Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. This was a great read, it kept me intrigued from the beginning and made me care for the characters. A story full of deep emotion, but one that is wrapped up nicely by the end.

This is a novel full of twists and turns. I wanted to keep reading it until I knew the ending.

Emma is a marine biologist and her husband Leo is an obituary writer. They and their daughter Ruby live a happy life. But Emma gets sick and Leo decides to begin to clandestinely write her obituary. She works for the BBC and it is not unusual for "stock" obituaries to be written for the famous. He uncovers many lies that Emma has told. This is a domestic suspense story and I feel most readers, myself included, will not be able to guess the ending. correctly. 5 stars.

This book started off so strong and kept me engaged almost up until the end. Suspenseful with twists and turns that keep the reader guessing. However, the plot fell apart a bit at the end and felt a bit forced. This did not take away from my overall enjoyment of the story, it was just disappointing.

Talk about ripping my heart out.

The Love of My Life is the story of a marriage that is falling apart because of the foundation of lies it was built on. But somehow, Rosie Walsh manages to tell this story in such a way that you empathize with every character, even when they're at their ugliest.

I don't know how Rosie Walsh pulled that off, but she did so beautifully.

The Love of My Life by Rosie Walsh was an intriguing book. It was a thriller and a love story. The love story is between Emma and Leo. Leo is an obituary writer and is going to research his wife's life or an advance obit. While researching her life, he finds that maybe he does not know his wife at all. It is a slow burn of a book, told from two different POV's-past and present. There is a hidden secret and I was hooked from the get go. There were plenty of twists and turns to keep you turning the page. There was mystery, suspense and romance. I would definitely recommend this book to my book club and purchase the book for my library. Thank you to NetGalley for the copy of this book.

My Highly Caffeinated Thought: An emotional rollercoaster ride filled with regrets, secrets, and lies.


THE LOVE OF MY LIFE is the sophomore novel from Walsh, and dare I say it was better than the last. The author pulls the reader in with the characters’ relationships and the dynamic between Leo and Emma but sustains the narrative by bringing intrigue and hidden secrets. The play between the suspense and the emotion is spot on.

What was so good about this book is the layers Walsh builds within the story, coupled with the depth of her characters. You start thinking you know all the players, but then a bomb is dropped that blows up the preconceived assessments. In truth, for most of the novel, I thought I had Emma, Leo, and Janice figured out. Then a new tidbit would emerge to make me question everything. This tension really propels the story forward. There is something so intrinsically enjoyable about having things hidden secrets and lies emerge as you get to know the people you are reading about.

From the beginning, I loved the level of emotion and heart brought to the words crafted by the author. She lifted Emma up and broke her down until she could only become a new person by the end. Sure, so many of her characteristics were there, but when everything you know is questioned and splintered into pieces, how can you be the same after.

THE LOVE OF MY LIFE is well worth a read. It brings together the best and the worst while still showing there is a glimmer of hope at the end of any situation. What a book.

I started reading this book in bed last night. It was a bit slow at first and I figured I'd try to get in a couple chapters before going to sleep. It wasn't long before the author began dropping little bits here and there that snagged my interest. Then a few more bits that gradually drew me deeper into the lives of these characters. Then the first twist that had me thinking, "Whoa! What's going on here?" By that time the first few chapters were in my rearview and I was hooked. There was no way I was going to be putting this book down until I hit the final word. It was a late night. ;-)

The Love of My Life is compelling, poignant, twisty, mysterious, suspenseful, emotional, gripping, and heartachingly real. Brilliantly plotted, with fully-developed characters who tugged at my heart, it's an intricately-woven story that kept me on my toes. Each time I thought I had figured out what was going on, there was another unexpected twist that had me gasping with surprise. It's an immersive experience that pushed my buttons in all the best ways and it never stopped surprising me, right up until the final page. When I say I couldn't put it down, I mean it. I. Could. Not. Put. It. Down.

The Love of My Life is Rosie Walsh's second published novel. I haven't read her first, Ghosted, yet but you can be sure I'll be giving it a go...along with every book she writes in the future. This is an author to watch.

ARC received for fair and unbiased review

A thank you to Netgalley for sharing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 Oh, the sheer disappointment. Between the rave reviews and the fact that this book sounded totally like my jam, I was honestly rather stunned to realize that though try as I might, I was just plain bored. I anticipated that it would be a slow-burn thriller, one that would creep under my skin and keep me turning the pages, but slow proved the ultimate word. Lots going on, but strangely very little momentum to carry it along. Characters rather unengaging and aside from the 2 main characters, they all just sort of blurred together. Both story and the author have potential, but this wasn't what I was hoping for.

The Love of my Life by Rosie Walsh is a moving tribute to mothers, no matter how close or far from their children they are.

