For readers of Elin Hilderbrand, Susannah Marren’s A Palm Beach Wife is a delicious and irresistible commercial novel set among the high society galas and gossip of Palm Beach. Amid the glamour and galas and parties of Palm Beach, Faith knows that image often counts as much if not more than reality. She glides effortlessly among the highest of the high society so perfectly that you would never … perfectly that you would never suspect she wasn’t born to this. But it wasn’t always so; though she hides it well, Faith has fought hard for the wonderful life she has, for her loving, successful husband, for her daughter’s future.
In this town of secrets and gossip and rumors, Faith has kept a desperate grip on everything she holds so dear, built from so little. And yet even she–the only one who knows just how far she has to fall–never suspects from which direction, or how many directions all at once, betrayal will come.
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Despite the negative reviews (and the ultra-low ratings this book has on goodreads) I decided to give it a try to see for myself it this was really “badly” written as many people have said. In all honesty? It’s not. While it would have benefitted from another pair of eyes to sort of fill up gaps that were peppered throughout the story, it’s not written any worse than some books that I’ve read and hated. In fact, this isn’t even the worst book I’ve read! So, I cannot agree with many people saying this was poorly written. The author can write, she just needs to do a few re-reads to fill in some areas that abruptly end leaving us feeling like we missed something in the story. When I say this, it means that paragraphs will end too abruptly and turn to a completely different topic or even day without some sort of resolution- it makes you feel like you’ve missed something and need to read the paragraph (or even pages) again.
As for the ending… that sucked BIG TIME. There is absolutely no resolution whatsoever not even in the second book that has recently been published! I hate when an author ends a book with a huge cliffhanger and has no plans to rectify it. It simply sucks because we readers get invested in stories and are then let down when things like this occur. It’s awful! So, this is probably the worst thing about the book and if the author wants readers to come back for more it would be wise to give us the resolutions we crave. I’ve heard she has done the same thing in the next book and because of that I won’t read it.
Other than that, this is a book about high society, designer clothes and bags, glamour, parties, and the things that happen when money suddenly becomes an issue. This is a story of a mother who has risen to the highest of society only to take a downward spiral when she finds out her husband made some bad investments. It’s a frustrating read (see above) in some ways but totally eye catching because of the glitz and glamour. If you like those things, then you should definitely take a peek at this one.
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• Books about high society, glitz, and glamour.
• Women’s fiction novels that describe lifestyles of the rich (not famous)
• Authors like Holly Peterson, Tatiana Boncompagni, Plum Sykes, and Candace Bushnell
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In A Palm Beach Wife by Susannah Marren, secrets and lies are revealed. There was so much gossip and friendship based on looks and money. Faith owns a Vintage consignment clothing store where her so called friends drop off items such as $20,000 handbags, $500 scarves and shoes that can cost way more than a monthly mortgage payment. Faith discovers one evening that her husband Edward has lost all of their money and Faith must now struggle to keep up the facade of carefree wealth. What follows is a tale of how resourceful Faith is and how weak her husband really is but I could not help but feel sorry for him. Can Faith leave Palm Beach and its air kisses behind for good and start fresh? A major secret is revealed halfway into this book that Faith thought she left behind years ago.
Faith is a strong and independent character who holds everything together for the sake of her daughter. The last sentence of this book was literally jaw dropping, I did not see it coming!
This book was like a private peek into the lives of the influential society women of Palm Beach. The lifestyle, the fashion, the friends, charity and social events that must be attended, all of the things the women do in order to stay within the circle of important people. But when one falls from grace, the gossip and rumors start almost instantly and they are enough to break a person. I was impressed with how strong Faith remained when her life took a turn for the worse. She put her family and business first and did what she had to so they could survive. And, she stood by her husband through all of the mistakes he made.
This book hooked me right away. I have always been fascinated by the rich and famous and how they live their lives. The author did a fantastic job outlining the story and not missing any details, whether it was the people or the town of Palm Beach. It felt very true to life. But, I was a bit let down with the ending. I was ready to turn the page thinking there was another chapter, but there was nothing. It just ended like a cliff hanger. Please say this story will continue in another book.