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    The Ever After: A Novel
    The Ever After: A Novel
    The Ever After: A Novel
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Ever After: A Novel

    Written by Sarah Pekkanen

    Narrated by Joy Osmanski

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    “Writing with rawness and realism, Pekkanen doesn’t hold back…Fans of Liane Moriarty and Anne Tyler will appreciate the story’s depth.” —Booklist

    “In her signature conversational style, Pekkanen uncovers the truth behind the lies as Josie comes to grips with reality vs. the mirage of her marriage.” —Library Journal (starred review)

    In this intricate and enthralling domestic drama, perfect for fans of Big Little Lies and The Affair, the internationally bestselling author of the “gossipy page-turner” (Glamour) The Perfect Neighbors goes deep into a marriage in crisis, peeling back layers of secrets to discover where the relationship veered off course—and whether it is worth saving.

    Josie and Frank Moore are happy…at least Josie thinks they are. As parents of two young girls in the Chicago suburbs, their days can be both busy and monotonous, and sometimes Josie wonders how she became a harried fortysomething mother rather than the driven career woman she once was. But Frank is a phenomenal father, he’s handsome and charismatic, and he still looks at his wife like she’s the beautiful woman he married more than a decade ago. Josie isn’t just happy—she’s lucky.

    Until one Saturday morning when Josie borrows her husband’s phone to make a quick call—and sees nine words that shatter her world.

    Now Josie feels as if she is standing at the edge of a sharp precipice. As she looks back at pivotal moments in the relationship she believed would last forever, she is also plunging ahead, surprising everyone (especially herself) with how far she will go to uncover the extent of her husband’s devastating secret.

    With her “conversational writing style and a knack for making readers care about her characters” (The Washington Post) bestselling author Sarah Pekkanen paints a vivid, kaleidoscopic portrait of a marriage before and during a crisis—and of a woman who fears that the biggest secret of all may be the one she’s hiding from herself.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateJun 5, 2018
    ISBN9781508252900
    Author

    Sarah Pekkanen

    SARAH PEKKANEN is the #1 New York Times bestselling co-author of four novels of suspense including The Golden Couple and The Wife Between Us, and the solo author of the thriller Gone Tonight. A passionate volunteer for rescue animals, she serves as an Ambassador for RRSA India and works hands-on in India to heal and vaccinate street dogs. She lives just outside of Washington, D.C., with her family.

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    Reviews for The Ever After

