This book was a constant reminder that boomers and millennials are so stuck up their own butts that they don't realize that a whole lot of other people exist in the world. People between quietly accepting the quaint advice on how to be a good wife and those who just assumed they would never be treated any way they didn't like and would never have a life that wasn't magical. Pretending there was nothing between those. No people who fought back so that they could live their entitled little lives expecting it all to be fine. You know, everyone else. The forgotten generation, LOL Poor women-suddenly free to do what they want with absolutely no guidance on how to handle that. Poor me-up until the moment they became adults women were subservient and now they just don't understand their place and men are supposed to pretend like they understand or care. If only there had been millions of women taking care of business in between!

Two POVs, two generations apart. Alice, thinking she was so different, but really being "strong" by being the stereotypical wife that even Nellie wasn't. Strength through lying and nagging. It was OK. There was a little more thrown in there. About half way through it got a little more interesting. I thought it wold be when we learned Alice's big lie, but that was fairly boring and seemed thrown in there to show how foolish the #MeToo movement is if you are a really pragmatic woman. It was a little more interesting as worlds collided. Not enough to really connect with me, though. Enough to bring it back to about a 3.

This book didn't resonate for me as well as the previous ones by the author. I really need to like at least one character in a book to fully enjoy it, and I didn't care for any of the characters in this one. I wanted to like Alice and Nellie, but just couldn't. There were way to0 many secrets and lies in this one for me. It just wasn't my cup of tea.

This is an extremely fast read. Once I started it I loved the dual narrative or Alice in the present and Nellie in the 1950s. When I think about 1950s housewives, I had never really contemplated the challenges that they faced before reading Nellie's story. I liked how Alice learned things from Nellie and from the cookbook and how it changed her in some ways. I also enjoyed the recipes that were included. I did not like how easy it was for Alice to lie to her husband, but understand how it added to the story, and was wondering what he was keeping from her also. I suspected what had happened in one aspect of the story, but not exactly how it was going to turn out and was surprised by it. Overall this was an enjoyable book by a new author to me.

I received a complimentary copy of this ebook from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This was one of my favorite books of the year so far!
I loved how it flashed back and forth between a 50s housewife and a 2018 woman, but also the connection between them through the neighborhood. It was comical at times to read the advice from early 1900s to mid 1900s, and some advice blew my mind.
I would love to try some of the recipes, or find an old cookbook of my own!
Well written, will definitely be recommending this one!

I really enjoyed this one. The dual timelines really worked well and it was easy to bounce back and forth between them. This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2020 and it did not disappoint.

I found this book interesting and very timely. I really enjoyed the dual POV and found the characters interesting. As someone that doesn't cook well at all, I can just imagine how much I would struggle with the recipes from the 50's. Very enjoyable!

ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS BOOK! With the colorful retro feel but some deep dark moments thrown in, you're in for a ride of emotions! I have an entire reading vlog dedicated to this book, I'll attach the link here. If you're a homemaker, a woman's woman, or even just someone who loves retro vibes and baking, PICK THIS ONE UP!

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to preview this ARC of Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown.

Alice is used to being a career woman, but when everything at her job goes south, her and her husband decide that it's time for a change of pace. They get a fresh start by moving into an older home. She's going to stay home, take care of the property and work on her novel. When she discovers a cookbook in the home by a previous owner from the 1950's, she starts digging to learn what became of her.

I'm honestly a little befuddled by this one. I'm not quite sure what message the author was trying to convey through this story. I was certainly captivated, but when it ended, I think I sat in confused silence for at least three minutes.

And sidenote, I have SUCH a hard time reading books where a character so NEEDLESSLY creates drama by withholding information or refusing to communicate. It kind of negates the story in my mind because in my brain I'm screaming "this could have been avoided so easily you dummies!"

A story of comparison and contrast of women's roles in the 1950's and today. There are stark differences between how situations were handled then compared to how they are handled today. An interesting story with a few surprises thrown in.

Thank you Netgalley and publishers for an ARC.

This was a great, original story. It follows two women, decades apart, and the contrast of homemaking.

At first, I wasn't sure where the story was headed, but enjoyed where it went, wanting more! The author includes recipes throughout the book. Her acknowledgements page is clever!

Fun read for those interested in the 1950s housewife.

This book gave such an interesting and nuanced perspective on the post-WWII American Dream we love to look at through rose-tinted glasses. I loved the narrative structure, which drew striking parallels in relationship and gender roles between a modern woman and an iconic post-war American housewife. I wasn’t expecting it to be so much of a commentary on women’s reproductive rights, and I greatly appreciated the attention the author gave to this topic. This was a slow but consistent burn, and I could hardly put this book down. Highly recommend to anyone interested in 20th century American studies! (Thank you to Net Galley for providing me with a free digital copy to read. This review is entirely my own and was not influenced by them.)

This book is slyly filled with female empowerment. The main character is a home in the suburbs along with two of its occupants; switching back and forth in time between 1950 and current day. Although Alice and Nellie live in the house sixty years apart, and are impacted by the standards facing women of their particular generation, they both face similar thematic circumstances revolving around career, love, family, and friends. A dusty cookbook is discovered in the basement it, too, becomes a character in the book. Food, friendship, marriage, career, conflict, family, and a little intrigue. This book was really enjoyable!

