This book is well written with a compelling storyline that was extremely character driven and well developed characters. There was some hard hitting issues in this book but I felt like they were handled sensitively and empathetically. I enjoyed it,

Three wives three letters all saying their current husbands raped a young girl 30 years ago, what would you do I asked myself this question and I realised That I would want to know the truth as most wives would, not going to give any spoilers away in regards to this book but the ending is totally incredible, Cate Ray congratulations a great book

This was an interesting and well written story. I enjoyed the premise of the book. I would not classify this as a thriller. This was a character driven story. I enjoyed hearing the different points of view. The story centered on a difficult subject matter sexual assault, but was handled well by the author. I loved the case study of what would you do if someone you loved was accused of a heinous crime. Once the characters receive the letter accusing their husbands of sexual assault you see how the different personalities deal with the accusation. The story did take a while to start, but held my interest throughout. I would rate the book 3.5.

Good Husbands by Kate Ray is about three wives who all receive the same letter claiming their husbands or sexual assaulter‘s. There’s Jesse, Priyanka aunt Stephanie. OK first of all most people who receive such a lot I would first tell the husband these ladies do not. Instead Jessica calls the ladies together and basically forces them into teamwork with threat of calling the police. Stephanie wants nothing to do with any of it. Her husband is psychologically abusive to her and despite her daughter Rosie‘s please that she opened her eyes she would rather go through life with her head down and take it. Then there is Priyanka her husband and he is so nice and caring and he’s always axing are you OK, are we OK? It is almost inconceivable that this nice guy could be a rapist. jessie‘s husband is Jack who I felt apart from being the good looking one his character wasn’t that established. Having said that they all come together going on Call Bert missions to the storage place where this girl who wrote the letter Holly lived and also contacting people from the victims past because they’re trying to decide whether or not to bring charges. The whole time I was reading this book I kept thinking who’s going to bring charges that’s the victim. Throughout the book you read one way or another guilty or not guilty. Did the guys miss read the situation or did the victim? Was it three against one or 3+ one? I thought throughout most of the book it was much to do about nothing. The victim was dead the women were taking on problems that were not theirs but their husbands and I almost stopped reading it, but I am so glad I didn’t! The end is so worth getting to. Throughout most of the book I was like the stories interesting but… And then the closer I got to the end I was like this book is awesome! I can’t say all of it was totally mind gripping but it was interesting enough to keep your attention and I would definitely recommend this to my friends in the local library. I do want to say before ending this review I was taken aback how they were so quick to believe this was true, but throughout the book their whole “intent“ what’s the find out the truth. Clearly they must’ve had an opinion and not only that why would they keep getting nervous when one wife would call another wife they would freak out is it the people around them are going to immediately know what the text or phone call was about. I didn’t get that but having said that I still recommend this book big time! I was given this book by Net Galley and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Please forgive any grammar or punctuation errors as I am blind and dictate my review but all opinions are definitely my own.

Cate Ray, you are a beast when it comes to orchestrating one hell of a novel.

My mind is completely blown and I am so appreciative of the book I just read. Good Husbands, checks off every single box on what I would say is "the perfect book" . I was instantly intrigued with the cover but what the first chapter held, continued to blow my mind.

Good Husbands, is packed with secrets, deceit, twists, and psychological angst. This is by far one of the best books I have read thus far and should be on everyone radar.

Five Stars.

TW:: sensitive topics


This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, BooksGoSocial and by #NetGalley. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

A wild ride, thriller, suspenseful.

Thriller and sad at the same time. The story does talk about rape so the reader needs to know that going into the book. It’s a well written story with believable characters.

An explosive read and it takes the whole book to put the story together and what a great ending and story it is..

A thought provoking, character study into what would you do if someone accused your husband or a loved one of a horrible crime.

Synopsis: A Good Husband focuses on three women Jess, Stephanie and Pree who have never met, until their worlds are turned upside down by the arrival of letters accusing their husbands of a sexual assault over 20 years ago. Not knowing if they can trust each other let alone their husbands the women hunt for the truth, that could destroy their relationships and families but bring justice to the mystery victim.

My thoughts: It wasn’t quite what I expected but it kept me gripped until the end. The story focuses heavily on the 3 main characters thoughts, actions and concerns more than on the crime. Definitely a character piece and the use of chapters which focus on each woman thoughts/feelings made all the differing opinions really interesting to consider. It’s a much slower novel than I typically enjoy but it was so well wrote and easy to read that it made it really interesting to see the story develop.

It definitely leaves you thinking what would you do in their situation…..

Would I recommend yes 👍 but trigger warning: sexual assault/rape isn’t described in graphic detail but it’s there and the crime is obviously discussed as a focal point throughout.

This book is wedged between thriller and contemporary fiction for me. There were absolutely suspenseful moments, but much more often were there discussions about sexual assault, the criminal justice system, what forms justice can take, and the numerous ways we view and treat victims. Not to mention diving into what we can forgive in those we love. 4 stars

My Rating System: 4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ticked most boxes ALMOST LOVED IT!!!

