His Other Wife: Book Review

His Other Wife: A Novel by Deborah Bedford

3 stars

In the opening prologue, Hilary appears to have a perfect life with a handsome husband, a son, and the job of a nurse. In shocking reality, Hilary’s life is far from perfect. Her husband, Erik, reveals he’s had an affair with another woman and he wants a divorce. Hilary is shocked and outraged at the news. Everything is not what it seemed to be.

In the first chapter, it’s six years later. Hilary struggles to be both a single mother and a nurse. She has built up a tough exterior over what happened between her and Eric, but inwardly she can still feel the pain. But she’s not alone in all this; she has God to comfort her, great friends to laugh with, and a son to take of. 

Hilary’s son, Seth, is almost a grown man. He’ll soon be leaving high school forever and heading to college. Because of her son’s graduation, Hilary will have no choice but to see Eric and his other wife.

His Other Wife has a theme of forgiveness intertwined into the story. The main character’s pain felt so real that I was suffering right along with her. I knew from the synopsis of the book that her husband gets a divorce, but I was still left stunned when it happened. All of the characters react in a perfectly human-like way through suffering, tragedy, and hope.

It’s not the easiest to muscle through because of the heaviness of it. After the awful circumstances that Hilary and her family had encountered, it was like there was a big dark cloud hanging over the whole story. The end leaves on a happier note, so I was satisfied. In the author’s notes, Bedford says that the story was inspired by Hannah from the Bible.

I can tell Deborah Bedford likes to write stories on real life situations. I like her honesty, and she definitely chose a difficult issue to approach. I would be willing to pick up another book from this author.

This was reviewed for FaithWords

God bless!
~Grace