Suburbia is a jungle, filled with lots of vicious creatures.
Take the Paradise Heights Women’s League board. Lyssa Harper should have warned golden-haired DILF du jour Harry Wilder what he was getting into when she invited him to meet the mommies who run their suburban, gated community. At least he brought cupcakes. Since meeting the former Master-of-the-Universe turned stay-at-home single dad, Lyssa has been his domestic Sherpa, teaching him the ins and outs of suburban life. She just didn’t realize her friends would show up at his house unannounced with casseroles, leopard-print bikini briefs, and plans to rearrange his kitchen cabinets.
The truth is, if Harry and his wife, the neighborhood’s "perfect couple," can call it quits, what does that mean for everyone else? Lyssa’s husband, Ted, is a great father, but he pays her Pilates-pumped momtourage more attention than he does his own wife. Her friends gossip about the neighbors while ignoring their own problems: infertility, infidelity, and eating disorders.
When Harry sets boundaries with his new fan club, he is exiled from the neighborhood’s in-clique. But Lyssa refuses to snub him. What she never expects is the explosive impact her ongoing friendship with Harry will have on her close-knit pals—and on her marriage.
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Just in time for summer, Brown's novel offers an enjoyable, if predictable, take on suburban California family life, complete with mommy cliques, rebel teenagers, and, of course, lots of adultery. Lyssa is a pushover mom striving for approval from her judgmental peers as well as her three active kids and overworked husband. She befriends Harry, a recently divorced half of the untouchable “perfect couple” of Paradise Heights, and in the process makes trouble for her family, but also finds some freedom from the pressures of wealthy suburbia. This is a town where kids have names like Tanner, McGuyver, and Temple; women meet daily at Starbucks to measure themselves against each other; and facials and pedicures are scheduled around school pickups. It's unfortunate that the narrator, Lyssa, is no more accessible or intelligent than any of her peers, and it's sometimes hard to root for her. However, these women inside their fishbowl are fun to peer in on despite being caricaturish, and the momentum of Brown's writing and plot keeps the pages turning. --Annie Tully
Review
"This character driven steamy book is like an affair betweenDesperate Housewivesand a Jennifer Weiner novel, where priorities get shifted, friendships get broken and marriages, like their mansions, get rearranged." --GoodHousekeeping.com
"I loved it! Josie Brown captures the highs and lows of love, lust, and marriage with heart wrenching pathos. I'm recommending it to all my friends as the perfect beach read!" —Lisa Rinna, New York Times bestselling author of Rinnavation
"I loved this juicy-as-it-is-heartfelt novel about love, marriage, friendship—and sharp, manicured claws. Could not put it down!" —Melissa Senate, author of The Secret of Joy
"Hollywood's got nothing on the cast of characters living in the bedroom community of Paradise Heights, who have the secrets, sex, money, and scandal of an OK! Magazine cover story. Josie Brown is a skilled observer whose clever dialogue and feisty style make for truly entertaining reading." —Jackie Collins
"Poignant and funny! Josie Brown’s protagonist is strong, resilient and unflinchingly honest; she has all the skills she needs to navigate the ‘mean streets’ of the gated community of Paradise Heights. A great read!" -- Wendy Wax, author of Magnolia Wednesdays
“Brown proves that a story with suburban bodies can be just as suspenseful as one with dead bodies! Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives is a probing, entertaining fishbowl of married life in a well-heeled, wayward neighborhood. Loved it!” - Stephanie Bond, author of Body Movers
"Fans of DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES will love this story..The quick pace and snappy dialogue make this a fun read."
My novels are - Totlandia/Book 2/Winter [2012, Coliloquy] - The Housewife Assassin's Killer Christmas Tips [2012, Signal Press] - Totlandia/Book 1/Fall [2012, Coliloquy] - The Housewife Assassin's Guide to Gracious Killing [2012, Signal Press] - The Housewife Assassin's Handbook [2011, Signal Press] - The Baby Planner[2011, Simon & Schuster] - Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives [2010, Simon & Schuster] - Impossibly Tongue-Tied [2006, HarperCollins] - True Hollywood Lies [2005, HarperCollins; 2010 Diversion Books] - You'll also find a Housewife Assassin story in Guns and Roses: A Murder She Writes Anthology [Murder She Writes Press, 2012]
In fact my novel, Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives (Simon & Schuster), is being adapted by producer Jerry Bruckheimer as a dramatic series for television.
Like most authors I know, I'm a voracious reader. My favorite classic authors are Edith Wharton, John le Carre, Martin Cruz Smith, Jane Austen, Graham Greene, P.D. Wodehouse, Margaret Mitchell, Glen David Gold, and Raymond Chandler.
As for contemporary authors, I think that both Martin Cruz Smith and John Le Carre are two of the best writers alive, and I love the writing styles of Helen Fielding, Jackie Collins and Allison Pearson. I think John Lescroart and MJ Rose are amazing, both as authors and author advocates.
I'm a cinephile (I see everything--chick flicks, action films, art house movies, almost every kind of foreign film) and I'm a walker and hiker--anywhere from four to eleven miles a day.
Otherwise, I'M WRITING. Or researching for my next books....meeting the wonderful people who let me know that what I write resonates with them...or hanging out in my fave bookstores (which is any bookstore in any town I happen to be in, at the time).
I've got a sweet romantic husband (who both cooks AND walks the dog, come rain, sleet or flood), and two great funny kids, a boy and a girl. Yeah, I know, I'm lucky, and I should count my blessings. (Believe me, I do!)
