And she don't care when you're down: THE WIDOW.

The Widow by Kaira Rouda
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Jody Asher defines her life by her husband, Martin, a well-known congressman. She loves the status that comes with his position. Jody is throwing a wedding for their daughter and it's about to be the event of the year. But everything changes when scandal hits Martin--there's a rumor he's sleeping with a young intern and has dirty political ties to other countries. Then Martin dies and Jody truly stands to lose everything.

Ugh, I hate when I do not care for a book, but I just did not like this one! I almost DNF'd this one, but I kept hoping it would improve. And it did pick up a bit near the end, but things never truly gelled for me. THE WIDOW featured stilted writing, despicable characters, and--worst of all--nothing happened for the first half of the book! It's called THE WIDOW, but nothing happens to Martin until the halfway point (despite it appearing in the book summary and title). I just kept waiting and waiting for something exciting to happen!

Jody is billed as a psychopath character, but THE WIDOW did not take it far enough for me. If you are going to go that path, own it! The plot jumps around, trying to play spy thriller, lobbyist saga, and then tossing in their daughter and her wedding occasionally. Even better, somehow everyone went to school together! Martin, Jody, the Vice President, his wife went to college together, and then magically, Martin and their daughter's father went to high school together. Oh, the coincidences abound! It was way too much to believe.

There was a decent enough wild twist here at the end, but it couldn't redeem this story. There are boring "tips for congressional spouses" thrown in between every chapter that I eventually started to skim. Overall, I wish I had skimmed the whole thing. 2 stars.

I received a copy of this book from Thomas&Mercer and Netgalley in return for an unbiased review.

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