The Trophy Wife by Valerie Keogh
Genre: Psychological thriller
Read: 2nd February 2023
Published: 2nd January 2023
★★ 2 stars
DESCRIPTION:
His prized possession....his greatest mistake?
From the moment I saw Ann, I knew she was perfect for me.
Her beauty and her social connections would make my miserable life so much better. It didn’t matter that I didn’t love her. I would give her the lifestyle she craved, and she would give me the life I deserved...
But soon my marriage vows were a noose around my neck.
I longed to escape my beautiful, horrible wife.
And then I saw her and I knew there was only one way out…
Don't miss the brand new thriller by Valerie Keogh! Perfect for fans of Sue Watson, Shalini Boland and K.L. Slater.
MY THOUGHTS:
I have enjoyed Valerie Keogh's thrillers in the past and when I saw this one thought "why not?". Unfortunately that quickly became..."why?" Keogh is adept at slow burns but this one I found so slow burning it put me to sleep...literally.
THE TROPHY WIFE follows Jake Mitchell's life from the age of 18...quite literally. It is a straight line of monologuing detailing his life, with no tangents or crossroads, just one long boring straight line that really doesn't come up for air. Not even between chapters. The next chapter simply follows on where the previous one left off leaving me wondering what the point of the chapters were.
So Jake has grown up in an average house, with average parents who had no ambition beyond working in a factory and serving up cottage pie twice a week. But Jake wanted more than this for himself. So he applied to Oxford and was granted a full scholarship, thrilling him no end. But when he broke the news to his parents, their reaction was...average. Why did he have ideas above his station in life? His father had organised a position at the factory for him and his mother merely nodded and changed the subject. That night, Jake packed his holdall and left without a backward glance or a word, arriving in Oxford the following day two months ahead of time. What to do?
But like a cat, Jake landed on both feet and from there his climb to the top began. He met Adam and the two became best friends. Jake was embarrassed about his humble beginnings when Adam so obviously had a public school education and came from old money. Adam was everything he wanted to be and everything he wanted to have...and so he modelled himself on his best friend. He spent holidays at the family's sprawling Cotswolds home and it is there he first encounters Adam's rather aloof sister Ann.
As the years pass the boys grow into men and remain friends with Adam going on to become a teacher and Jake getting first class honours in his business and economics degree which took from one financial position to the next until landing an exclusive position at the illustrious Sebastian et Sebastian, catering to the most allfuent. It is here that Jake makes his fortune. Yet despite this, he was lonely. And then Adam met Jane...and Jake wanted Jane.
Really not much happened up to this point by which time I had dozed several times and nothing but nothing happened. Just Adam living happily ever after with all that Jake coveted (still) while he made millions and had no one to share it with. It's a classic case of, while money can buy plenty, it cannot buy happiness.
Jake was kind of creepy, had built an entire life on a series of lies, while continuing to covet all that his best friend had. He was jealous of Adam believing everything came easy to him, having been born into money, whereas Jake had come from nothing and made something of himself on his own merits...and yet he still had nothing of real value. Not really. Because what he wanted he couldn't have. And on and on it went.
In the end, I put the put book down. I was bored and by 40% it hadn't picked up any pace so therefore it was going nowhere. And if it was, it was taking too long to get there. I generally enjoy Valerie Keogh's thrillers but this one just missed the mark.
I would like to thank #ValerieKeogh, #Netgalley and #BoldwoodBooks for an ARC of #TheTrophyWife in exchange for an honest review.
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