THE SECOND MARRIAGE by Rebecca de Winter

 3.5* An engrossing read despite the absolute deserving beotch that was Brigham. The title is misleading, though.

Hmm. This is a hard one to review, as I hated Brigham and how she treated her friends at 'those parties', how she let her supposed BFF Anna down - then went on to name her daughter after her - how she manipulated people and events, lied, gaslit, schemed and colluded with Drew (shades of MuskRat there, methinks) and Liam. But, it was a strangely mesmerising read because I kept waiting for the shoe to fall, which it did in a too-quick, too-convenient manner, and for the other secret that Brigham alluded to, and I kept wondering how much further she could fall. Quite a lot, actually. But, at the same time, she didn't lie to herself - just others - and she was a Tiger Mom, so there was the tiniest bit of redemption in my book, no pun intended.

The book's title and blurb are misleading and had they been less so, I wouldn't have ended up reading it. I kept waiting for the second marriage that happened so belatedly that it came at 93% of the tale gone. It felt like an afterthought, not the subject of the tale or Brigham's plotted end game. It felt like she got lucky with 2 stupid guys and in vino veritas. 

On the plus side, it was well written and the author made someone so unpleasant and unappealing strangely addictive.

ARC courtesy of Storm Publishing and NetGalley, for my reading pleasure.

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