A 30 year old secret that is going to change everything… What do you? You would like to think you would do the right thing…. Wouldn’t you????

Would you confront it head on no matter the consequence? Think it through consider all the options before deciding? Or Ignore it completely and pretend you never found out?

Jessica, Priyanka and Stephanie are complete strangers who are about to be thrown together in the worst of circumstances. On the same day each woman receives a letter stating that their beloved husband was involved in the gang rape of a women 30 years earlier. Their worlds are thrown into turmoil and each woman handles the initial news differently and the subsequent actions of each of the other wives in glaringly different ways.

The three women eventually come together (somewhat reluctantly) to hunt for the truth, are they going to be able to live with what they find out and what will be consequences be for their husbands, families and for themselves??

Firstly, I want to congratulate the author on tackling this controversial topic with the grace and candour that I think it deserved. The author told a story that was interlaced with facts and figures and took the reader on a journey. There was no slamming an agenda down your throat you were able to read the story, (and while it was fiction) and it allowed you to very much feel the emotion, anguish and devastation for each of the characters allowing you to draw conclusions and opinions for yourself. 😪

I also felt that the story of the victim was really well handled - it was done through a series of diary entries that was read over each of the women’s POVs I loved that. You read the actual entries as they were written with all the emotion and suffering on the page but you read it through three different POVs who had various opinions, reactions and emotions about those words. It was extremely thoughtful and insightful - showing the reader how various people will interpret the same set of words and if they will in fact blindly believe or blindly disregard the words based on their own opinions and sets of beliefs. OR will they be courageous and search for the truth and fight for it. 🙌

Each of the characters (Jess, Pree and Stef) were a representation of three different points of view on this topic and how much or little a person is willing to believe if faced with potentially losing it all. Their instincts to believe or disbelieve a sexual assault victim on face value were a very real concept in today’s society and I thought that really highlighted the brilliance of the writing and how this is a poignant reminder of how these allegations are quite often not taken seriously based on how it will look in the eye of the law and how it will affect another individual, group or society at large. 🫶💖

I enjoyed the novel however, you will note that I have only given it 4 stars, there are two reasons for that - I found it got of to a really slow start with far too many details of the mundane and day to day things happening. There was a bit of hand holding throughout (not so much in the middle as I found this the strongest part of the novel) where I felt myself feeling that I wanted the author to get to the point. 🔁⏱

The second reason I scored this down is there are a couple of twists in this book to allow it to fit into the ‘thriller’ genre and while I was completely fine with one of them I felt the second and the ending were a little much. 🤯

There was a point where this story had been told and a line could have been drawn in the sand but to get it over the thriller line it kept going with an extra twist. I just found that it wasn’t needed. The story had everything it needed and if there were 100 less pages and one less twist I think this would have been a 5 star read for me. 🙅‍♀️💯

I want to thank my good friend GirlWithThePinkSkiMask for drawing my attention to this book and for encouraging me to read it - top stars to you Pink!! 💓🌺

Thank you to BooksGoSocial, NetGalley and the author for an advanced copy of this book for an honest review.

Good Husbands follows the stories of three woman, Jess, Priyanka (by the way, completely separate to the central topic of the book, I do appreciate the acknowledgement of the author that white women aren't the only women that exist in the West; although, a part of me felt as thought Priyanka was a white woman with a South Asian name), and Stephanie, after they receive a letter from a woman, who alleges that their husbands raped her mother, one of them being her biological father.

So, I initially wasn't a huge fan of the pacing and hoped it would speed up a bit, and then it did. And I have to admit I was hooked. The premise had already intrigued me, and I've always been interested in that nuance where a family member can be accused of sexual assault, and what is the consequence of that, personal and practical. I liked the building fallout from the three woman slowly learning more and more of the truth, the different ways they reacted, the urge to just ignore all of it as though it wasn't happening. It was equally thrilling and frightening, as we learned more and more about their relationships with their husbands and how the allegation affected those relationships.

The complexities that were explored in the narrative of the three women were done very well, and I admired the author's ability to introduce a lot of fact and understanding about rape in the UK and rape everywhere, the psychology and the sociology behind it, along with a made-up narrative which seems like it could easily be real today. The style itself wasn't for me, but I thought the narrative choices and the spectrum of characters more than made up for it, so 4 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and Park Row for the ARC in exchange for the honest review.

Good Husbands by Cate Ray is a thought provoking, masterfully crafted novel about three strangers who receive a letter implicating their husbands of a rape that was committed thirty years prior. As the brutal reality sets in, the three women forge an unlikely friendship in the hopes of finding a just resolution.

Priyanka is an ethics teacher with a young son and a husband who has always seemed compassionate and even chivalrous. Jess is the mother of two teenaged girls and is just as in love with her husband as she was when they met. Stephanie is a devoted wife who seems not to mind being controlled by her ex-military husband, despite the fact that her three daughters are aware of the inequality of their parents' marriage. The letter from the victim's daughter rocks their lives to the very core, and the struggles that they face are raw and real and utterly shattering.

