The Younger Wife Novel

The Younger Wife Novel
The Younger Wife Book Cover

The Younger Wife Novel

The Younger Wife Novel

 

The Younger Wife Novel is an engrossing, faced-paced story. The story is interesting as it deals with some serious issues centered around family.

 

Anyone who is familiar with me as a book reviewer knows that I do not review a book if I cannot give it a good rating. While I found myself engrossed in this fictional family drama story, I soon realized that was because it made me want to speak up about the subject of abuse.

 

The hitch for me is while The Younger Wife novel is a fictional contemporary family drama, it contains  elements of abuse that can, and do, occur in real life. However, what I found disturbing about this story is that the victims of the abuse did not seem to understand if they were abused or not. And, I am excluding the character who was raped. The rape occurs early on in the story, so I don’t consider this a spoiler.

 

The Younger Wife Novel
The Younger Wife Novel

 

I must say that I did not appreciate how other forms of abuse were not dealt with in a sensible manner. Rather the abuse was essentially called into question as to whether any abuse had actually occurred. Does that sound hard to believe? Yes, I think so too, especially as this is an up-to-date story taking place in the current day.

 

In order to give the author the benefit of the doubt, I can only think that maybe she did not understand questioning if the injured person was actually a victim of abuse was just wrong.  In today’s world we call that “victim blaming” which is a devaluating act that occurs when the victim(s) of a crime is held responsible – in whole or in part – for the crime(s) that have been committed against them.

 

So…I will say this here and now. If anyone reading this has been abused physically, you need to act. If possible at the time of the abuse call 911 and report what happened. Have your injuries confirmed by a doctor. And maybe most importantly, don’t let yourself believe that the abuse was a one-time thing and that it won’t happen again. The unfortunate odds are that it will happen again and that it will escalate.

 

As far as the character in this story who was raped, and therefore unquestionably abused, she did not report the rape. And to me, as well as most rational thinking persons, that is a travesty. And yet, we can all understand why that might happen. However, there was a point in the story, where one character asked the rape victim why she didn’t feel like she could tell her own father what had happened to her…she did not have a viable answer to that question. That definitely set off alarm bells for me! Was she afraid her father would blame her? Or worse yet, was he the abuser? If I were an author, I would not write a story (fictional or otherwise) which could cause someone to question whether they were abused or not. The last thing a battered/abused person needs to do is to make excuses for, and/or question whether someone is hurting him/her was actually abusing her or not. If it hurts and it’s against your will, it’s abuse.

 

I know there may be readers and/or listeners who don’t agree with my sentiments on this issue. But this is a problem rampant in present-day society. If you are wondering if I am speaking from experience…you bet I am! But, thankfully not rape. And I am taking this opportunity to tell ANYONE who believes they were abused to get help and report it abuse.

 

And this is very important, if you are being abused, you may need to find yourself a safe haven before you act. Ask someone you trust to help you. You can also search online for a domestic shelter in your area.

 

It doesn’t make me happy to criticize the message I received when reading The Younger Wife novel. If someone listening, does not agree with me on this issue, that is fine. However, that will not change my desire to put I what I believe is the right message out there. And since at the time of this post, the book has not yet been released, the author may still have time to include a clarifying message to readers. I hope that happens because it could make a world of difference. And it helps just one person, it’s worth it.

Publisher’s Description of: The Younger Wife

Stephen Aston is getting married again. The only problem is, he’s still married to his first wife, even though she is in a care facility for dementia. But he’ll take care of that easily, by divorcing her–even if his adult daughters protest.

Tully and Rachel Aston look upon Heather as nothing but an interloper. Heather is the same age as Rachel and even younger than Tully. Clearly she’s a golddigger and after their father’s money. Heather has secrets that she’s keeping close, and reasons of her own for wanting to marry Stephen.

With their mother unable to speak for herself, Tully and Rachel are determined to get to the truth about their family’s secrets, the new wife closing in, and who their father really is. But will getting to the truth unleash the most dangerous impulses…in all of them?

Publication Date: April 5,  2022

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