Alice and her husband have finally bought a home in the suburbs. For her husband, it means the first step in starting their family. For Alice, it means a complete change in lifestyle and career. She says she's working on a novel, but her writing is slow to nonexistent. Until, that is, she finds some old magazines and cookbooks belonging to their new house's previous owner. Now she finally has the inspiration she needs to get started.

Nellie Murdoch's life as a new wife isn't at all what she expected. When they were dating, Richard swept her off her feet. But now that they're husband and wife, Richard's true nature is revealed. Between neighborhood parties and hosting dinners with her husband's boss, Nellie finds it harder and harder to hide what's happening behind closed doors.

I could not wait to get my hands on a copy of Karma Brown's latest. And three quarters of the book delivered in every way.

Alice and her husband have been living in a cramped apartment in New York City. The house that they buy in the suburbs is within their budget, thankfully, but in need of a lot of work. Not only has the house apparently not been updated for decades, the once well-tended garden has gone wild, and the previous owner's appliances, furniture, and belongings are still in the house.

Alice has been working for a high end (and high stress) PR company. Oh, and she hasn't been completely honest with her husband about exactly why she left the job. That's seeded throughout the story and contributes to her discomfort in her new position, basically as a housewife. But not exactly, she is supposed to be writing a book. She has a lot of time on her hands and absolutely no experience with that. Which is why she decides to start cooking from Nellie's old books. And also to look into Nellie's own story as inspiration for her book.

Chapters alternate between Alice and Nellie, but I admit that I preferred Nellie's chapters. I liked her as a character more than Alice. As a whole, though, I thought the book was good. Unfortunately the end felt incredibly rushed. And by that time I really, really didn't like Alice's story.

Overall I enjoyed the book, but I do wish that the author had taken a bit more time with the ending. Neither Alice's thread or Nellie's ended very satisfactorily. Nellie's in particular was lacking in detail, as though Brown simply dropped her altogether to focus on Alice. And Alice...well, I'll let you see for yourselves.

This is the first book that I have read by Karma Brown; it was certainly interesting and surprising. The novel tells the stories of two marriages and one house in suburban Westchester, New York.


In the present day, Alice has met her husband in a cute way in Central Park and subsequently married.  Her life is complicated (no spoilers so I won't say why) which leads to her reluctantly moving to the suburbs with her seemingly perfect husband Nate.  In the earlier time line the story of Nellie, who is married to Richard, is told.  The expectations for her are clear but how will Nellie deal with them?


Each chapter begins with either a recipe from the 50s or a quote from a marriage journal.  There are also many references to 1950s Ladies Home Journal issues.  These definitely enhanced the story.


The book raises questions about the nature of marriage and the roles between women and men.  To what extent should a wife strive to be the person her husband wants/ needs?  What if the husband is not at all perfect?  How far should a woman go to feel free? What do older women have to teach those younger?  How important is it to have children? How can one be a friend?  How important is it to follow social mores? How much should one lie (if at all) in a marriage? What does it mean to live in the  suburbs or the city?


At times I did not "like" some of the characters in this book, yet I commend the author for eliciting responses from me.  This book is NOT a lighthearted send up of the 50s or of romantic love.  It may, though, raise questions for the reader, making it a good book club choice.


Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book, but I have mixed feelings. Let me explain.

The setup is wonderful and intriguing. Alice and Nate leave New York and purchase a 1950s era home in the suburbs. The house needs some work and is sold "as-is" with many of the previous owner's belongings intact. Basically, the house is frozen in the 1950s. Interesting! Then we pivot to Nellie and Richard, the previous owners. Nellie is a dutiful, proper housewife who spends her days gardening, cooking, and attending the occasional Tupperware party.

Then Alice finds an old cookbook of Nellie's, complete with marginal annotations, as well as stacks of 1950s Ladies Home Journal magazines, and some old letters written by Nellie. Alice becomes curious about Nellie and her life to the point where she's even dressing in vintage clothing and smoking unfiltered cigarettes with Nellie's old mother-of-pearl cigarette holder.

At heart this is a story about women and how things have changed since the 1950s when women simply supported their husbands and wore pearls. Nellie is a much more interesting and developed character than Alice, however, and by the end of the book I found myself irritated with Alice. Many of her actions seemed self-destructive and unnecessary.

The descriptive passages of Nellie's/Alice's garden, the house, and the neighbors are well done. You get the sense that you have stepped right into that decade, but the more modern settings falter.

I recommend the book for its premise and for the reason that it mostly hits the mark, but I find myself seeing missed opportunities with this one. It was definitely a page-turner and I was always engrossed in the story.

I am grateful to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for providing me with a free copy of Recipe for a Perfect Wife in return for a fair and honest review.

"Even in pain Nellie understood her role - the wife who bowed to her husband, who apologized for things out of her control, who made his life easier even if it made hers harder. The perfect wife."

