Review: Wife 22
Wife 22 by Melanie Gideon
Publisher: Random House
Ratings: 
Source: Big Honcho Media
From the cover:
Maybe it was those extra five pounds I’d gained. Maybe it was because I was about to turn the same age my mother was when I lost her. Maybe it was because after almost twenty years of marriage my husband and I seemed to be running out of things to say to each other.
But when the anonymous online study called “Marriage in the 21st Century” showed up in my inbox, I had no idea how profoundly it would change my life. It wasn’t long before I was assigned both a pseudonym (Wife 22) and a caseworker (Researcher 101).
And, just like that, I found myself answering questions.
7. Sometimes I tell him he’s snoring when he’s not snoring so he’ll sleep in the guest room and I can have the bed all to myself.
61. Chet Baker on the tape player. He was cutting peppers for the salad. I looked at those hands and thought, I am going to have this man’s children.
67. To not want what you don’t have. What you can’t have. What you shouldn’t have.
32. That if we weren’t careful, it was possible to forget one another.Before the study, my life was an endless blur of school lunches and doctor’s appointments, family dinners, budgets, and trying to discern the fastest-moving line at the grocery store. I was Alice Buckle: spouse of William and mother to Zoe and Peter, drama teacher and Facebook chatter, downloader of memories and Googler of solutions.
But these days, I’m also Wife 22. And somehow, my anonymous correspondence with Researcher 101 has taken an unexpectedly personal turn. Soon, I’ll have to make a decision—one that will affect my family, my marriage, my whole life. But at the moment, I’m too busy answering questions.
As it turns out, confession can be a very powerful aphrodisiac.
Wife 22 by Melanie Gideon is laugh out loud funny, witty, and entertaining with a kick of unconventional writing. Despite this book being a light and fast read, it has quite a bit of depth to it and it deals with a lot of real emotions that one would go through after being married for twenty years.
Wife 22 is different from most books in that it is made up of more than just narrative text. The story is also told through Alice’s answers to the survey questions, tweets, facebook messages and news feed, and emails. I really enjoyed reading her answers to the different questions because I got a better sense of who she is. It was also fun to read about her past and how her relationship with William started.
The only frustrating part about the survey was that you were only able to read Alice’s answers to the questions and you couldn’t see the questions themselves. It wasn’t until I was half way through the book that I found out there was an appendix at the end of the book that lists all of the questions. Even after I found out about the list, I still felt it was a little frustrating to flip back and forth to see which answer corresponds with which question.
While I was reading the book, I couldn’t decide if I liked her, hated her, or just flat out loved her. Of course by the time the end rolled around I was in the latter category. Alice was a fully fleshed out character and you really got where she was coming from as a mother of two and a wife of twenty years. Gideon did an excellent job of showing the readers how distance can grow between a couple after they’ve been together for so long. Alice goes through quite the roller coaster of emotions as she tries to resolve the distance between her and William as well as define the relationship she built with Researcher 101.
I definitely enjoyed Wife 22 more than I expected to when I first requested this book. It was a witty and fun book to read with just enough emotions to make it touching and sweet. I highly recommend it and if y’all are interested in reading it, you still have time to enter in my giveaway by filling out this form here.
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Giveaway: Wife 22
Hello dear friends! The people over at Random House and Big Honcho Media has generously offered me two copies of WIFE 22 by MELANIE GIDEON to give away to my readers.
Here’s a quick synopsis of the book:
When Alice Buckle, who has been married to William for nearly twenty years, receives a survey in her e-mail from the Netherfield Center for the Study of Marital Happiness, she is in the doldrums. She loves her husband but they’ve grown distant, she is bored with her job, and her adolescent children need her less now. And she has reached the age at which her mother died. So as she idly begins answering the questions, she finds herself baring her soul in an anonymous survey she never even intended to respond to. As she struggles, she realizes it has been years since anyone asked deep, serious questions of her, and really listened to her answers. Soon her entire life as she knows it is called into question.
I just finished this book over the weekend and it was different from what I expected, but in a good way. It was a funny, laugh out loud, yet touching book about what it takes to have a happy marriage and a happy family. I definitely recommend it and I’ll have a review of the book sometime later this week.
In the meantime, however, if you are interested in reading this book for yourself and entering the giveaway, please fill out the form here. The giveaway is open to US addresses only and will be opened until next Monday, June 4. Two winners will be selected and each will receive one copy of the book. Best of luck to all of y’all!
Review: Arranged
Arranged by Catherine McKenzie
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Ratings:
Source: Publicist
From the cover:
Anne Blythe has a great life: a good job, good friends, and a potential book deal for her first novel. When it comes to finding someone to share it with, however, she just can’t seem to get it right.
After yet another relationship ends, Anne comes across a business card for what she thinks is a dating service, and she pockets it just in case. When her best friend, Sarah, announces she’s engaged, Anne can’t help feeling envious. On an impulse, she decides to give the service a try because maybe she could use a little assistance in finding the right man. But Anne soon discovers the company isn’t a dating service; it’s an exclusive, and pricey, arranged marriage service. She initially rejects the idea, but the more she thinks about it-and the company’s success rate-the more it appeals to her. After all, arranged marriages are the norm for millions of women around the world, so why wouldn’t it work for her?
A few months later, Anne is travelling to a Mexican resort, where in one short weekend she will meet and marry Jack. And against all odds, it seems to be working out-until Anne learns that Jack, and the company that arranged their marriage, are not what they seem at all.
I was first interested in Arranged by Catherine McKenzie because the whole concept of arranged marriages fascinates me and I’ve always been interested in it. I’m always joking with my friends and telling them that life would be so much easier if I could just get an arranged marriage and skip through the whole dating process. Of course I’ll probably never be brave enough to go through with an arranged marriage, but that’s just a minor detail.
I haven’t read anything by McKenzie before this book, but I can definitely see why she has so many fans already! Her writing is funny and witty and the plot moves along at a fast pace so it was extremely to become invested in the story. I read this book during my flight to Chicago and I almost wished the flight was longer so I could finish the book.
And while I didn’t fall completely in love with Anne right away, I found her to be endearing and charming in her own way by the end of the book. When we first met her a part of me pitied her because she kept going from one failed relationship to the next, but the other part felt like it was her fault because she was a bit vain and always fell for the same type of guy. But as the story progresses, I quickly found myself rooting for her and hoping that she would successfully find love.
I really do truly enjoy McKenzie’s writing. I thought I had this story all figured out. Sure the relationship between Anne and Jack wasn’t perfect and it wasn’t all sunshine and butterflies, but you could see that they were slowly falling in love and that perhaps even though their relationship started as an arranged marriage, everything would work out. And then bam! She hits you with this surprise that completely rocks the delicate world that Anne and Jack had built.
Arranged by Catherine McKenzie was the perfect summer read and I highly recommend packing it on your next trip to the beach or wherever you’re planning on traveling to this summer. I had a great time reading it and I look forward to reading McKenzie’s future works.
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