My One Month Marriage by Shari Low #book #review #BlogTour @sharilow @BoldwoodBooks

My One Month Marriage by Shari Low

Published by Boldwood Books

Publication Date: 21st January 2020

Womens Fiction

Book Description:

“I just need to know...which one of you slept with my husband?”

You know that "till death do us part" bit in the wedding vows? Well, Zoe Danton believed it. One month after she said “I do”, the man she loved is gone, given his marching orders after Zoe discovered a devastating secret.

As teenagers facing a crushing loss, Zoe made a pact with her three sisters to stick together no matter what. Now she’s discovered that one of them may have been the reason her husband betrayed her. She’s lost her happy-ever-after, but has she lost a sister too? 

My Thoughts:

First and foremost I need to thank Megan at Boldwood Books for the opportunity to read this book ahead of publication.  It's a fun read with a serious message at its core.

The Danton sisters are a diverse bunch but despite their differences they are what matters most at heart:  family.  Their dad left home when they were at very impressionable ages and they made a pact back then that nothing would break up the sisterhood.  The book looks at how the break up of their family affected each of them and how it helped mould their personalities as they grew into adulthood.

Marina: the organiser, stay at home mum of 2 who controls every aspect of her family's life.
Yvie: the carer. Nurse by profession who gives far more of herself to her job than perhaps is healthy for her.
Zoe: ambitious, career girl with no end to her talents in PR.
Verity: Stressy and uptight, she is a teacher at the same school as Zoe's husband Ned.

I very much enjoyed this look at how a group of sisters can be so different from one another yet still have the same values underneath their individual veneer.  The ugly question of what happens when more than one sister takes a shine to the same guy is the main focus of the book with Verity's crush, colleague Ned, taking centre stage in more than one of the ladies' lives.  How they each deal with the situation - or the assumptions they have made about the situation - throws up some great comedy moments along the way to Zoe's impromptu wedding ceremony. Unfortunately for her, only a few weeks after the wedding Zoe finds herself sitting on the floor of her flat asking her sisters who slept with her husband.

The book flips between the various sisters' points of view and time frames, which could have been confusing but somehow works beautifully. The story shows just how easily lack of communication between the sisters has led to misunderstandings of how the sisters see one another, and how by taking the time to sit and really talk between themselves they can be so much more supportive as a family. Don't think that this is a preachy self-help book though, it's far from that. More of an easy to read, fun look at a dysfunctional family which many will be able to relate to.

The one character who I really wanted to throttle - I thought it was going to be Ned, but surprisingly he came a very close second - was the girls' mother. Totally self-absorbed I found her annoying virtually every time she featured in the book. On the flip side I loved Yvie's work colleague and good friend Kay who is a proper giggle of a character, who I was rooting for a happy ending for.
You'll have to read the book to find out how that works out for her and the Danton girls.

About the Author:

Shari Low is the No1 best-selling author of over 20 novels, including One Day In Winter, A Life Without You, The Story Of Our Life, With Or Without You, Another Day In Winter, This Is Me and her latest release, The Last Day of Winter.
And because she likes to over-share toe-curling moments and hapless disasters, she is also the shameless mother behind a collection of parenthood memories called Because Mummy Said So.
Once upon a time she met a guy, got engaged after a week, and twenty-something years later she lives near Glasgow with her husband, a labradoodle, and two teenagers who think she's fairly embarrassing except when they need a lift.
For all the latest news, visit her on Facebook, twitter @sharilow, or at www.sharilow.com