-timeline, to try and show what was really happening vs. what lies or perception seemed to be at the time. The writing is alright, but there just really is nothing gripping or particularly insightful in the story. It's hard to critique someone's feelings, but for me it just wasn't anything compelling.
I received an ARC from NetGalley in return for my honest opinion.

Interesting story about a marriage/relationship and its challenges and trials. I enjoyed the story and it held ,my attention and I found myself wanting to know how it would end. Though I enjoyed it, I did not feel like it was particularly well written. Recommended for anyone interested in marital memoirs!

For someone doing a lot of snooping and sneaking around, it's kind of like the pot calling the kettle black. I don't feel Waite made a solid case for her accusations. I don't think it was a healthy relationship from the beginning and it just kind of snowballed from there.

This book was ok. I still didn’t see the psychopath that the author claimed her husband to be. I saw a man who has done things that so many men I have known have done. This, to me, was more of a journal for the author that she decided to publish. I hope that she now has peace in her life.

This gripping story was made even more unputdownable knowing it was all true. Reading like a current headline thriller, the journey Jen Waite took, and her honest telling of it, is terrifying, but also inspiring. Alternating between before and after she discovered her husband was having an affair, we watch as her marriage, simultaneously, begins and ends. A Beautiful, Terrible Thing is a great reminder to know yourself, trust your instincts, and that things that seem too good to be true, usually are.

What a delightful book. It was different from what I usually read and that was what I needed. Highly recommend. Just a lovely book

Author (Jen) discovers that her husband (Marco) is a narcissistic psychopath and a serial adulterer. What signs did she miss? Will reading her story help you look for them?

When Jen's daughter was a newborn, she discovered an email in which her husband was looking for an apartment for him and his "girlfriend." He explained that he was simply helping a friend new to the country. Will she believe him ... and once she starts digging, what other secrets will be revealed?

The Before/After timeline makes this memoir feel more like a Fiction Thriller/Suspense novel. This ingenious technique engages the reader while allowing the author to reveal secrets slowly throughout the entire book. I would recommend this memoir based on technique alone!

Upon completion, however, I am left wondering if Marco really is a psychopath, or simply an asshole ;) In order to diagnose him, the author heavily relied on one therapist (who never met Marco) and Google haha. I also wanted to add that this author was super lucky to have the emotional and financial support of her parents while going through this ordeal. Without it, I wonder how this story would have played out. Regardless, this was an engaging read, and I would recommend it!

P.S. Marco's son, Seb, from a previous relationship is "the" cutest mini adult! Loved him and his mom, Nat.

Thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for a free ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!

GR friend Julie described reading A Beautiful, Terrible Thing as "gawking at a train wreck". My feelings exactly. And let me add a few other feelings:

-While clearly personally devastating, Ms. Waite's experience of betrayal -- of having been duped by her husband -- is sadly not that unusual. I can think of a few people I know who have had similar experiences -- some of them far more jaw dropping.
-I hope for Ms. Waite that in the years to come -- especially when her daughter becomes old enough to read this book -- she doesn't have too much writer's remorse. I'm sure writing and publishing this book felt cathartic, but I'm not sure how well that feeling will age.
-I'm surprised a mainstream publisher picked this one up. The telling through dual timelines is clever, but other than that this is not a particularly unusual story and the self analysis at the end is really amateur.

All this to say, I feel bad for Ms. Waite in the way I would feel bad if a friend or acquaintance was telling me this story, but I'm a bit stumped as to why it's book worthy.

Take my review with a grain of salt. This book made me feel really judgmental which is one of my least favourite reactions when reading a memoir. Clearly, other readers have felt far more empathy for Ms. Waite or otherwise got more shock value out of her story.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.

I have already recommended this novel to two women in my life who have also experienced abuse. I personally have come into contact with a sociopath and have been through this cycle and watched two friends go through it while dating this man. It gives great insight into the realities of the grieving process as well as self-acceptance and is a must-read in my books.

Good read, very well written. Fascinating exploration into the mind of a manipulative psychopath and the strong survival of the woman caught in his trap.

I really liked her writing style and couldn't put down the book. I feel so intimately involved with the characters and the story.

Thank you NetGalley for my advanced review copy.

Jen Waite's book is an unsettling, extraordinary memoir of having the rug pulled out from under her life. Weeks after giving birth, she discovers that her husband has been unfaithful. The story gets even worse from there, as wave after wave of revelations bring her to the conclusion that he likely has a personality disorder (narcissm/sociopathy), and has been pretending to be someone he is not for the duration of their five-year relationship. It isn't until the baby arrives, and Jen's attention veers away from her husband exclusively, that he stops pretending and starts presenting with lies and apathetic gaslighting. Jen's ability to pull herself through this trial using all the resources she has -- family, friends, therapy -- is heartening, and the reader ends the book with a sense that a new day has dawned for this brave woman and her child.