A highly entertaining novel about a young couple. Their relationship is hitting a bump when the husband finds out his wife is having a past he knows nothing about. A true page turner!

The Love of my Life is too convoluted for me. The reviews made it sound so good but in reality I was not engaged.

“I have held you at night for ten years and I didn’t even know your name.
We have a child together.
A dog, a house.
Who are you?”

Those lines in the book description caught me immediately. This book is part thriller and part love story. It is the story of what happens when secrets are kept and the way they haunt and can even destroy us. Emma and Leo love each other and their daughter Ruby.
But, Emma has been keeping secrets and when Leo begins to unwind those secrets he finds he may not know anything about the person he married.

I read 5o pages and couldn't get into this. I also DNF Ghosted so I just think this author doesn't work for me. I couldn't connect with the characters and was apathetic about the general tone of the story.

Emma and Leo have been married for ten years, have precious little girl, and are still gloriously in love. However, Emma went through cancer and so their lives have been up and down not knowing if she’d be alright. With the cancer scare behind them the future seems bright ahead. Leo, a newspaper obituary writer, feels more at ease coming up with a stock obituary write up on Emma, a norm to have on hand for famous people. I had no idea this was a thing, but apparently it is, and I can understand why as it was expounded on here. It was interesting to learn about.

Emma isn’t super famous, but she did garner a lot of attention when she filmed a TV series on marine biology for two seasons, and she still gets attention and fan messaging from it. However, when Leo starts to list her accomplishments and history, he realizes that there’s a lot about Emma he’s fuzzy about. As he digs, he finds a lot of inconsistencies, and things don’t add up and it's jarring!

Emma’s past is coming back to haunt her. Can she keep the family she loves so dearly when all is revealed? I really liked Emma, so I certainly hoped so!

It’s difficult to write a review without spoiling things here. It’s a story I wholeheartedly recommend, though. When all was revealed my heart broke! I was infuriated with a certain character! How could he/she?!! I hope some there was some kind of punishment or reckoning for that person. I guess so many years later what can you do? I was happy with how it all turned out which isn’t always the case for me with mystery/thrillers.

The Love of My Life is a Good Morning America Book Club Pick, which isn’t surprising as it was captivating and hard to put down!

The Love of My Life is a quick, engaging, emotional read. A story told in multiple timelines, with plenty of twists (a bit overdramatically drug out, resulting in a 4-star vs. 5-star rating) to keep the pages turning--this was a finish-in-one-sitting for me! This is my second read of Ms Walsh's, and I look forward to reading more of hers in the future!


My thanks to PENGUIN GROUP Viking and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.

A very unique plot to this story. Though it wasn't a standout for me, I did enjoy it. The story unfolds in dual narrative between husband Leo and wife Emma. At times heartbreaking and other times unbelievable, readers will empathize for main character Emma once the twist is revealed. I feel like this book was way overhyped because portions of it were very slow and hard to get through. Thank you for the early review copy.

I've been in a reading slump for months and The Love of My Life by Rosie Walsh is the first book that has really held my attention. I adored her previous novel, Ghosted, and was thrilled to read this one. While the first third of The Love of My Life is a bit slow, I do think it's necessary and builds enough tension between Leo and Emma. Once the plot picks up, it doesn't slow down at all. As a fan of both thrillers/mysteries and romance novels, I think Rosie Walsh strikes the perfect balance between the two. I look forward to reading EVERYTHING she writes in the future!

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Beautiful story about a remarkable woman and secrets that she kept hidden. When the secrets threaten her family, she has to make decisions that protect different people. The story line is convoluted and enthralling.

Having read and loved Walsh’s Ghosted, I was thrilled to hear she had a new book coming out. The publisher calls it “a love story wrapped in a mystery” and they’re exactly right. The pacing was great, the characters were well developed, and it definitely kept me guessing. Plus, it was much more of an emotional read than I was anticipating.

How well do you really know the person sleeping next to you? That question is at the heart of the domestic thriller, a genre that has ridden a wave of popularity since the 2012 publication of Gone Girl. But not all lying spouses are hiding murder or mafia ties in their past. Sometimes the secrets are about sadness, loss, and love.

In Rosie Walsh’s follow-up to Ghosted, The Love of My Life, Emma and Leo seem to have the perfect marriage. He’s an obituary writer; she’s a well-known marine biologist who once had her own BBC program. They have a two-year-old daughter, Ruby, and the news that Emma has survived a bout with cancer should make everything perfect. Instead, Leo accidentally stumbles on proof that Emma did not graduate from the college where she claimed to hold a degree. Pulling on that one thread unravels everything Leo thought he knew about Emma, from the reason she was let go from the BBC to her own name. As Emma pretends everything is alright, eventually Leo is forced to confront the one question no father ever wants to ask.

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