This is a read-in-one-day, captivating novel about loyalty, deception and strength above all.

This was a slow burn thriller but I loved the concept! Makes you wonder who to trust and I really enjoyed reading about the bond between the women. First by this author but won't be my last!

Thanks to NetGalley and Cate Ray for this advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review:

Content warning: sexual assault

Note: I went into this book under the impression that it was a thriller. It was not. I didn’t mind what it was, but would have preferred to set my expectations accordingly!

Things I liked:
-Pretty great characters. I was hooked pretty much immediately, and thought Ray did such a great job of showing their complexities. I felt both frustrated with and empathetic for all of them.
-And really, showing the complexity of the conversation around sexual assault and consequences. So many questions this book brought up are questions I’ve talked about with friends and questions I still don’t have easy answers to. This book threw it all out there with the situations the three women had to deal with, and never really gave a comfortable resolve in my opinion. It’s a book I’ll continue to think about and that’s always a win for me. I think it would be a great book club book.

Things I didn’t like:
- I said above that the book didn’t really give a comfortable resolve and I thought that was a good choice for this book, but I’m not entirely sure if that was the intent. I honestly feel uneasy about how it all wrapped up, and I’m not sure if it’s because the author wrote it in a way so as to invoke that uneasiness, or she actually tried to wrap it up neatly which felt wrong considering all the nuance. If she intended it than bravo, great writing. If not then I dunno how I feel about it!
-It felt a liiiittle heavy handed at times.
-While I felt a consistent growth in understanding of Jess and Steff throughout the book, I felt Priyanka was the most loosely developed! She started out so strong but I never felt like we really got to understand her core thoughts or motivations.

Rating: I would rate a 3.25. Didn’t love it, but was a very thought provoking and discussable book!

Wholy Calamity Cakes! 😳😯🤯😳🤯

What the actual fluckin' fluff?! Skidding skittles! First! Don't let the length of this book fool you! It goes by so quickly & sucks you in like a vacuum on the hunt for dust bunnies! I'm absolutely gobsmacked by this debut novel of a domestic suspenseful thriller that I was dying to get my paws on for the ARC and it was everything & more I hoped for! The three character views made this so much more juicy, delish & outright lush.

Mყ 𝐒ყɴ𝐨ρѕιѕ: Three woman, married with their own family's, live in Bath, UK. Jess, Priyanka, and Stephanie don't know each other, have never met, but their lives are about to turn upside down and inside out. They each get an identical letter from a woman none of them have ever known, saying that she's about to die and claiming that each of their husbands were involved in the sexual assault of her mother. Jess sets things in motion by contacting and setting up a meeting with the other two women. But as they start to investigate and uncover the past, will they be able to handle what they're about to face with a truth that none of them ever expected or could foresee?

Wow! Wooooow! Wholy heavenly heck! That ending was insane! The whole story was intense. The layers are like a trifle you're dying to dig into and experience and I gobbled it up! The last half really amps up even more somehow and the thrilling suspense will have you suspended from daring to put it down! Tink, come give your mother cuddles... STAT!

🔴 Trigger Warnings: Sexual Assault; Violence

Thank you to NetGalley & BooksGoSocial for this ARC.
Release Date: June 7, 2022

𝐌𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐭: Strong 4.5 / 5 Lily's! 🪷

Three women find out some thing horrific about their husbands. This book starts with a simple premise and really runs with it. I couldn’t wait to find out what would happen and how each woman would handle the revelation.

Thank you NetGalley and Cate Ray for giving me the opportunity to read this book. I will write my honest opinion about this book.

First things first. I was expecting a thriller. I am in my thriller phase now, so I am craving for a thriller - duh. Ok jokes aside. This book is not a thriller. This book is not a light pop corn thriller read. And I like it for exactly that. It’s not light, at all.
BUT, though I did not get what I expected, this book impressed me.

So we get three very different female main characters. All between ages 36-50 at various stages of their lives. All appear to be happily married.

Until they get mail from the supposed daughter of a SA victim. Who and what to believe, you have to find out yourself.

I loved the depth of the main characters. We get to know them, we get to investigate with them and we will find the truth with them.

I received an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review

This book was more than escapist psychological thriller. It’s gong to be with me for a long long time.

#GoodHusbands #NetGalley
Powerful.
Jessica, Stephanie and Priyanka are complete strangers, but they have one thing in common: they’ve each received a letter accusing their husbands of committing a sexual assault more than two decades prior. Is the accusation true or is there more to the story? It was a secret that remained buried for years. With their worlds suddenly turned upside down, they don’t know who to trust—a complete stranger or the men they love and built their lives with. The three women come together to embark on a hunt for the truth, but they are hardly prepared for what they will discover. Who is the victim, and will justice ultimately be served?
Thanks to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for giving me an advance copy.