My review of My Son's Wife by Shelia E. Lipsey

About the book:

First Lady Audrey Graham believes she's found the perfect woman to become her eldest son, Minister Stiles Graham's wife. Sweet, sensitive, kind, and of course a fine Christian girl, Audrey couldn't ask more of lovely Rena Jackson. But skeletons fall from the closet when Audrey and Stiles discover that Rena is in love and committed to the troubled, rebellious, ex-con, Frankie. My Son's Wife is more than a love triangle, it's a time bomb set to explode with twists, turns, entanglements and sinful revelations that only a loving God can make right.

My review:

My Son's Wife is full of real-life drama and the kind of stuff that makes a reader's blood pressure spike. The way the author wrote everything from an omniscient point of view worked for the story well, otherwise it would have been difficult to know some of their internal struggles in the heat of the moment. I could hardly turn the pages fast enough to see how things would turn out. The romance was smoking hot, the characters were well-motivated in all of their dysfunctional behaviors, and the plot really grabbed my heart and held on tight. Each situation kept escalating until the deeds done in secret blew up in a number of characters' faces. When the truth finally came out, it really messed up their lives. The fallout was very well done.

The author did a great job at showing how turning a deaf ear and a blind eye to abuse because of how it might make you look (if discovered) ends up damaging the people you love most and ultimately hurting everything and everyone in your life. The author made a great point showing how parents blaming a child out of fear will not only make the child feel like they have no one safe they can turn to, but it also causes such deep pain that it can lead to destructive behavior. On top of all that, the author showed that self-righteousness and pride are uglier sins than even sexual sin because it blocks forgiveness, healing, and the ability to show mercy. God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble, right?

I loved Rena. She was my favorite character because she was afraid, but she did love her husband. She wasn't what everyone assumed. I think she got pulled into an abusive relationship at a vulnerable time in her life and then she felt like she couldn't get out of it. I don't believe that was who she was meant to be. I wanted to hurt some people when the situation was revealed because those self-rightteous, judgmental people showed no mercy, and honestly, if they'd listened long enough to hear the whole story, they may have come away with a different perspective. Because I didn't know how things would ultimately turn out, I kept thinking about the story when I was forced to put it down. Life tends to get in the way of my reading time.

In the end, I was a bit bummed how things turned out, but at the same time it was very realistic. The author set the stage for more drama, and I can't help being curious about how things will turn out in My Son's Next Wife. If the sequal is half as entertaining as the first book, I'll have a tough time putting it down. The author does drama well and she made me care about the lives of the characters. I zipped right through this book and can't wait to see how the next story will turn out.

My Son's Wife was published by Urban Christian and released in Oct. 2008. The mass market paperback version released in 2011.