So, everything is wonderful in Ellie's world, she had a perfect husband, man of her dreams, her best friends brother who she had a crush on for so many years. She never expected that he'd fall in love with her. She felt, still feels, that he's far above her, that she's nothing like the leggy beauties he used to date. Although there were things in The Man I Married that didn't quite gel for me, and Lucy comes across as desperate and unhinged, I enjoyed it. This was due in part to the relentless pace of the plot, but also to the sterling narration by Colleen Prendergast. Mind games are the worst when your thoughts and feelings are twisted and manipulated to fit an alternative narrative. I feel emotionally drained (don’t laugh!). In fact, I’d go so far as to say mind games isn’t a strong enough term. Psychological warfare is more apt!

The Man I Married falls into the recent spate of books with the theme: “Is she crazy or does she have a horrible husband who is gaslighting her?” This book is hard to review for me. On the one hand, it’s very well-written, super creepy, and the suspense was very good. On the other hand, some of the things that happen here are so obviously manipulative and horrible that it’s very difficult to see Lucy continue justifying them through most of the book. You have to really suspend your disbelief to think that Lucy wouldn’t see some of these things sooner. I know that this sometimes happens in real life, but the way it was written here got very hard to read for me. Really when I’m reading books like this, it’s for a vicarious thrill, so I’m looking for the hero or heroine to rise up or to figure things out and outsmart the baddies. Or to go another way and maybe she really IS crazy. This book spent a lot of time in between, with Lucy cowering and flipping out when the answer was somewhat obvious. While this reaction is totally understandable in real life, it was just kind of hard to read here as written by the author. The couple married when he was 22 and his wife was 19. They met at an evangelical church, where it was encouraged they were to marry young. “We felt good about it at the time but I didn’t really know who I was at that age,” Andy explained. “I didn’t marry knowing I was gay at all.”I also enjoyed reading the letter from the author, where she quite rightly points out that sometimes the people who commit the most deadliest crimes are the -" People who walk amongst us. They appear ordinary, not very different from us at all, but when you scratch a little deeper, you discover they hold some very dark and dangerous secrets."

I believe that if the 'closet' still exists and there are lads who think that ‘being’ or ‘appearing’ straight is preferable to living truthfully, that is a huge issue and is still reflective of toxicity within society... it's a cycle that needs to be broken.

Toys

So, I felt that this was pretty sloppy and there were a lot of questions that weren't answered at all. Like, why was she targeted by Simon the convict? Why was she targeted by Paul? What actually happened to Paul's family? What the hell was that ending? Why was she so stupid that she didn't leave Paul? Where did Simon disappear all of a sudden? What was his role in this story? Paul is a master manipulator. He plays Lucy like a virtuoso. He has a past that he continually lies about. Lucy is afraid that his past is colliding with her present. But how can she tell what is true and what isn't?

Authenticity feels like a breath of fresh air and people who truly love you, will love you, regardless of you are and who you’re attracted to." If you need help and support, you can call Samaritans on 116 123 or the LGBT Foundation on 0345 3 30 30 30. With each new revelation I could feel the tension building to an inevitable crescendo, but... but... but I honestly didn’t see that ending coming... Plus, it also had the best-friend's-brother-to-lover / teenage-crush-noticing-you-in-your-20s tropes, which is such a brilliant mix. I feel like I've been on an emotional roller coaster. What a thrilling ride this novel was – strap in and enjoy. Hilarious yet heartfelt, this is romcom writing at its very best!’ Isabelle Broom, author of The Getaway

Creative Play

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Saga Egmont Audio via Netgalley for providing an audio ARC of The Man I Married written by Elena Wilkes and narrated by Colleen Prendergast for review. What a gorgeous, poignant story of finding love all over again' Jules Wake, bestselling author of The Spark-----What happens when the man she married can't remember her?Ellie has the perfect life: a happy marriage, a gorgeous daughter and a baby on the way. Yet, this does not become a straight-forward task, as you would expect. This is what keeps the story light-hearted and so warming. From Ellie tweaking Max’s memories so she gets a better ‘version two’, to the charade that Max’s parents try to maintain to convince their son they are still happily married, the story follows the couple as Max re-learns who he is. At the same time, Ellie is making new friends from her ante-natal classes and I loved how this added a further dimension to the story. They are a great bunch of supporting characters and I liked watching how both circles came together in the final scenes.