Book Review: The Wife Upstairs by Freida McFadden

 Before I start on a book, I checked out the reviews first. Just to see if a book is worth my time. All the reviews had the same thing to say: The Wife Upstairs is just a fan fiction, that it is similar to Verity by Colleen Hoover which was published two years earlier, and that even the dialogue is similar.

Well, I haven't read Verity by Colleen Hoover yet, but I shall do so after I'm done with this review.

This book gripped me right from the very first page. The narrator is Sylvia Johnson. She is about to become homeless and is desperate. She is offered a dream job by Adam Barnett, a New York best-selling author, to take care of his wife, Victoria, who is semi-paralyzed from a fall down a long spiral staircase.

The Barnetts live in a huge, gated mansion at the tip of Long Island, a remote and isolated area with power cuts during a storm. The house gave Sylvia the creeps, she felt she will be doomed if she stays there. Yet, she has no choice. It was either accept the job or be turned out on the streets.

The diary was a little lame at first, it went into great detail on how much Victoria loved Adam, and the wonderful sex they had together. The story only picked up after the second half of the book, when Victoria started writing about how Adam was an obsessive, jealous control freak which sent warning tingles down my spine.

I would have gotten the hell out of the house, homeless or not. But both Victoria and Sylvia were women blinded by handsome men. Instead of running away from Adam, they stayed on with him. Sylvia even comforted herself with the thought that Victoria hadn't mentioned that Adam was violent.

McFadden tried to make the reader wonder who the true villain was by putting out some red herrings, but I wasn't fooled one bit. That said, this book is still interesting enough for me to recommend it. 

And now I'm off to start on Verity.

Read also: Verity

Book Review: The Klone and I by Danielle Steel

 

The Klone and I is a story about a love triangle that develops between Stephanie and Peter, and his clone, Paul Klone. 

Peter is a bionic genius, and he sends his clone, Paul, to Stephanie to entertain and amuse her when he goes away on business trips. 

Mayhem ensued when Paul Klone arrives at Stephanie's doorstep. Paul is the very opposite of Peter. While Peter is a conservatively dressed businessman, Paul is loud and flashy. He likes tight-fitting neon leotards, thinks nothing of enacting a real fart in Charade and likes to do triple flips whilst making love (giggle).

It is one of those light, fluffy, entertaining books that serious-minded readers should give a miss.  There is nothing substantial here, it's just lots of fun rides, much like going to a theme park. I went away feeling entertained and amused, with my brain cells preserved and unused.

*Spoiler alert*

That said, I felt the ending was a little unexpected. The author had led me to believe that the protagonist was falling in love with the clone. Paul had more attention and pages given to him than Peter. You would be forgiven for forgetting that there is a Peter in the story. There was hardly any character development where Peter was concerned. He remained a familiar stranger till the end. Paul was the one who had all the character development. 

And with all that was going on, the ending felt a little rushed. Like as if the editor said, ok, you've reached your maximum number of words.