By:  Randy Susan Meyers

ISBN: 9781501131349

Publisher:  Atria Books

Publication Date: 4/11/2017 

Format:  Hardcover

My Rating: 5 Stars 

Randy Susan Myers returns following Accidents of Marriage (2014) with her latest riveting domestic suspense, THE WIDOW OF WALL STREET — bold and edgy an inside look at betrayal in a marriage.

The blind love, lies, dark secrets; the unraveling, devastation, and the need to rebuild a life after the fallout of Wall Street and a fraudulent husband's Ponzi scheme. Was the wife living in denial?

Phoebe and Jake met when they were teens. Jake and Phoebe come from different backgrounds. Jake is obsessed with money and success. He wants and needs a different future than his childhood. He thinks this will earn him the respect he craves.

Phoebe makes a wrong decision, leading her to guilt and loyalty to Jake. They marry, despite her overbearing mom’s warning.

He soon excels and opens a brokerage house. Things go well. However, soon greed, power, and money get in the way. He is dishonest. He thinks it is temporary. He has a private fund. A Ponzi scheme. A crime soon to be uncovered. The time bomb. Fraud.

Phoebe is blind to it all. The money is flowing – wealth, prestige, homes, and power,

Starting from Nov 2009, we learn Jake is now in prison. They have lost everything. Phoebe takes a Greyhound bus to the upstate NY correctional prison. She despises him. He still has her under his thumb, worrying about what she is wearing and appearances. He still has not acknowledged his part in the disaster.

However, Phoebe is struggling. She has taken her husband’s side over her children, causing a huge strain. Her children are strangers to her now. She must face Jake’s crime. The wife of a demon.

Her entire marriage had been a battle against being known only as Jake’s wife—now she feared the battle could be over for good. She had become a widow to a living man and a childless mother.

How did they get to this place? People wondered if she knew. Was she this naïve? She trusted this man. Her life is shattered. How many people has he fooled? A monster.

The author takes us back to the early days to the 1960s, where we hear from two points of view: Phoebe and Jake. The roller coaster ride from mansions, and wealth to prison.

When yet another tragedy occurs, Phoebe is forced to make a decision. She has to cut Jake free, even though he felt he could straddle the world on other’s people’s legs. Love and loss. Survival. He had squandered and cheated people and fooled millionaires, and lessons never learned.

Can Phoebe survive this disaster and come out whole once again? A different person perhaps?

The author does an outstanding job with the couple's journey from both perspectives. What a ride. The dark secrets of a husband and his scheming. A financial empire crumbling. The betrayal. From domestic suspense to psychological.

If you enjoyed the Madoff miniseries, (good), assured to find THE WIDOW OF WALL STREET engaging. Of course, in Palm Beach we hear his name often; however, Trump has taken over the spotlight here on the island.

Randy Susan Myers tackles highly charged topics, telling deeply personal stories of women. Their complexities, fear, pride and despair are woven brilliantly into the absorbing narrative.

Fans of Jodi Picoult, Diane Chamberlain, (A Stolen Marriage) Kimberly S. Belle (The Marriage Lie) and Liane Moriarty (Big Little Lies) will appreciate the complex relationships and the emotional inner lives of women in crisis.

Read the backstory.

A special thank you to Atria and NetGalley for an early reading copy.

JDCMustReadBooks

By Randy Susan Myers
ISBN: 9781451673043
Publisher: Atria Books
Publication Date: 09/02/14
Format: Other
My Rating: 5 Stars

A special thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for a complimentary ARC in exchange for an honest review..

Randy Susan Myers’ ACCIDENTS OF MARRIAGE, a bittersweet account of a complex marriage relationship, derailed by dishonesty, emotional abuse, and rage—A tragedy forces one dysfunctional family to reexamine their lives, face their fears, and accept responsibility for their actions, before healing can begin.

The Illica Boston family is a ticking time bomb waiting to ignite. (A broken corporation, Illica Sucks, Inc). The pressure mounts daily and has built up with fifteen years of crap. Something has to happen in order for a change to occur and release the pressure.

Maddy, a social worker, a busy wife and mother, is trying to balance her career, and three children (Emma 14, Gracie 9, Caleb 7), while taking pills in order to cope, and live with Ben, her high strung, angry, controlling, verbally and emotionally abusive narcissistic husband. Brilliant, handsome and charming, Ben could turn into a raging bull when crossed—and despite her training as a social worker Maddy is never sure what would set him off on a rampage.

A family turns into competitions for time, daily emotional battles, and aggressive behavior. As the pressures mount, and tempers flare, shattered dreams erupt for a final explosion—as it trickles down, even to the children’s behavior and reactions—an accident driven by a short fuse, forces this family to face the truths, where nothing will be the same, with devastating consequences. When recovery means more than just facing physical injuries, and a marriage becomes too broken to be repaired.

Told from three different POVs (Maddy, Ben, Emma), Myers creates a poignant, and compelling detailed account of an ordinary family, and its downward spiral—for a heartbreaking tale with well-developed, flawed and realistic characters. Filled with intensity, a deeply moving gripping story; a psychological look inside this family tragedy —with great insight into the human complexities of life, written with compassion, while laced with wit and humor, for an engaging page-turner!

This was my first book by Randy Susan Myers, and enjoyed her sharp writing style and look forward to reading her previous books! Fans of Jane Green, Amy Hatvany, Lisa Genova, Diane Chamberlain, and Liane Moriarty will enjoy this thought-provoking family drama of love unraveled, and life’s messiness.

Quotes I liked:

“The ideal man. Bears the accidents of life with. Dignity and grace. Making the best of circumstances. That’s Aristotle. I copied it. From Zelda’s office. I so wanted to be. Dignified and graceful. But now I know. How could I? I didn’t have an accident. Of life. It was. An accident of marriage.“

“We can’t be waiting for someone to hand us respect, for a man to make us feel good, as though we’re puppies waiting to have our bellies patted. Happiness comes from a whole lotta different places. A man’s love is just one piece of that huge cake. And even harder? You gotta bake that damn cake yourself.”