Randomly downloaded from the local library to test out reading on my iPad.

The initial premise was interesting but somewhat unimaginable to happen in real life. Halfway through it started to become predictable and too well packaged, everything was tied in a nice bow by the end like a bad romantic comedy. ( )

The Replacement Wife by Eileen Goudge is a breathtaking story that is full of emotion and richly drawn characters that will capture your heart. To read my review in its entirety, please visit http://www.bookreviewsandmorebykathy.com/2012/03/27/the-replacement-wife/ ( )

Review: The Replacement Wife by Eileen Goudge.

The story subject seemed interesting but as I read I felt no emotions, not even sadness. However, I kept reading because of the subject matter and with willpower I made it slowly and desperately to the end. The novel was just on the edge of being somewhat good and it made me think about what I would do if I was going to die….

The foundation of the story is that a woman found out she was dying and decided she wanted her husband and children to be taken care of after she dies. She begins her search for women that would be a platonic relationship match “at first” for her husband and also someone her children would fall in love with. It all just seemed unbelievable especially when the author created the wife’s career “a business person matching together upper class people”. She did well in her business but made a dumb miscalculation with her own marriage….

I had a hard time believing the scenes in the novel as I was reading. I don’t feel it was that well written. Maybe if the author creates a different path with the subject matter and gave it some feasible way to expand on the idea and soften the story up some, gave it believable people it may have flourished into a great read instead of being so flat and blah. I’ll give it a three rating because the idea was interesting and it tried to show the wife did it out of love. Some people may like the novel but I just couldn’t recommend it as favorable.


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I thought it was pretty good but annoying too and in the end I found it sad. I started out thinking I would like the protagonist, Camille Hart, but quickly thought she was far too self-satisfied and a good bit on the over-controlling side as well. There was a lot of miscommunication between the characers and damage that could have been avoided had they just been willing to talk to each other. The basic point of the story is that when Camille learns that her cancer has returned and has metastasized, she decides she is going to die, and she also decides that she needs to find someone to take her place for her husband and her children before she dies. But she gets to control who she chooses, and she wants him to accept her choice, but not get too involved at the same time. In short she is working from her head, and from her own unresolved issues surrounding her mothers death when she was 14 and unresolved issues with her father arising from that same event. In the end everyone gets hurt. Yes the husband behaves childishly also, but I am more inclined to forgive him because I don't see from the story that Camille every understands the way her actions felt like a complete betrayal of trust to him. In the end, she lives, they get divorced, and the husband remarries. It seems from the story he learns something about himself and about openness to relationships, and Camille seems to grow up a little but she still seems somehow to have missed something critical. Maybe I jut took the whole thing too seriously. ( )

I picked up this book because the dress on the cover caught my eye, and the title is intriguing. The premise hooked me once I read the synopsis.
Camille is a cancer survivor with a successful career as a matchmaker and 20 years of marriage under her belt. She lost her mother when she was a young girl and always felt her life would have been better had her father remarried. So when her cancer recurs, and this time it is terminal, and she realizes her husband didn’t do so well as a ‘single parent’ the first time around, she decides to put her matchmaking skills to work and find her husband his second wife and her children the ideal stepmother! This sounds like a really good idea....until you think about it. Your instinct is to feel sorry for Camille because she is dying. Because her husband, Edward, feels the same way, he reluctantly agrees to go along with her scheme. It turns out, Camille is a bit of a control freak. She wants her husband to bond to the woman SHE picks out, but ONLY the woman she picks out, and not to get TOO intimate....she’s not dead yet! It is not a terrible story; it was actually interesting. But as I read it, I kept thinking, this is a situation where there can be no happily ever after for everyone....someone has to be the loser! Although the story is somewhat predictable, you are never quite sure which way it is going to go until the end. This would be a great ‘summer read’ even though it is not at the top of my list of books I recommend.

My Rating: ★★★ 3 Stars

Why did you choose this book? Look at the cover!
When did you read this book? May 2012
Who should read this book? anyone looking for a quick, entertaining read with a ‘not happily-ever-after’ ending
Source: library ( )