“Writing with rawness and realism, Pekkanen doesn’t hold back…Fans of Liane Moriarty and Anne Tyler will appreciate the story’s depth.” –Booklist “In her signature conversational style, Pekkanen uncovers the truth behind the lies as Josie comes to grips with reality vs. the mirage of her marriage.” –Library Journal (starred review) In this intricate and enthralling domestic drama, perfect … intricate and enthralling domestic drama, perfect for fans of Big Little Lies and The Affair, the internationally bestselling author of the “gossipy page-turner” (Glamour) The Perfect Neighbors goes deep into a marriage in crisis, peeling back layers of secrets to discover where the relationship veered off course–and whether it is worth saving.
Josie and Frank Moore are happy…at least Josie thinks they are. As parents of two young girls in the Chicago suburbs, their days can be both busy and monotonous, and sometimes Josie wonders how she became a harried fortysomething mother rather than the driven career woman she once was. But Frank is a phenomenal father, he’s handsome and charismatic, and he still looks at his wife like she’s the beautiful woman he married more than a decade ago. Josie isn’t just happy–she’s lucky.
Until one Saturday morning when Josie borrows her husband’s phone to make a quick call–and sees nine words that shatter her world.
Now Josie feels as if she is standing at the edge of a sharp precipice. As she looks back at pivotal moments in the relationship she believed would last forever, she is also plunging ahead, surprising everyone (especially herself) with how far she will go to uncover the extent of her husband’s devastating secret.
With her “conversational writing style and a knack for making readers care about her characters” (The Washington Post) bestselling author Sarah Pekkanen paints a vivid, kaleidoscopic portrait of a marriage before and during a crisis–and of a woman who fears that the biggest secret of all may be the one she’s hiding from herself.
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Sarah Pekannen had me with her first novel, The Opposite of Me, and she has never disappointed with her subsequent work. The Ever After is not only no exception, but again demonstrates Ms. Pekkanen’s ability to evocatively, yet sensitively, explore the intricacies of human relationships in a manner that both entertains and deeply moves readers. The Ever After is the exploration of a marriage that seems, at first look, to be a fairly typical, solid, modern American marriage. However, emotional turmoil lurks beneath the surface.
Ms. Pekkanen’s inspiration for a book was a conversation overheard in a public place about infidelity in the age of technology. The seed was planted for The Ever After, in which Josie and Frank Moore appear to be happily raising two daughters in suburbia. Josie gave up er career to be a stay at home mother, but still runs a business from home on a part-time basis while Frank works long hours and travels for business. Frank is a wonderful husband and father, and certainly does not seem like the kind of man who would cheat on his wife. But, as noted, this is the technology age and even though Josie thinks that she and Frank keep no secrets from each other — after all, she knows all of his passwords, including the one for his email account and the code that unlocks his cell phone — she is devastated when she uses Frank’s cell phone and makes a shocking discovery. Gone are the days when suspicious spouses had to hire private detectives to conduct surveillance and surreptitiously snap incriminating photos. Now answers can be found in emails and on websites like Google and Facebook. How many questions does Josie really want to ask and does she really want the answers? She must struggle with those questions, as she examines the realities of “ever after” & whether there were signs and clues she missed along the way.
And the central theme of The Ever After is, of course, trust. How it is established, what value partners place upon it and its importance in their relationship, how it is broken / lost, and whether it can ever be reestablished. Notably, The Ever After is an exploration of the theme from Josie’s perspective. Although, through the characters’ conversations, Ms. Pekkanen gives some insight into Frank’s though-processes and motivation, The Ever After is primarily Josie’s story. And it’s an intriguing, honest look at the complexities of marriage and how important trust really is, especially in an era when so much technology makes deception easy. Once again, Ms. Pekkanen tells a story with which readers will readily relate. She creates characters with which readers can identify and empathize, deftly painting a believable portrait of a marriage in trouble. Remarkably, although there is plenty of blame, there are no villains. Just flawed human beings doing the best they can and not always making the best choices. And there is much love — for each other and their children. Even with all that, whether Josie and Frank’s marriage with survive forever after is a question that readers will very much enjoy pondering and find themselves considering long after they’ve read the last page of The Ever After.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader’s Copy of the book!
Love how focus in the relationship between the family. It is very well written . Reminded of my relationship how I was feeling being a failure. Must read book.
How far would you go to uncover the secrets you think your husband is keeping? Is it possible to keep that idea of a happily ever after, when you suspect him of having an affair? Josie has these thoughts when she sees a message on her husband’s phone—a message meant only for his eyes.
The Ever After takes us through all of the emotions that Josie goes through as she tries to find out answers about her husband, his activities, and their changing relationship. As she goes through a roller coaster ride to figure out what she wants, Frank possibly lies and cheats his way back into her life. She’s not sure who, or what, to believe anymore. I went through all the ups and downs right along with Josie—alternately wanting to kick Frank out and to let him stay.
A riveting tale of domestic infidelity and the ensuing aftermath. My heart broke for the main character Josie as she navigated through the harsh, raw emotions of finding out her husband had an affair. It was definitely interesting and eye opening to watch her wade through the different feelings and realizations of her marriage and the relationship she had with her husband. Unfortunately this is an all to common narrative these days but it was nice to see it done in such a thought provoking and realistic way, focusing more on the emotions as a whole and not just the anger. Very well done and I look forward to more from this author. *
Sarah Pekkanen asks several questions in this book, but perhaps the most important is this: how do you decide if you have a relationship worth saving?
The central relationship is the marriage of Frank and Josie. After she discovers an email on his cellphone that clues her into Frank’s secret, she has to decide if what they share together is something she values enough to overcome what he did. Sarah Pekkanen gives you Josie’s perspective, taking you back and forth throughout her relationship with Frank, letting you see how and why they came together and the state of their marriage at the time she uncovers his secret.
Other relationships are at play here, too. Friendships. Parents and children. Coworkers. Pekkanen examines those parts and mechanics as well, showing you how those parts are at play in a marriage, too. You are not isolated as spouses. You operate within many spheres, and the overlapping core of that Venn-Diagram is the two of you. Your couplehood. When the spheres shift–when there is a betrayal or a deception–that space where the spheres interlock evolves, sometimes even dissolves.
Josie sets out to understand what her husband did. She prioritizes the “what” over the “why” in the beginning, but eventually, she understands that the “why” determines their future far more than the “what.” And finding out that “why” cannot be accomplished on someone’s Facebook page or searching through texts and emails, not fully or completely, anyway. Understanding the “why” comes with conversation and dialogue. It comes with listening.
To achieve an ever after, you have to decide, first, if you want it. And then you need to accept the “why” and figure out what you’re going to do about it. Sometimes the ever after, though, comes with a time limit.
I loved this book. I loved the questions Sarah Pekkanen asks and the way she makes me think about marriage and commitment. I didn’t always like Josie, and I didn’t always like Frank, but that’s something that made me love this book even more. You don’t need to always think the best of characters. You do, however, need to invest in them, and Sarah Pekkanen invests you in her characters like few authors do.