I'm also the author of three non-fiction books: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Finding Mr. Right [Alpha/Pearson]; Marriage Confidential: 102 Honest Answers to the Questions Every Husband Wants to Ask, and Every Wife Needs to Know [Signal Press]; and Last Night I Dreamt of Cosmopolatans: A Modern Girl's Dream Dictionary [St. Martin's Press]
As a journalist, my celebrity interviews and relationships trends articles have been featured in Los Angeles Times Syndicate International, Redbook and Complete Woman magazines, as well as AOL, Yahoo, AskMen.com, Divorce360.com, and SingleMindedWomen.com
You can connect with me here, or on:
- Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/JosieBrownAuthor - Twitter: http://twitter.com/JosieBrownCA
PRAISE FOR JOSIE'S BOOKS:
The Baby Planner
"Brown takes baby mania to its illogical, hysterical extreme in this bubbly romp....But what begins as a light foray into Bugaboo country turns into something bigger than a satire of status-obsessed Bay Area yummy mummies as Brown takes a dark look at the fears of parenthood and family, with Katie's heartbreaking longing for a child unveiling a disturbing reality about her marriage and family. Still, the message from the somber realities is one full of hope: love makes a family, commitment keeps it together." --Publishers Weekly
Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives
"Josie Brown writes with all the secrets, sex, money and scandal of an OK Magazine cover. Truly entertaining reading."--Jackie Collins, Hollywood Wives
"Josie Brown's writing is whip-smart as well as wickedly funny, and just as you are enjoying the ride she takes you on, she shatters your heart with her insight into modern lives." --Tatjana Soli, New York Times bestselling author and 2011 recipient of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction for The Lotus Eaters
"Already touted as the perfect summer beach read, this character driven (sometimes steamy) book can best be described as the offspring of an affair between Desperate Housewives and a Jennifer Weiner novel....A quick look into the sometimes catty world of wealth where priorities get shifted, friendships get broken and marriages, like their mansions, get rearranged. It was light and fluffy (with some excellent dialogue.)..." -- GoodHousekeeping.com
"I loved it! Josie Brown captures the highs and lows of love, lust and marriage with heartwrenching pathos. I'm recommending it to all my friends as the perfect beach read!" -- Lisa Rinna, acatress, and author of the novel Starlit
True Hollywood Lies
The tone is confessional, the writing laced with venomous humor..." --Wall Street Journal
"Brown captures the humor of working for a megalomaniac...[A] well-paced, entertaining story..." --Publishers Weekly
"A fine piece of literary work." --New York Post
Impossibly Tongue-Tied
"Brad, Angelina, Britney and Kevin may want to check out Josie Brown's new novel, Impossibly Tongue-Tied, for its ripped-from-the-headlines plot that mixes their scandals together..." - PAGE SIX, New York Post
Josie lives in Marin County, California, with Martin and our two children.
Martin, my husband: THE COMPLETE IDIOT'S GUIDE TO FINDING MR. RIGHT, and MARRIAGE CONFIDENTIAL: 102 HONEST Answers to the Questions Every Husband Wants to Ask, and Every Wife Needs to Know.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives! Josie Brown weaves a clever tale of what goes on in upscale suburbia! The characters seem so realistic. You find yourself eager to turn the page to see what happens next. It's so easy to get absorbed into this story. Josie Brown is a really good writer and a does a wonderful job with this book! I highly recommend this read!
Life in Paradise Heights, a prestigious gated community near the Silicon Valley, promises the happily-ever-after that many young couples want. But the fine print doesn't tell anyone to be careful, because "if something is too good to be true, it just might be."
For the women of Paradise Heights, the first crack in the veneer of their perfect kingdom is the break-up of a seemingly flawless marriage. The gossip mill is alive and well in the Heights, and soon everyone is speculating about what broke up Harry and DeeDee Wilder. Popular opinion says that her husband walked in on her and her lover.
DeeDee moves out, without the kids, while Harry stays behind; he works at home and occasionally at the office, but he is the primary caregiver. The two will be battling custody out in court throughout the months ahead, and the secret of just who DeeDee's lover is hovers over the storyline.
When Lyssa Harper, whose husband Ted is a typical workaholic, befriends Harry and invites him to meet the other "mommies," she has no idea what will follow. Then Harry, who has become her friend, rebuffs the other women's advances, and he is exiled. And Lyssa will be, too, if she continues the friendship.
Risking everything for her friend, Lyssa has no inkling of the events that will now unfold.
I loved this "insider tale" of life amongst the privileged. Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives felt almost like a tabloid publication, but with the added bonus of being sensitively written, and with that hint of mystery hovering over everything. Told in Lyssa's voice, in the first person narrative, the reader is privy to her thoughts, feelings, and desires. This heightened my sense of having an up-close-and-personal view of this life.
Toward the end, I began to suspect what would happen next, but I enjoyed waiting, almost holding my breath, for our characters to put the pieces together.
Five stars, definitely--I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys stories of the privileged, who are real people with real problems; despite the life of wealth, these characters hurt and grieve, just like anyone else.
Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives is funny, moving, and more realistic than the Desperate Housewives drama it's being compared to. I quite enjoyed the story. Lyssa, the main character, is likable and compassionate - a stark contrast with the mean girls-turned-mommies in their upscale neighborhood. She takes abandoned dad Harry under her wing, and the two become friends. From the start, it seemed to me there would be more to their relationship than meets the eye. There are a few surprises along the way, and things find a way to fall into place at the end.
