Customer Reviews

The Secret Lives of Fortunate Wives (Center Point Platinum Fiction (Large Print))

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I'm not a big fan of chick-lit...but the cover caught my eye, and I do need a change every now and then. This turned out to be a really good book. One that was VERY hard to put down. I stayed up till almost 2am a couple nights telling myself 'Just one more chapter'.

This story centers around Marti Denton and her friends, who are filthy rich suburban housewives in the exclusive community of Hunting Hills, Ohio. Money is no object to them, and they even have their own set of 'Hunting Hills Rules of Behavior for Wives'. John Harding is the resident bachelor, until he returns home from a trip to Prague married to a small town West Virginia girl (Claire) who he met while there.

From there it's just pages (some quite funny) of Marti scheming with her friends to get Claire out of the picture so Marti can have John all to herself (she's just discovered she's madly in love with him, and not her husband), while pretending to be Claire's friend so they can find out all the juicy little details of the couple's personal life. But then an unexpected turn of events changes Marti's entire world, and it turns out Claire is the only one who can help her. Will she? And what will happen to all of them in the end?

I was very pleased with the ending of this book, and even a little bummed to be finished with it. Even though they're shallow, conceited, and extremely snobbish, this group was a lot of fun to read about. I definitely recommend this if your looking for a little fluff in between books. And I absolutely look forward to reading more from Ms. Strohmeyer

These wives are not just your run of the mill, brainless, trophy wives. They see their position and lives realistically - that they can be replaced at any time and that husbands will probably cheat because they are successful enough to get away with it. I liked this book because even though the characters were shallow, materialistic and just downright conniving, they were also survivors and smart and most of all, realistic.

It is silly during some parts but all in all, pretty enjoyable befored bed read.

In Ohio there is a special bedroom community called Hunting Hills. Only the wealthy can afford to live there. The women have even created ten rules for any wife/socialite living within. According to those rules, wives enjoy spending money without a thought. For example, the apple vinegar at their store is eight dollars. It does not matter that the stores outside Hunting Hills only charge sixty cents. The wives of Hunting Hills would never be caught slumming in those stores.

Marti Denton is the wife of Jim Denton, the best stockbroker around. She never realized she was madly in love with John Harding until he came home from Prague with a new wife, Claire. Suddenly Marti believes their past love affair means that they are soul mates and Marti plans to steal John away.

Claire Stark is a beautiful newspaper reporter who met John while trying to get an exclusive interview from him. They wed within a month. Claire gives up her career for John and is determined to be an excellent wife. But John down played what his home town was like. She is not prepared for life as a socialite. Claire is socially awkward, to say the least. So it is a relief when Marti buddies up to her. Marti shows Claire the ropes and gives her the DOs and DON'Ts advice. It is not until later that Claire wonders why Marti wants to know so much about John.

All the wives in Hunting Hills look to be skinny, happy, and care free. But looks can be deceiving. Each wife has secrets and scandals are abundant. When things begin to hit the fan, Marti and Claire learn what it means to really be fortunate wives!

**** You will never travel through the upper crust suburbs again without wondering what type of drama is happening silently within it. After reading this novel, I went out of my way to drive through such an area and wonder which wife was sleeping with which friends' husband.

Author Sarah Strohmeyer has created a juicy bit of scandalizing gossip in the tradition of "The Stepford Wives". BRAVA! ****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

I am from Moreland Hills Ohio which is where the story is based on. The town over is Hunting Valley, the other half of the made up Hunting Hills. I am a college student and happened to be drawn to the book by the cover, only then did I realize it is about my hometown. all i can say is this book is soo true as to what happens back home. I even went to the school that Holly was based on and I wore a green skirt as I played field hockey. this book is amazing and i dont even read that often but I could not even put it down.

The Secret Lives of Fortunate Wives combines the classic "fish out of water" element with a touch of the Stepford Wives. John Harding, the most eligable bachelor in Hunting Hills comes home with a surprise. A new wife. Not only is she a surprise, she is not from Hunting Hills and not part of the rarified world inhabited by Lisa, Marti, Karen and John's ex-wife, Boots. Claire also is a working journalist and has a life outside of clothes, decorating, life coaches and the occasional affair (usually with the husband of one of their "dearest" friends). There are definite rules about how a Hunting Hills wife behaves, and it looks as though Claire isn't about to buy into the Hunting Hills ideal. But, she seems to embrace the silliness and even though glimmers of the character we hope Claire would be, she verges on becomming just another silly wife, just not as offensive. The evolution of Marti, is so quick and so back and forth it is hard to buy. Karen, undergoes a real tragedy and then returns to the unbearable homelife she sought to flee. It is a mishmash. The most disappointing element of this book is the quickness with which Claire seems to embrace Hunting Hiills' warped sensabilities. John is rarely in the picture and the plotline involving Marti's husband is just too hard to swallow. It was a fun read, but not what I had hoped it could be.

