The Marriage Lie

 In this blog post, I reviewed Ali Mercer's the Marriage Lie. This riveting domestic suspense novel would leave you at the edge of your seat and hold your breath. What do you do when someone holds something over you? It all started for Stella Castle's 40th birthday when her husband treated her to a special dinner and gifted her to a home for where she lived alone. It caught her off guard when her husband wanted a divorce from her. If she didn't do what he wanted, he would reveal a terrible secret about their daughter's birth. With no where to turn, she went to her mother for advice. But she later learned that Rob was having an affair with someone else and carried his child. Was this some part of his midlife crisis to ditch her in the ditch? To protect this terrible secret, she would have to reach out to her younger sister Molly, who have been estranged from her family for years. When her mother passed away, she reached out to her sister before she left the funeral service. It only made her more determined to reconnect to her and to break free from Rob's dominating hold on her. Then, when her stepfather passed away shortly after her mother's death, she connected to Molly again and didn't show up for the service. In the end, Stella learned the shocking truth about her daughter and promised to protect her to the end, when they've both told Georgie a partial truth to satisfy her daughter's curiosity, and made their bond stronger than ever and better than before.

 This was a jaw-dropping domestic suspense thriller. I instantly cared for Stella, who was put into a difficult situation and tougher than a rock and a hard place. What was she to do to do his evil bidding and to do what he wants? She did what she wanted to do to break free and escape from his dominating ways to protect her daughter. It made me dislike Rob more and more until he'd gotten what he discovered. I loved the Fox Hill and other select locations in England that depicted the scenic settings so well with the ambiance for the story. The theme of the story is that blood is thicker than water and the ties that bind between family and dark secrets.

If you love gripping domestic suspense thrillers that would knock the pants off of you with non-stop action, dramatic suspense, shocking twist and turns, and chills all over, The Marriage Lie is the book for you.