The Secret Lives of Fortunate Wives [Hardcover]

Sarah Strohmeyer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 22, 2005

From the creator of the inimitable, zany sleuth Bubbles Yablonsky comes a witty, wild, and shocking tale about love suburban style. 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.

Praise for Strohmeyer’s Bubbles series:
“Meet Bubbles Yablonsky, beautician-reporter-sleuth and blazing star of Strohmeyer’s entertaining, establishment-bashing debut.”
—Publishers Weekly

“[Bubbles] is a born reporter, an intuitive student of human behavior who has refined her natural skills in the crucible of gossip.”
—The Boston Globe

Editorial Reviews

From 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.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Perfectly timed to ride the wave of Desperate Housewives-mania comes a sharply sardonic tale of suburban sex-capades, social snobbery, and stock swindles from the author of the effervescent Bubbles mystery series. In the tony Cleveland suburb of Hunting Hills, where absurdly wealthy executives ensconce their couturier-clad wives in opulent McMansions and supply them with platinum AmEx cards, there are rules for wifely behavior that have nothing on the Ten Commandments. Trophy wives happily commit adultery and covet their neighbors with style and aplomb. As queen of this realm of riches, Marti Denton reigns supreme. Only one thing eludes her--the oh-so-sexy John Harding--and Marti isn't about to let a little thing like John's recent marriage to the mousy Claire or her own rocky marital state stand in the way. The mordantly observant Strohmeyer skewers the lifestyles of the rich and fatuous with spot-on irony, painting her pretentious socialites with broad, sarcastic strokes in an uproarious, upscale, tongue-in-cheek tour de force. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 14 and up
  
• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Adult; First Edition edition (September 22, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525949097
• ISBN-13: 978-0525949091
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,623,839 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

When I stumbled into this business back in 1997 as a harried mother spoofing Barbie in BARBIE UNBOUND: A PARODY OF THE BARBIE OBSESSION, I had no idea that what started out as a lark would evolve into a career writing twelve novels published in multiple languages - from Thai to German - and even a Lifetime Original Movie: Lying to Be Perfect. Some have been bestsellers. A few have won awards, mostly, I think, by accident.

Now, with the publication of KINDRED SPIRITS, from Dutton, on June 30th, I've taken my writing down a different path, exploring women's friendship, what bonds us, what makes us do incredibly stupid things for one another and how a few martinis along the way can make it all worthwhile. (And, possibly, explain the stupid things per above.)

In KINDRED SPIRITS, I hope you'll not only make friends with Beth, Carol, Mary Kay and Lynne, but also get down to some serious martini making. Ginger, Lemon, Blue, Cosmopolitan - KINDRED SPIRITS has a bunch of recipes.
Here's one for a killer CHOCOLATE RASPBERRY MARTINI.

First, dip the rim of your martini glass in melted bittersweet chocolate and freeze.
Meanwhile, at the bottom of a martini shaker muddle a few fresh raspberries. Add raspberry vodka and Godiva chocolate liqueur plus a splash of Chambord. Shake vigorously with ice. Pour into chocolate- dipped glasses and garnish with fresh raspberries.

Hey. I really want to keep you entertained. But I never said anything about keeping you thin! :)

To learn more about me and my books, please visit http://www.sarahstrohmeyer.com or visit me on FB where I write stupid stuff almost hourly.

Sarah (and her trusty writing partner seen here, Fred)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pleasant Surprise!, June 15, 2006

By 

Mercedes L. Johnmeyer "The Most Happy" (Summerville, SC) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Secret Lives of Fortunate Wives (Hardcover)

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

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable read, February 10, 2006

By 

Sennie "CK" (New York, New York United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Secret Lives of Fortunate Wives (Hardcover)

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.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars BRAVA!, September 30, 2005

By 

Detra Fitch (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Secret Lives of Fortunate Wives (Hardcover)

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.