Review: My Husband's Mistress by Willow Rose

Print Length: 287 pages

Publisher: Bookouture (March 28, 2025)

From Goodreads.com: Should I believe the woman who ruined my life, or protect the husband who's already betrayed me?

I walk past rows of immaculate white roses into the Kane family's picture-perfect home, thinking that I'd never guess what's happened behind closed doors. The woman standing with my colleagues in handcuffs looks so innocent in her blue, silk dress. But they say she's killed her husband.

When I see her face, I recognize her immediately. She's my own husband Bradley's mistress...

She was found beside the body with blood on her hands. But in a quiet voice, with tears streaming down her face, she says Bradley was the one who did it.

A chill goes down my spine. I've hated this woman since the day I saw her through the window of that little Parisian restaurant, holding hands with Bradley. I know my husband wouldn't kill anyone. He's a good father, a respected lawyer... But then, I never thought he'd have an affair.

She mustn't share her theories with anyone else. As the cop working the case, I need to make her trust me, and only me.

Because she and Bradley thought they could lie to me. But one of them is a murderer. And they have no idea how far I'll go to keep my children safe...

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My Rating: 2 stars out of 5

This book had a solid concept that I was really looking forward to exploring. At the beginning, I even tried to put myself in Darcey's shoes. How would I react to finding out my husband's mistress had been accused of murdering her husband? Would I even take the case or would I take it and deliberately try to sabotage it? And if my husband were accused of murder, how far would I go to prove his innocence? 

But then I (sadly) started to lose interest. 

This is due in part because I noticed right off the bat that this author likes describing things. Sometimes,  to the point where I began to feel a bit bogged down in the details. Sadly in the places where the plot itself needed more detail, it went without. Example, I don't need to know in that great of detail what a house looked like. But I did need to know what a character was thinking. Sadly, none of these characters were as fleshed out as the scenery was, often acting in ways that seemed out of the ordinary at first, until later on when we are told the reason for them acting as they did, or saying what was said. Oftentimes the reasonings seemed to come out of left field as there was no foreshadowing at all. 

And because these characters were so all-over-the-place I found myself not liking any of them. Bradly shows his true colors of being an overbearing jerk, Charlotte's moods and behaviors seem to swing like a pendulum one minute being this cold and aloof person, the next she is a willing co-conspirator, and then she's throwing Darcey completely under the bus. And don't get me started on Darcey who makes some choices that are so far-fetched as to be unbelievable. 

Still, I couldn't look away from this particular train wreck as I wondered which one of these unlikeable characters was actually the guilty party. But as it turned out, they were all guilty, just of different things in an ending that left me sitting there thinking wow.... that was a lot of overkill for something so simple. 

After some time has passed, I may pick up another book by this author as I have seen a lot of buzz for them, but we will see.