I’ve
finally got a free evening to myself, so I thought I’d use it to catch up with
some of the reviews for books I’ve read over the last few weeks and months. One
of the books I read in the month of December was My Sweet Revenge by Jane
Fallon, a contemporary published by Penguin Michael Joseph. Thanks to them
for my copy of the book!
I’ll
start off by saying that this book intrigued me from the offset: our
protagonist Paula has just discovered, through glancing over at her husband’s
abandoned mobile phone as it lit up with a message alert, that he is having an
affair with one of his colleagues. Instead of confronting him about his
adultery, she comes up with the perfect plan to enact her revenge: to make him
fall back in love with her so she can snatch it all away, break his cheating
heart and leave him with absolutely nothing but egg on his face. She hitches a
very cunning plan to lose the extra pounds she’s accumulated over the years,
all the while sneakily increasing her husband’s daily calorie intake
exponentially. She starts running, she signs up to the gym and hires a personal
trainer: you name it, she’s considered it. The entire novel was full of twists
and turns and remarkably bad acting; which was a shame, considering that 3 of
the 4 main characters were actors. All jokes aside, the book read incredibly
well and is definitely one of my highlights of the end of 2016.
I
personally wouldn’t be able to pull it off. I would fume monumentally if I ever
believed that my husband was having an affair; even more so if the proof was
right in front of my eyes. In spite of this, the book was an incredibly enjoyable
and clever contribution to the contemporary fiction genre. I loved Paula’s character and thought her
plan, albeit longwinded and incredibly risqué – befriending the woman her
husband was having an affair with was definitely something that I would never
do in my wildest dreams- was one which was incredibly clever and sneaky. It was
incredibly easy to read and easy to stick at as well, which is always a bonus
as far as I am concerned. It was well written and humorous and just what I
needed to pick me out of a horrendous reading slump. I’ve never read anything
by Paula before but I’ll be sure to add her name to the (extremely long) list
of authors to watch out for!
3.5/5
