Disclosure: Post contains affiliate links; I may earn commission if you make a purchase. Opinions shared are mine.

WOW. It’s been a while since a book caught me so completely off guard. I didn’t read anything about My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing before it was in my hands, and now I’m so glad. Not knowing was an important first step to the surprises that lay in store!

I took this book with me on vacation and didn’t get time to read until the flight home. I started it while we were at the gate waiting for our flight. Immediately — like, within the first few pages — I was creeped out and paranoid. My eyes were flicking back and forth between the other people waiting in the terminal. I couldn’t stop thinking about the other passengers and what type of people they might be! The lady beside me kept droning on about her dog (talking to another passenger who had her dog there). My Lovely Wife’s main character made me wonder if this dog mama was making up the stories she was telling, or if there was something more sinister behind her eager desire for conversation. In other words, the book turned me into a fidgety mess!

A nice little old lady was talking to my daughter, and I actually cut her off mid-sentence to make my daughter move to a new seat because I was so freaked out by the CRAZY PEOPLE in this book. It’s one thing to have obviously crazy people, but when they’re the local realtor and tennis pro from the country club, it makes for an interesting and scary story! I think it would be even better as an audiobook and plan to get Downing’s next book as a listening read.

It’s hard to write a book review without giving away too much information. Let me just leave you with this analogy. You know when you are about to eat dessert on top of a terribly calorific meal, you know you shouldn’t but you just can’t help yourself? That’s what My Lovely Wife was like. It’s that book I didn’t want to like because it was SO BAD but darned if I didn’t love every single moment. It gets 5 stars from me!

Attention Berkley Books — I need more books like this in my life!