The Pretend Wife [Hardcover]

Bridget Asher (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 9, 2009

What would life be like with the one who got away? From the author of My Husband’s Sweethearts—hailed as “a laugh-and-cry novel”* that’s “whip-smart, tender…an undiluted joy to read”**—comes this bighearted, funny, fiercely perceptive tale about a happily married woman and the little white lie that changed everything.…

For Gwen Merchant, love has always been doled out in little packets—from her father, a marine biologist who buried himself in work after her mother’s death; and from her husband, Peter, who’s always been respectable and safe. But when an old college boyfriend, the irrepressible Elliot Hull, invites himself back into Gwen’s life, she starts to remember a time when love was an ocean.

What does Elliot want? In fact, he has a rather surprising proposition: he wants Gwen to become his wife. His pretend wife. Just for a few days. To accompany him to his family’s lake house for the weekend so that he can fulfill his dying mother’s last wish. Reluctantly Gwen agrees to play along—with her husband Peter’s full support. It’s just one weekend—what harm could come of it?

But as Gwen is drawn into Elliot’s quirky, wonderful family—his astonishingly wise and open mother, his warm and welcoming sister, and his adorable, precocious niece—she starts questioning everything she’s ever expected from love. And as she begins to uncover a few secrets about her own family, it suddenly looks like a pretend relationship just might turn out to be the most real thing she’s ever known.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With still more to say about marriage, fidelity and the importance of being wittily earnest, Asher (My Husband's Sweethearts)—Julianna Baggott's adult fiction pseudonym—brings an abundance of warmth and wisdom to this tale of lost-and-found love. Married woman Gwen Merchant agrees to pretend to be the newlywed of former beau Elliott Hull to appease his dying mom. Gwen, smothering in a marriage to Peter, jumps at the chance for a redo at an abruptly ended college romance, and it's a slippery slope that Gwen slides down with passion and verve, falling in love with Elliott and becoming attached to his sister and her precocious kids and the imperious and uncannily perceptive matriarch, Vivian. But while weaving one faux relationship, Gwen unthreads the very real sadness in her own tattered family, including a widowed dad and a marriage that hides more than it confides. It's more than a little disappointing, if not surprising, that Asher inserts an improbably happy ending to push the sweet and funny Gwen into a trite epiphany. (June)
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Review

“Asher ... brings an abundance of warmth and wisdom to this tale of lost-and-found love.”—Publishers Weekly

"Bridget Asher writes with intelligence, humor, and real humanity about the issues of contemporary life."—Lisa Tucker, bestselling author of Once Upon a Day and The Cure for Modern Life

"The Pretend Wife is a sexy rumination about love and loss, truth and lies, marriage and friendship, with a daring, propulsive plot. I loved Gwen Merchant and her passel of hilarious and heartbreaking friends. And the dilemma: what to do when The One Who Got Away comes back, after you married The One, is handled with a deft mixture comedy and complexity. I ate it up."—Lisa Gabriele, author of The Almost Archer Sisters and Tempting Faith DiNapoli

“Gwen is happily married until her dreamy ex asks if she’ll act as his wife—just for the weekend, to please his dying mom. A cut above chick-lit.”—People, summer reading round-up

“Succeeds with the aid of humor, insight and an appealing heroine. If this one has not yet been optioned for film, it soon will be.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Balances the lighter side of life with the sadder realities. Surprising, poignant moments pave the way for a…satisfyingly happy ending.”—Booklist

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (June 9, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385341911
• ISBN-13: 978-0385341912
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1 x 7.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #817,536 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars superb profound look at relationships, June 11, 2009

By 

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

This review is from: The Pretend Wife (Hardcover)

Although she is married to kindhearted Peter, Gwen Merchant agrees to help out her former college boyfriend Elliott Hull; his mother Vivian is dying and wants to meet his fiancée before she passes away. Gwen hides from Elliot that she looks forward to escaping the loving smothering of her spouse of three years who brings his profession into their marital relationship: anesthesiologist.

However, Gwen never expected her weekend masquerade would lead her to falling in love with Elliott and liking his family; especially his sister and her children. She also notices how Vivian scrutinizes and probably knows her relationship with Elliot is a sham even as she wonders if her late mom who drowned when Gwen was five would do likewise.

