Wives Behaving Badly

by Elizabeth Buchan Narrated by Justine Eyre

Overview

What could be sweeter than Revenge? The sequel.

American readers fell in love with Elizabeth Buchan?s Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman. Now, with the delicious sequel to that beloved New York Times bestseller, Elizabeth Buchan answers the intriguing question: What happens when the mistress becomes the wife?

Minty Lloyd has what she always wanted, her prized Nathan and twin boys, but she is haunted by the glamorous new life of her predecessor, Rose. Then an unforeseen event forces the rivals to renegotiate their relationship. With Buchan?s signature talents, Wives Behaving Badly is a delightful novel that reaffirms its author as our wisest and warmest revealer of women?s intimate lives.

Editorial Reviews

O The Oprah Magazine

Hats off to a title that titillates before you crack the covers. Wives Behaving Badly smartly lives up to its name.... Unusually tasty.

USA Today

Elizabeth Buchan spells delight ... for well-done domestic drama, there's only one writer for this reader.

Publishers Weekly

Rose, the protagonist in the bestselling Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman, stood tall when Minty Lloyd stole both her husband and her job. Buchan now gives Minty the spotlight as she discovers the dangers of getting what you want. Picking up seven years later, Minty and Nathan are married and have twin boys, but Minty's life as a second wife is more difficult than she'd anticipated: Nathan's friends shun her, she's deemed a threat by other married women, Nathan's adult children despise her and full-time motherhood isn't her cuppa tea. So Minty goes back to work at a London television production company, only to find young, unattached and ambitious colleagues nipping at her heels. Things go from manic to molten after Rose reenters the picture and a tragedy sends what's left of the family into a tailspin. Buchan keeps a lot of balls in the air, but readers may wish she'd written for depth and not breadth, as the narrative can feel like a series of vignettes hemmed together. Still, readers who appreciate Buchan's blend of humor and poignancy will find a trove of it. (On sale July 24) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

When trouble strikes, Minty gets support from an unlikely candidate: her husband's first wife. With an eight-city tour. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Second wife gets short shrift in Buchan's sequel to Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman (2003). Seven years have passed since Minty stole Nathan, chief exec of a London media firm, from his first wife Rose. She now has everything Rose had-a lively brood (six-year-old twins Lucas and Felix) and Rose's beloved home and now neglected garden. In Revenge, Rose's loss of Nathan was immediately followed by the loss of her job at Vistemax, where she was supplanted by her assistant and former confidante, 29-year-old Minty. But marriage to Nathan is far from, er, rosy. Minty has never felt accepted by her husband's friends. His adult children, Poppy and Sam, alternately manipulate and marginalize her. Poppy racks up Internet poker debt and Minty strives to do damage control before daughter hits Dad up for funds. Sam has a career opportunity in Texas but his wife won't leave the U.K. Minty, snooping in Nathan's diary, finds regretful musings. Despite Nathan's new lease on life, he's grown taciturn and cranky. Though visibly unwell, he refuses to see a doctor. Meanwhile, he resists Minty's desire to work full-time at her TV production job. At Vistemax, Nathan's malaise leaves him open to a palace coup. Rose is annoyingly self-possessed and well-dressed for a dumped, 50-ish ex-wife, and Minty is paranoid about Nathan's nostalgia for his old life. Nathan drops dead of a heart attack while visiting Rose-he sought her out after being downsized-while Minty is left to sort out her less-than-optimal inheritance and balance her increasingly precarious position at work with single motherhood. Rose keeps cropping up like a sleekly groomed Marley's ghost. Two girlfriends with marital breakdown and fidelity issuesare dropped into the plot, adding little except padding. Weighed down by so much poetic justice, Minty garners no reader identification. Buchan seems mainly intent on continuing Rose's revenge. Nathan is a cipher and what either woman saw in him remains a mystery. Flabby, meandering and emotionally vacuous.

From the Publisher

Hats off to a title that titillates before you crack the covers. Wives Behaving Badly smartly lives up to its name. . . . Unusually tasty. (O, The Oprah Magazine)

Elizabeth Buchan spells delight . . . for well-done domestic drama, thereÆs only one writer for this reader. (USA Today)

DEC 06/JAN 07 - AudioFile

In Buchan’s sequel to REVENGE OF THE MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN, the revenge is bittersweet as former mistress Minty has moved into her predecessor’s home and become the mother of twins, yet she still finds herself in competition with her husband’s first wife. Justine Eyre does not bother with major voice distinctions. But she does a delightful treble for the twins as they pull their mother’s strings. Trauma and tragedy occur, but Eyre produces no heartbreaker. Hearing Minty plow her way through squabbles with her husband’s adult children, ex-wife, and former friends may not capture those who did not watch her victory dance in the first novel, but Buchan’s fans will treasure the comeuppance. D.P.D. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169321180
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	07/06/2006
Edition description:	Unabridged

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