An Ideal Wife: A Novel [Paperback]

Gemma Townley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 22, 2010

How to ruin a perfectly good marriage: become an Ideal Wife!
 
Married to the man she loves—sweet, sexy Max—Jessica Wild-Wainwright is blissfully happy . . . except for one tiny little problem: She never confessed to an (almost) tryst with Max’s biggest rival right before their wedding. Eaten up with guilt and facing down threats of exposure, Jessica decides to give Max what he clearly still lacks: the Ideal Wife. With the help of her friends, she will become perfect in every way: doting, devoted, domestic—everything Max deserves.

However, the path to perfection is fraught with peril, from culinary chaos to a boudoir disaster that puts Max in the hospital with a broken leg and a sexy nurse (who is certainly Ideal in every way that Jessica is not). When Jessica rallies to run Max’s company—and is met with overt hostility by an obsessive co-worker and by an auditor determined to uncover everyone’s secrets, things become decidedly less than Ideal. Toss in a semiretired Russian stripper turned stay-at-home mom and strange men watching her apartment, and Jessica fears Project Ideal Wife has backfired miserably. Can a less than perfect wife save the day?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Townley's latest novel based on an Oscar Wilde play (The Importance of Being Married) is her most plausible and engaging yet. Series heroine Jessica Wild has a cool £4 million in the bank, but she and husband, Max Wainwright, still work hard running his ad agency. Tough times have hit, and Max is in desperate need of a big new account, specifically that of Chester Rydall, Jessica's would-be stepfather, who happens to run a very large bank. When Chester decides to run an ethics audit of his employees as a PR stunt, Max subjects his company to the same Ideal Company ploy. Meanwhile, Jess toils at becoming the ideal wife, to generally unpleasant results, such as landing Max in the hospital with a broken leg and a flirty nurse. A blitz of subplots and a colorful assortment of supporting characters help push things along. Even if this suffers from the same sorts of overblown misunderstandings and coincidences that are as much a staple of the genre as designer clothes, it's still a delight, and Jess has finally achieved lovable heroine status. (July)
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From Booklist

Jessica Wild and her husband, Max, are back in the third installment in Townley’s Wild trilogy. As the story begins, Jessica and Max have been happily married for a year. During a discussion at dinner with his in-laws, Max makes an offhand comment about Jessica being the perfect wife, and Jessica begins to wonder if she really is or if Max is just being polite. Jessica decides to embark on Project Perfect Wife, a vigorous course of self-improvement, involving everything from learning to cook to being generous with her time, to help her become the ideal wife that Max thinks she is. But with her old nemesis skulking around, waiting for her to slip up, Jessica finds it harder than ever to be perfect, which forces her to consider that perhaps less-than-perfect is actually ideal. Jessica Wild’s fans will be happy to see her return in Townley’s sweet and cheery novel. --Hilary Hatton

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (June 22, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345499840
• ISBN-13: 978-0345499844
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #836,034 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

GEMMA TOWNLEY is also the author of Little White Lies. She launched her writing career at the age of sixteen with a book review in Harpers & Queen. While at Reading University, Gemma, a singer, cellist, and bassist, found time to record two albums with her band, Blueboy, with which she toured the U.K., France, and Japan. After graduating, she worked on and contributed to a number of magazines, including Homes and Ideas, Pay Magazine, Expat Investor, and Company. She also wrote about music for style magazines including G-Spot and Second Generation. She later became an editor at Financial Management magazine.Gemma is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and is studying for an MBA at Henley Management College. She lives in West London with her husband, Mark..

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Very fair, July 1, 2010

By 

Tina "Tina" (Montreal, Quebec) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: An Ideal Wife: A Novel (Paperback)

Okay, I have read ALL of Gemma Townley's books and I have to say that I think it is way time to retire this particular series, not to mention the main character.

My love for these characters and this series, started wearing thin in the last installment but, I remained optimistic that somehow, Townley would redeem the storyline.

If it is at all possible, An Ideal Wife is an even more annoying and frustrating read than the previous one.

The entire novel is about our main characters fear of somehow, not measuring up to some weird standard (it is never made clear exactly where this standard comes from) of what it means to be an Ideal Wife. Not only is this entire premise sexist and silly, it made for incredibly boring reading.

Every other sentence, spoken by Jess, is about how incompetent she is and how her husband will, no doubt leave her, because she can't cook. What follows is an entire storyline about various so called "hilarious" experiences where Jess desperately tries to cook or do some other "ideal wife" thing - just to show her husband how much she loves him.

The entire cast of characters seem to hover around her - somehow never connecting to just how stupid and silly she is, all the while "real" life problems abound, which, of course, Jess is completely clueless about.

I love chick lit and I am willing to suspend my disbelief - up to a point, but this one offended me on so many levels and on top of that IT WAS downright boring.

4.0 out of 5 stars humorous yet earnest nod to Oscar Wilde, June 26, 2010

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: An Ideal Wife: A Novel (Paperback)

Jessica Wild and husband Max Wainwright diligently work at keeping his ad agency afloat during the hard economic times that have reduced corporate customers and revenue. Max fears his firm will soon file for bankruptcy unless a huge account surfaces. He targets the boyfriend of Jessica's mom, banker Chester Rydall, as his best chance for a new client. Chester also seeks new customers so making a case that some bankers are ethical, he conducts an ethics audit of his staff; Max hoping to gain favor with Chester does likewise with his firm.

After being caught in an undesirable kiss when drunk, Jess decides to become An Ideal Wife to her Max so if he learns of her indiscretion from the blackguard trying to blackmail her, he will forgive her and stay. She does everything perfectly as the ideal wife, but nothing works in accordance to the plan. Instead Max is hospitalized with a broken leg due to one of her spousal loving efforts and worse he has an ideal nurse for a hunk like him. Sending Jess even wilder is a former opponent plans to use a secret she discovered to steal her Max.

With another humorous yet earnest nod to Oscar Wilde (see The Importance of Being Married), the third Wild Affair is another zany jocular tale that is fun to read. A madcap comedic series of misunderstandings lead Jess to go over the top of Big Ben in order to keep Max with her. Although the plot is thin and ideal is not what one would describe Jess as, fans will enjoy her latest wildly insane exploits.

Harriet Klausner