The Secret Lives of Fortunate Wives by Sarah Strohmeyer

From the Publisher

News bulletin: Gone is HBO's Sex and the City. Sex has moved to the suburbs. Here is where you'll find ABC's #1 TV show Desperate Housewives. Here too is The Secret Lives of Fortunate Wives, a hilarious but poignant and spot-on novel about love and betrayal inside the world of the gated community.

Pampered Hunting Hills, Ohio, socialite Marti Denton never realized she was madly in love with John Harding until he impulsively married Claire Stark, a beautiful but socially awkward newspaper reporter to whom a "coming-out" party is a controversy, not a tradition. It's not until the Hunting Hills wives are plunged into a series of explosive scandals that the two women reach a new understanding of each other and what it means to be a fortunate wife in the twenty-first century. In The Secret Lives of Fortunate Wives, Sarah Strohmeyer has written a Stepford Wives for our time--funny, wise, and eye-opening.

Publishers Weekly

Strohmeyer (Bubbles Unbound) delivers a tart-tongued if predictable tale of sex outside the city. Newlywed and former reporter Claire Stark may have once braved battle-ravaged Bosnia, but nothing could prepare her for warfare among the wealthy in Hunting Hills, Ohio, where she and her bookish stockbroker husband, John Harding, move after their whirlwind romance. The ravishing but socially awkward redhead from West Virginia must learn to navigate a landscape populated by 21st-century Stepford wives who think nothing of slipping between the sheets with the husbands of their best friends. Claire thinks she's found an ally in Marti Denton, who's willing to show her the ropes (Hunting Hills wives have rules to live by, after all, including "Remember that the more you buy, the more your husband values you!"). But Marti, whose marriage is on the rocks, has an agenda of her own. Betrayal, indiscretions and white-collar crime suffuse this sly offering from Agatha Award-winner Strohmeyer, who renders a wry cast of characters, from silicone-pumped, amphetamine-addicted social climber Lisa to Joriko, a half-Japanese, half-Swedish personal trainer with curious healing gifts. This is wicked, frothy fun, even if the ending is a bit over-the-top. Life may be steamy in the metropolis, but it's just as bawdy in the burbs. Agent, Heather Schroder. (Oct.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Agatha Award winner Strohmeyer, author of the mystery series starring the eponymous Bubbles Yablonsky, takes a different tack but loses none of the thrills. Hunting Hills, OH, the gated Cleveland suburb for the socialite country club set, is simply abuzz with the news that their most respected divorced bachelor, John Harding, has married a common West Virginia career woman, journalist Claire Stark. Intelligent and down-to-earth, Claire naturally has trouble fitting in with the wealthy wives of Hunting Hills, who conduct their lives according to a trivial set of rules. The loss of John Harding to such a gal does not sit well in particular with the gorgeous Marti Denton, who, neglected by her philandering husband, sets her sights on dismantling the new marriage. Much of the novel's humor centers on the disparate world views and priorities held by Claire and the tanned, buffed, predatory clique members who feel socially required to at least appear to befriend her. Chock-full of trysts, insidious plots, and investment scandals, the novel moves rapidly toward some inevitable and satisfying comeuppances. An enjoyable read; recommended for all large fiction collections.-Sheila Riley, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, DC Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Frothy tale of love, lust and lies in Hunting Hills, Ohio, an upscale suburban enclave where the Wives have Rules. Tall redhead Claire Stark, investigative reporter extraordinaire, has given up the nomadic life of hard-hitting journalism to move to a suburb of Cleveland and become a she-bot. Well, that is not exactly the primary goal, just a side effect of her new husband's hometown, where the women spend their days working out, starving, gossiping, plotting affairs and, of course, shopping. Claire and her handsome hubby knew each other for only 28 days before impulsively getting hitched in Prague, so sexy socialite Marti Denton thinks she may still have a chance with him. After all, his bride is an awkward Amazon from West Virginia. As Marti calculates her next adulterous move, her stockbroker husband continues dipping a little too often into both his Viagra bottle and his clients' bank accounts. Meanwhile, another of Claire's new girlfriends becomes the victim of gay-bashing after making out with her husband's secretary in a park. Soon, Claire is sucked into a blackmail scheme. So many scandals, so little time! Claire must revert to her old gumshoe ways if she is ever going to figure out what desperate secrets drive the Hunting Hills set. Light and soapy-what else can be expected from the author of Bubbles Betrothed, Bubbles A Broad, Bubbles Ablaze, Bubbles in Trouble and Bubbles Unbound?

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