My Loving Husband by Sheryl Browne
Genre: Psychological thriller, Domestic thriller
Read: 8th April 2025
Published: 7th April 2025
★★★ 3.5 stars
DESCRIPTION:
Can I really trust the man I married?
I take a sip of coffee as I plan my day. My surgeon husband, Cole, slept at work last night, so I had to get the kids ready on my own, again. I can’t complain, though, I’ve loved him ever since we met, long before he became a famous surgeon and the papers started calling him the pride of the hospital.
Our latest family photo hangs on the kitchen wall and I remember that day so clearly. Cole screamed at me over nothing, then apologised saying he was stressed at work. My heart pounded with fear, but I plastered a smile on my face for the sake of my children.
Now, as my phone buzzes on the glossy white kitchen island, I read the message from a withheld number, and nothing could have prepared me for what it says. Your husband is planning to kill you…
You might think you know what I do next, but you’ll be wrong, because Cole isn’t the most dangerous person in this family…
You will be utterly addicted to this page-turning psychological thriller. Perfect for fans of The Housemaid, The Perfect Marriage and Gone Girl, prepare to be hooked from the very first page!
MY THOUGHTS:
Perfect husband...or perfect liar?
You won't know who to trust in tense psychological thriller. Everyone is just a little bit mad, with the exception of the twins and Ellie.
Maddie has been married to successful and highly respected neurosurgeon Cole for 18 blissful years with three children Ellie (17) and twins Jayden and Lucas (6). But the nature of his profession sees him rarely spend a moment at home, always on call and working late at the hospital. Maddie is an agency nurse so she understands the demands of his work and that of the NHS, and its inadequacies. But lately Cole has seemed distracted, often angry. And Maddie begins to wonder - should she be scared of her husband?
When she begins to receive anonymous text messages - alluding to her husband not being where he says he is, that he is a liar and then that he is planning to kill her - Maddie first wonders who is behind the messages and then if there is any truth to them? As the messages continue, the intent is clear. Cole is having an affair and is planning to leave her for this woman...or do away with her, should he have to.
When Maddie first broached the subject with Cole, he dismissed the messages as a crackpot but suggested she take them to the police. Goodness knows why she never heeded that advice. Silly woman. Could have saved herself and her family a whole lot of bother. But no. Instead she took the bait and began to believe the messages and in the end threw Cole out.
Now there is a whole lot of crazy going on in this book. Even Ellie began a little deranged but in the end she was probably the only voice of reason present. The accusations, the threats, the bitchiness, the abuse, the tirades...OMG! drama central! Brimming with secrets, deception, tension and threats, I just wanted to slap the stupid out of everyone. For goodness' sake, Maddie was willing to believe an anonymous messenger over her husband of 18 years? She was willing to throw everything away on the word of some threatening messages? She wouldn't even give Cole the chance to defend himself and then when he finally humbled himself to confess what he had been keeping from her, she didn't believe him? Why not? What made the ludicrous ramblings of some delusional seem so rational over Cole's almost unlikely story? I say almost because I believed him at once. I believed him from the start. I didn't think he was guilty of anything that he was being accused of.
And the characters? Grade A crazy nutjobs, the lot of them. I didn't sympathise with Maddie at all. I thought she was unreasonable to not even give her husband, who she'd been married to for 18 years, some benefit of the doubt and listen to him without going off half cocked over the ramblings of the said delusional text messenger. I was frustrated beyond measure at her behaviour.
Another crazy read by Sheryl Browne that will leave you annoyed and a little irritated with the characters but satisfied with the end, all the same. As always, I wonder what she has in store for us next.
I would like to thank #SherylBrowne, #Netgalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #MyLovingHusband in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
When she's not writing Sheryl can usually be found messing about on the water in her little narrowboat, Aquaduck, which she says she can generally be found falling off and she admits to being a bit accident prone.
Sheryl lives in Worcestershire with her partner and a variety of disabled dogs, of whom she says "my furry-friends give me back much more than I could ever give them. I really wouldn’t be me without them." According to readers of her thrillers, she also apparently makes an excellent psychopath.
Thanks so much for reading and sharing your thoughts, Stina. So appreciated. x
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