When I first picked up this novel I was expecting a light satire, but boy was I wrong. In Recipe for a Perfect Wife you see two women paralleled, in two different time periods. Nellie is the typical housewife in the 1950's, and Alice is the modern working woman living in 2018. Both women end up living in the same house, only 60 years apart. When Alice finds Nellie's old family recipe book, this seemingly sweet story takes a very sinister turn, and connects both women in a very twisted way.

Each chapter starts out with actual quotes from publications from the 1950's that will either make you cringe, or roll your eyes, with their outdated ideologies, but add such 'flavor' to the story. Nellie's chapters also have a recipe from her book, which was also a cute touch, but the cuteness stops there.

There is a tremendous amount of sinister subject matter, including adultery, sexual harassment, and even rape, that is incredibly difficult to read, yet so spellbindingly written, it's like a car accident that you can't tear your eyes away from. The incredibly dark subject matter was stifling and oppressive, yet was written so powerfully that I was glued to every word, yet hating what I was reading at the same time.

The ending was surprising yet not unexpected, considering the context, and all I could think of when I put this novel down was, "Man, this would make a crazy movie!" Recipe for a Perfect Wife is definitely a darker read than what I'm used to, but WOW is all I can say!

Review will be posted on 2/6/2020

Alice and her husband are moving from NYC to a fixer-upper in the suburbs. Alice just lost her job, so the timing seems right; after all, now she can work on writing that novel she has been meaning to write for years. While Alice's husband goes to work, Alice stays behind fixing up the house (there's a lot to work on, including the garden that is overgrown) and while working on the various projects, she comes across an antique cookbook and letters left behind from the former owner. The previous owner is Nellie Murdoch and she is a bit of a mystery. The letters left behind were never mailed, so obviously, this raises some questions. Alice enjoys trying out some of the vintage recipes from the book and the more Alice learns about Nellie, the more she realizes that they have a lot more in common than she thought. Readers also get chapters from Nellie's point of view, so we learn more about Nellie as she isn't just your typical 1950s housewife. She is an interesting character in her own right, but she holds some dark secrets and her life isn't picture perfect. For starters, her husband isn't a nice man, so her life isn't an episode of I Love Lucy or Leave it to Beaver. Nellie had to not only deal with being a woman in a patriarchal society, but also with an abusive (both emotionally and physically) husband. The more Alice learns about Nellie's plight, the more she wonders if things have really changed all that much for women? Like Nellie, Alice is hiding more than one secret from her husband, but eventually that all comes to the surface in Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown. It's a dark and twisty page turner that made me want to smash the patriarchy.

Alice is an interesting character in Recipe for a Perfect Wife. Readers are privy to the secrets she is keeping from her husband, but slowly things start to come to a head and it gets super complicated. Her husband isn't perfect by any means, so once Alice is without a job and living in suburbia, their relationship becomes a bit strained. He has to work (and study) for long hours in the city and this keeps him from home; plus, his study partner is a female coworker. Cue the eye roll. Also, he really wants to have a baby soon, but Alice, on the other hand, is not so sure. You can see where this is going and let's just say that things aren't simple for them not to mention the fact that Alice isn't telling him why she lost her job.

Nellie is such an entertaining character in Recipe for a Perfect Wife. I immediately felt for her and all she had to go through with such a bully of a husband. I thought she was going to be this "perfect" 50s housewife, but I love that she wasn't. She was hiding some major secrets and she isn't someone to be trifled with. I love that! Her story really made me want to challenge the patriarchy, because it wasn't easy for women who didn't fit the mold and it even got me thinking about how still today women are faced with many of the same problems. Nellie's story gets pretty dark and twisty, but I was here for it and I liked the dark and winding road that Recipe for a Perfect Wife went down.

Brown includes excerpts from marriage books at the beginning of each chapter in Recipe for a Perfect Wife and OH.MAN. were they infuriating. I can't believe people printed this advice and/or actually took the advice. Scary!! But it really set the tone for the time period and set the stage for Nellie and what she's up against regarding the set conventions of society. I also loved the retro recipes Brown included and how Alice tried out various recipes. It was a nice touch and brought the two time periods together even more.

If you are looking for a suspenseful domestic drama and that will take you by surprise, then you will definitely want to check out Recipe for a Perfect Wife this winter. The story truly made me think and it stayed with me long after the book ended.

***Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review***

Two POVs and a lot of 1950s atmosphere. I loved the added suspense that I was not really expecting. Great read!

Full of 1950's ethics, recipes, a flower garden, and style, mixed with a bit of insanity and darkness. You won't be able to put this book down! I'm on my 6th book of the year and this one was my favorite!

Alice moves to the suburbs with her husband leaving behind the city the loves so much and her job. Her days are now spent alone and she's struggling with her new normal. Their new house came as is, filled with old furniture and in the basement she discovered an old cookbook and become fascinated by the previous owner Nellie, a housewife in the 50s. This book tells Alice's story in the present and Nellie's in the 50's. Both women are struggling with their marriage and Alice is learning a thing or two from Nellie's story. This was so much more enjoyable than I expected.