Reading this book provides a sensory experience of tragedy -- somatic and psychological -- not unlike that of reading Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking and Blue Nights. Highly recommended!

Writing
Just beautifully done. It helps that I identified so much with the subject matter of the book. Not that I was married to a psychopath, but I was in a marriage to a person who had a life I didn't know anything about. I could greatly identify with a lot of what Waite goes through in the book and having recently been through my own difficult divorce made it a very emotional read for me. In terms of the writing, I do wish that rather than flipping back and forth between before and after Waite learns of her husband's affair, the book had been divided into two distinct sections. I found the constant switching between timelines to be a bit of a distraction. Other than that, I had absolutely nothing but raves for the quality of the author's writing.

Entertainment Value
Again, identifying with so much of what the author was going through really made this book a winner for me. I devoured it over the course of a weekend and just couldn't make myself put it down. Waite's story is both heart-wrenching and hopeful, which is exactly what I was looking for and really spoke to me and my own situation. I think I would have enjoyed it even had I not identified so closely with the author, but having recent commonalities with her made the book even more real for me.

Overall
I highly recommend reading this one. It's beautifully done, but you'll want to read it with a box of tissues handy.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy to review.

I received this book through netgalley and wow this is an incredible book that anyone going through the same heartbreaking problem, know someone going through it,or has been through the same situation should read. The author shows so well how her husband from the beginning till the end and after was never who she ever thought he was and that is truly terrifying. You could feel the authors anxiety, pain, confusion, and love for her husband I definitely recommend this book.

Jen Waite brings more honesty to her book than any other writer I've seen. She doesn't mind exposing it all. Raw, engaging, and full of heart.

I'm not sure how long I had this ARC before I started reading it, but it was apparently long enough for me to forget it was a memoir. It happens sometimes, but I usually remember once I start reading. As I read it over the weekend, I was convinced I was reading an engrossing psychological thriller... until I read the acknowledgements at the end. That's when I realized I was actually reading a memoir. All of this actually happened. The chill that went through me at this realization was far more intense than the ones I'd been having as I read the book.

A Beautiful, Terrible Thing is unique in that it is written in the style of a novel, simultaneously telling the story of the beginning of the relationship with her husband, and its devastating end, in "Before" and "After" segments. Waite's seemingly perfect marriage unravels shortly after the birth of her daughter, when she discovers her husband has been unfaithful—something he denies repeatedly, despite evidence to the contrary. In her search for the truth, she realizes her husband fits the definition of a psychopath and is incapable of truly loving anyone. Her marriage was built on a foundation of lies. For her daughter's sake, Waite must find the strength to begin a new life.

The damage that can be done by someone with a dangerous personality disorder cannot be understated. Gaslighting is a particularly heinous manipulation that leaves the victim confused and disoriented, questioning their ability to remember events correctly. This is a single example of the many ways such a person can mentally torture their victims.

This powerful memoir is heartbreaking, often chilling, and incredibly hard to put down. It feels wrong to say I "enjoyed" reading it, given the pain and suffering the author went through, but I'm glad I read it. I think books such as this one are important because they shine a light on the destructive behaviors of abusers... perhaps the better equipped people are to recognize the signs, the lesser the chance they will be a potential victim? One can only hope.

I received an advance review copy of this book courtesy of Plume via Netgalley.

Jen tells her story very well and believably but I couldn't help but feel she may have blinded herself to the signs for a while, as some women do. Some of us are even raised that way I think after watching our mothers do similar things. Thank goodness she made the choices she did though, once she figured things out. Oh, and what a guy her husband turns out to be! This ended up being a page-turner I stayed up late reading. My thanks to NetGalley, Plume and the author for providing me with an ARC for review purposes.

Thanks to NetGalley, Plume Books and Jen Waite for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I have to admit I'm a little conflicted about this book. It is the true story of Jen and her marriage to Marco, who she discovers later is a sociopath. It is written like a psychological thriller - with Before and After chapters so that we see how the relationship developed and how Jen picks up the pieces afterwards.

Probably the reason for my conflict is because I have lived a similar situation as I'm sure many women have. Jen had wealthy parents who were able to swoop in and take care of her and her child while she basically fell apart. I'm glad that my situation happened way before social media because Jen's incessant need to check the Facebook and Instagram feeds of Marco surely didn't help her recovery. I could relate to many of Jen's feelings - probably the biggest thing we need when something like this happens is for the person to explain to us why - and an apology wouldn't hurt. Someone very wise told me when I was going through my situation that you will never get that apology because they don't think they've done anything wrong. You have to get past that and move on.

A good read - and a better lesson to be as sure as possible that we are healthy going into a relationship and not looking for someone to make us whole. Because that never works.