Until the unacceptable climax (at least to me), THE PRETEND WIFE is a superb profound look at relationships; not just that of Gwen with her spouse, her sham spouse, her widower dad and others, but also Elliot with his mom and sister.. The story line is character driven filled with pathos and humor while exploring human needs for companionship. Gwen makes the tale work with her energy and enthusiasm as the weekend provides her insightful revelations about life's shortness making every relationship matter.

Harriet Klausner

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 'The Pretend Wife': A Chance to Start Over Or a Weekend Lark, June 9, 2009

By 

David Kinchen - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Pretend Wife (Hardcover)

BOOK REVIEW: 'The Pretend Wife': A Second Chance at Marital Bliss? Or Just a Weekend Lark?

By David M. Kinchen


Come on now, wives (and husbands): Wouldn't you like to imagine how life would have been different if you had married a long-lost lover instead of your present spouse?

Gwen Stevens has a chance to do just that in Bridget Asher's "The Pretend Wife" (Bantam, 288 pages, $24.00), when she meets her college boyfriend Elliot Hull while both are waiting to be served at a crowded ice cream shop.

Gwen is happy in her marriage to anesthesiologist Peter Stevens, at least she thinks so. They've been together for five years, married for three and living the proverbial comfortable yuppie life in a condo in an upscale part of Baltimore, MD.

She's shocked out of her complacency when Elliot, her boyfriend when they were attending Loyola College -- the one in Baltimore -- says "I'll have two scoops of Gwen Merchant, please" at the ice cream parlor.

Elliot hadn't changed much from their years-ago college days. Elliot is the kind of guy who ages well, with his lean body, a full head of hair and a casual look with his Red Sox baseball cap, unshaven face and too baggy shorts.

Peter is at the shop with a fellow doctor and the doctor's kids and introductions are made. Elliot is invited to Gwen's and Peter's condo where he makes an off-the-wall proposition. He wants Gwen to come to his family's lake house and for a weekend pretend to be Elliot's wife for his dying mother Vivian. Elliot's sister Jennifer and her two children will be there to chaperone the "pretend" couple. To Gwen's surprise, Peter Stevens is comfortable with the idea and so begins a magical chapter in her life.

Sounds like "chick lit," doesn't it? Yes, and no. The dust jacket design screams "Romance Novel", but this is a book male readers might find eye opening. After all, men are subject to second-guessing as much as women about relationships and what might have been.

Gwen is a survivor (aren't we all?) : When she was five years old she survived an accident when her mother's car went into a river. Her mother died and she was raised by her work-obsessed marine biologist father, with help from their next-door neighbors, Dr. and Mrs. Benny Fogelman, her dad's dentist and his warm-hearted wife.

Since this is the kind of book that contains spoilers -- boy is it! -- I won't describe what happens. Read "The Pretend Wife" and see if it doesn't bring back memories of past relationships. The novel kept me reading to the end because the characters were people I wanted to find out more about. Some of them were likeable, others not so much, but all were interesting, reminding me of people I've known.

"The Pretend Wife" would be a good choice for a book group, preferably one that contains both men and women.

[...]

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointment after My Husband's Sweethearts, July 29, 2009

By 

pampagirl (Dallas TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Pretend Wife (Hardcover)

I just loved the quirkiness of My Husband's Sweethearts and looked forward to reading Bridget Asher's 2nd book. I was so glad after I finished it last night that I'd gotten it at the library and didn't spend money for it--what a disappointment! The premise was interesting: what would you do if an old love showed up in your married life? Passion or safety? The unknown or the familiar?

But this book plods along in a fairly predictable way. Asher does a good job of not tipping her hand about Gwen's final choice until near the end. But the ending seemed rushed, and I really got the feeling that Asher's editor and Asher had a conversation about (spoiler alert) throwing in an affair of husband Peter's to justify Gwen's choice. It seemed tacked on (and tacky). And considering the turmoil caused by Gwen's struggles with her mother's death, I just thought the ending of the book was too much for me to stomach.

I felt the need to add my negative opinion to the other glowing reviews of this book. If you want a recommendation for a better book with the same general theme as Pretend Wife, try Love the One You're With by Emily Giffin.