The Other Woman by Sandie Jones

The Other Woman by Sandie Jones

Sandie Jones debut novel, The Other Woman, became a New York Times Bestseller and was chosen as the Reese's Book Club pick for November 2018. Since then, she has gone on to release several other psychological thrillers that take who looks like a regular person and turns them into a villain. In The Other Woman, we see quite a bit of bullying, body shaming, and fatphobia, cancer, death, physical abuse, emotional abuse, infidelity, misogyny, terminal illness, toxic relationships, violence, murder, pregnancy, and several drunken nights.

Emily is just finishing a long day at a work conference where it seems like the only thing interesting her colleagues is her cleavage, so when she gets to the bar she's not really interested in Adam, all she wants is a drink. But he's persistent and they end up going on a date several weeks later and Emily is completely sold. He's funny, really good looking, charming, and their chemistry is off the charts. They haven't been together long but Emily thinks this might be the real thing. Until she meets his mother, Pammie, who is quite a nefarious character. She's a passive-aggressive (sometimes just aggressive), two-faced, duplicitous, very clingy mom who needs to cut the cord, and somehow no one can see it but Emily. But Emily is in love with Adam and she's not about to give up easy, until she finds out something about Adam's previous serious girlfriend that really scares her and makes her think that her life might be at stake.

Okay, first of all, this book keeps saying that Adam is perfect. But I've got news for you: any man who says "I won't hear a bad word about her" (meaning his mother) before you even meet her is not perfect. This book was interesting and it kept me guessing. Was Pammie really as bad as Emily was making her out to be? Was Pammie too attached to her son, was Emily just jealous, or both? How much of this was on purpose and how much was misunderstanding? I kept flipping back and forth on what I thought was really happening. But if Emily was my friend, I would have told her to run after 2 months because the red flags were waving, and it was incredibly frustrating at times to see Emily hold on to a relationship sometimes more out of spite than actually wanting to be there.

I'm giving The Other Woman 3.75 stars out of 5. It kept me interested and I enjoyed discussing it, but I found myself scoffing a lot at the actions of the characters. Plus what grown woman asks strangers to call her Pammie?

For more from Sandie Jones, see her website at https://sandiejones.com/

Pairs well with a salad with balsamic vinaigrette dressing and recognizing red flags when someone throws them in your face.