Author:  Melanie Gideon                                                  
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Pages:  400
Genre:  Chick Lit
Source:  BEA

Goodreads:   For fans of Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary and Allison Pearson’s I Don’t Know How She Does It comes an irresistible novel of a woman losing herself . . . and finding herself again . . . in the middle of her life.

Maybe it was those extra five pounds I’d gained. Maybe it was because I was about to turn the same age my mother was when I lost her. Maybe it was because after almost twenty years of marriage my husband and I seemed to be running out of things to say to each other.

But when the anonymous online study called “Marriage in the 21st Century” showed up in my inbox, I had no idea how profoundly it would change my life. It wasn’t long before I was assigned both a pseudonym (Wife 22) and a caseworker (Researcher 101). 

And, just like that, I found myself answering questions.

7. Sometimes I tell him he’s snoring when he’s not snoring so he’ll sleep in the guest room and I can have the bed all to myself.
61. Chet Baker on the tape player. He was cutting peppers for the salad. I looked at those hands and thought, I am going to have this man’s children.
67. To not want what you don’t have. What you can’t have. What youshouldn’t have.
32. That if we weren’t careful, it was possible to forget one another.

 Before the study, my life was an endless blur of school lunches and doctor’s appointments, family dinners, budgets, and trying to discern the fastest-moving line at the grocery store. I was Alice Buckle: spouse of William and mother to Zoe and Peter, drama teacher and Facebook chatter, downloader of memories and Googler of solutions.

But these days, I’m also Wife 22. And somehow, my anonymous correspondence with Researcher 101 has taken an unexpectedly personal turn. Soon, I’ll have to make a decision—one that will affect my family, my marriage, my whole life. But at the moment, I’m too busy answering questions. 

As it turns out, confession can be a very powerful aphrodisiac.

Ope’s Opinion:  The format of using Facebook, email and texting moved the story along.  It was a fun, easy read.  I enjoyed watching the characters develop.  They seemed like a real family.  Everyone going in different directions, having different things going on.
                             I liked that this reminded me to appreciate my husband.  It also reminded me that even when things aren’t perfect, they are still good and love is still there.
                              A nice fun read.


Rating:  Three Chairs – I like the book enough to suggest it to a friend or two.

                                    FTC – Disclosure of Material Connection: 

      I received one copy of this book free of charge from BEA. 

            I was not required to write a positive review

                 in exchange for receipt of the book;

         rather the opinions expressed in this review are my own.