Wife Living Dangerously

Title: Wife Living Dangerously
Author: Debra Kent (released under the name Sara Susannah Katz in the US)
Publisher: Headline Book Publishing Ltd
$27.99


Fans of the hit telly show Desperate Housewives rejoice! Debra Kent’s frenetically paced second novel, Wife Living Dangerously, is the perfect alternative to fill the void of your now empty Monday evenings.

Juggling the demands of her career, motherhood a flagging marriage, a non existent sex life and eternally being the good girl, Julia Flanagan could easily slot into a story line with the ladies of Wisteria Lane. With the encouragement of her friends (and too many alcoholic beverages) on a girls weekend away, Julia begins to move out of her comfort zone and, as the title suggests, live a little dangerously. It begins harmlessly enough; not correcting shop assistants who give back too much change and claiming the credit for store bought baking as her own handiwork. Quickly and seamlessly, it progresses to convincing her rodent adverse husband that the pet rat she bought home is really a Dwarf Norwegian Flat Coated Guinea Pig. Finally, as her confidence reaches its zenith, it results in her frantically fighting (and failing) an ever growing addiction to the impossibly sexy college professor Evan Delaney.

Like all books in the chick lit genre, this novel oozes charm, wit and laugh out loud humour, all while asking the age old question of how far will a woman go before she realises she has everything to lose. What sets this book apart from its contemporaries however is the intelligent language used; several times I found myself reaching for the dictionary to seek the definition of a word I had not come across before. How often could you say that about a Cathy Kelly or Marian Keyes novel?

Frighteningly funny, sexy and smart, Wife Living Dangerously by Debra Kent is delicious action packed escapism at its best and is guaranteed to keep you glued (and giggling) to the very last page.