Happy Ever After by C.C. MacDonald
Genre: Domestic thriller
Read: 29th March 2020
Purchase: Amazon
(publication date: 23rd January 2020)
★ 1 star
An interesting premise that sadly failed in delivery. I really struggled with this book and whilst the title may be HAPPY EVER AFTER, it left me feeling anything but.
Naomi and Charlie are struggling to conceive their second child. Their sex life is timed to temperatures and ovulation charts whilst in the midst of their perfect life with their beautiful daughter and their lovely home, they begin to drift apart.
One day when taking daughter Prue to nursery, Naomi meets one of the other parents, who she refers to as "the lumberjack", and instantly there is a connection. She soon learns his name is Sean and they got for coffee together and Sean invites her to bring Prue to swimming lessons. But after the swim, Naomi makes a mistake.
Then Sean seemingly disappears. She tries contacting him but there is no reply. He appears to have vanished into thin air. Who was he? Is there more to him than meets the eye?
As Naomi tries to settle back into the normality of life, she discovers she is pregnant...at last. And that's when strange things begin to happen.
Things in the house are moved around, items turn up that don't belong to them, noises in the loft, the front door left wide open, Charlie is constantly away and she can't sleep. Naomi is going out of her mind, becoming tired carrying the baby and feeling as if she can't cope. What is going on?
It appears somebody knows her secret.
And then she meets Charlie's friend Sal. It's him and he is as gorgeous as ever...
A somewhat bizarre book, HAPPY EVER AFTER is complex, confusing and convoluted. What made it even harder was the totally unlikable characters. Naomi always appeared to be griping or moaning about something. She is completely dissatisfied with life and decides she wants more instead of being content with what she had. She is irritating, self obsessed and I couldn't stand her. I didn't much like Charlie either. Added to that a demanding child ("spoon, spoon, spoooooon!!"), and I felt like tearing my own hair out.
HAPPY EVER AFTER is anything but. It is slow moving, despite the short snappy chapters that were all about Naomi and her need for something more. And the writing? Husband with two flat floury baps for an arse"...really? What the hell?
A sadly boring and convoluted story about an unlikable couple and their perfect lives that is just too mundane for some. HAPPY EVER AFTER did nothing for me but long for my next book. I couldn't finish it as it was going nowhere.
Definitely not the addictive thriller it was billed as.
I would like to thank #CCMacDonald, #NetGalley and #RandomHouseUK and #VintagePublishing for an ARC of #HappyEverAfter in exchange for an honest review.
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