Claire, an international Journalist who has spent time in Refugee camps and traveling the world finds herself in a short span of time married to a wealthy man who lives in Hunting Hills near Cleveland, Ohio. Hunting Hills in a subdivision for the wealthy and elite complete with speed dial personal shoppers, personal trainers and every other kind of outlandish indulgence.

Marti, is a rich bored housewife full of collogen and botox in a never ending effort to look and be perfect. Marti, along with a whole passel of bored housewives look at Claire and are amazed that Hunting Hills most eligible bachelor has chosen an amazon woman who has no clue what it means to be rich and perfect. This is also the time that Marti's husband seems to be "disappearing" from her life in bits and pieces so she does what every rich, bored woman does...she chooses to go after another woman's husband. In this case, Claire's husband John.

Through a series of dramas and escapades, the perfect facade is ripped off and what you see are the real, flawed people who are just as messed up and face much the same problems as the rest of the world. This is an entertaining and fun book that finds that all are not perfect and often things are not exactly what they seem to be.

A really interesting side benefit is that characters you decide early in the book that are completely unlikeable, you find redemption in them later in the book. What appears to be a person of no substance is actually a person of substance with a different manifestation of their personality and priorities.

This book is a bit of a departure from my normal reading in that it is not a true "murder mystery" or a book of strange escapades, while chasing a murder mystery, in that there are no dead people and all that goes with it. It is a wildly entertaining story, that keeps you interested and amused from beginning to end. You find yourself loving Claire from the beginning, and still loving her at the end even as she evolves into having a select few of the Hunting Hills traits.

"The Top Ten Rules for Hunting Hills Wives" is a true tongue in cheek rendition of how to live in Hunting Hills. They are true to awknowledge the rules even as they break them, as is the polite thing to do.

I loved this book and look forward to more of the same. I may have found a new sort of "Chick Lit" to entertain me...one without dead bodies.

Couldn't put this book down. A fun read with great twists and turns. Makes those tv housewives look tame. Strohmeyer has an easy way with words and a sense of humor that really shows.
And the characters come across as real. Strohmeyer writes as if the story happened this past weekend.

I got an advance copy of this book and was pleasantly surprised as to how good it was. and i am a tough critic. i'm always looking for light, funny chick lit and i can never find any good ones. i usually buy a book on a clever premise and put it down after 20 pages. but this one kept my attention. and i loved that the main character, claire, who moves into this stepford-esque neighborhood called hunting hills was a strong heroine with a feminist edge. she didn't seem too saintly or too self-deprecating like many chick-lit heroines. she seemed real. the ending seems a bit clumsy but...

this would be a great vacation book!

I can see why people compare this book to the TV series: both feature exclusive communities populated by fashion-obsessed and sex-full women. But being a writer myself, I know this is no case of copycatting. It takes the typical book 12-18 months to achieve publication...after it's been written, delivered, and accepted. Doing the math, this would indicate that, just as I've always thought, anytime a writer thinks she has an original idea, there's someone else somewhere in the world coming up with the same thought. And yet, here is the thing: I gave up on DH halfway throuugh the current season but I never gave up on Ms. Strohmeyer's book, not for a second. Sure, this is pure escapist fun, but with everything that's wrong with the world, isn't that what most of us need from time to time?

Two thumbs, loaded with bling-bling, way up.

This is my first Sarah Strohmeyer book, I haven't read her Bubble Series and this is simply because I am not fond of Series they sort of get monotemathic for me but this book was a pleasant surprise.
This book reminds me of the Stepford Wives and its just so funny yet sad; these women live lives of vanity and lies, they fast for days at a time and live on diets, they shop till they drop without letting their hubbies worry them one bit. They have a set of "rules" they live by and its funny to find Claire Stark (ethical ex journalist and redhead newlywed to John Harding - aka millionaire and bachelor of the Hunting Hills Society) living among these Hunting Hills wives, all perfect, subued with narcotics or their drug of preference, and tanned skinny size 2's and God forbid they put and ounze on their slender hips, they are cool fashionistas dressed to the nines who cheat on their husbands and lie shamelessly and live for appearances period.
The book is wickedly funny and sharp, these girls are so calculating and vengeful, and yet they find a friend in Claire and Claire finds that Hunting Hills is really a great place to live, a nice place where you were known and where her love had blossomed and her family had set roots. Good entertainment, go for it.