    3.5/5

    135 ratings16 reviews

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    • 3/5
      It was way too long and drawn out to end with such lackluster.
    • 1/5
      Depressing. Not at all enjoyable. I kept waiting for “something” to happen. Nothing happened. Just six hours of being inside a miserable woman’s head.
    • 2/5
      I guess I was expecting a book like the wife between us. And this is not. I finished it. But. I have to say Josie was the whiniest person ever. Good lord.
    • 2/5
      Not a suspense or thriller, ho-hum story of cheating by kissing and the aftermath. Writing is sophomoric.
    • 4/5
      Overall an interesting story. Subject matter can really hit you if you have ever experienced this. It was worth a listen because there is good advice in this if you look for it and listen.
    • 1/5
      This audiobook kept skipping and putting me in a different place… and with an hour left to go, it just stopped! No big loss, because the story was terrible
    • 1/5
      Do not read this book. It absolutely horrible. Waste of time. If I could get my time back and give it negative reviews I would
    • 4/5
      This is a hard one to review. It was sad. Extremely sad, and could be hard to read at times, though well written. There weren’t too many surprises and it held my interest. Life can and does change in a heartbeat. 3.5 rounded up for the mature way the situation was handled.
    • 3/5
      A marriage with two little children implodes when the wife happens to use her husband's cell phone and discovers romantic messages from a woman. After confronting her husband, he confesses to seeing the woman many times, but without sexual intimacy.The woman, rightfully so, is brokenhearted. In no uncertain terms she lets the husband know just how emotionally destroyed she is.The book seems to center on what constitutes cheating. Is it sexual, or merely a meeting of talking and kissing.I finished the book, but it seemed difficult to get through.Because it is well written, I guardedly recommend it.Three Stars.
    • 3/5
      I really enjoyed The Wife Between Us. The book got me very excited to read more from the authors. Thus, when I saw this book from co-author, Sarah Pekkanen I had to check it out. While, I liked this book, I did not love it like The Wife Between Us. However, the author did a good job of bringing the characters and the story down to Earth. What I mean by this is that the story is very relatable. Sadly, there are a lot of people who have affairs. Until you are faced with this situation, you can't truly judge someone. Thus, the reason I could relate. The different degrees of emotions that Josie experienced were understandable. Yet, what I really liked was the fact that she did not pity herself the victim but instead took control of the situation. She did her own investigating while calling out her husband. Speaking of Frank. I had mixed feelings about him. As I got to know him, from when he was kind to Josie when they were dating and newly dating to the present; I did not despise him. Now, when it comes to the ending; I am sure readers will again have mixed emotions. Some will like it and others will not agree with it. For me, I am on the side of "like". Again, while I did not feel so strongly about this book; I can't wait to check out the next one by this author.
    • 3/5
      Perhaps I've read too many thriller lately but I kept waiting for something to happen. Nothing happened. It was ok, a quick read, but I needed... more.
    • 4/5
      I purchased this book from Amazon to read with @saltwaterreads. All opinions are my own. ???? The Ever After by Sarah Pekkanen. Josie thought she had a happy marriage until one day at a coffee shop she discovers that her world will forever change. Her marriage is a lie. One big lie. As she digs deeper into those lies she discovers just how strong and angry she can be. She also discovers friends that stand beside her and begins going to therapy to understand herself. When she promises she will make her own choice about her happiness and not just settle for easy, she uncovers part of herself she never knew existed. This one hit hard after the first few chapters and I had to put it down for a day or so and then pick it back up, some things hurt even to read about. Raw emotion is always best when you pick up a book though. Review also posted on Instagram @borenbooks, Library Thing, Go Read, Goodreads/StacieBoren, Amazon, Twitter @jason_stacie and my blog at readsbystacie.com
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed it but it is not my favorite Pekkanen book.
    • 4/5
      How well do you really know your spouse or significant other? Josie Moore thought she was in a happy marriage. What marriage doesn't suffer a setback or two? Two young children and a life in Chicago is all that she could dream of. A perfect life, until she borrows her husband's phone to make a quick call and sees a devasting text. She is absolutely thrown for a loop, her husband is having an affair. What happens is a personal discovery for Josie, she goes through all the emotions involved with the discovery that her husband isn't who she thought he was. She gets angry, wants to withdraw from life but then decides she wants to find out all she can about the other woman and how long this affair has been going on and what she may have done to cause Frank to stray. I could relate to this story as I went through the same thing, the anger, the hate for my spouse and the determination that I was going to persevere through the most devasting thing that can happen in a marriage. This story is told in different time frames, from the early days of Josie and Frank's marriage to the present.This is the first book I have read by Sarah Pekkanen and I did enjoy it although I felt the ending was a bit short, kind of rushed but all in all a very engrossing story of a marriage in jeopardy.
    • 4/5
      Pekkanen begins the book with a preface, telling readers how the idea for this book came to her from an overheard conversation in a coffee shop about a marital affair. She also cited statistics indicating that an affair occurs in at least one of every three marriages. She notes: “In The Ever After, a therapist tells my main character, Josie, ‘It’s an epidemic.’ The line is fictional, but the facts informing it are not.”She adds: “I hope that Josie’s story will give you, the reader, an intimate glimpse into this largely secret epidemic and its aftershocks.”Josie and Frank Moore, both 40, have two young daughters - Izzy, 3, and Zoe, 7. The kids make life hectic and exhausting for Josie, a stay-at-home mom. Frank is a great dad, but he has the easy part - the entertaining and comforting. Josie resents that she has to be “the bad guy.” Furthermore, Frank doesn’t quite get how much work it is to take care of the girls, and wonders why he has to perform a job all day and then come home and pick up toys or make dinner. It seems as though their marriage has become a succession of little resentments and squabbles, but Josie still considers herself lucky and thinks their marriage is good. That is, until the day Josie borrows Frank’s phone and learns he is having an affair.The rest of the book recounts the evolution of Josie’s feelings about Frank and their marriage, as she goes through all the stages of grief and anger. She also feels a deep sense of betrayal. She starts going to a therapist, and also, together with Frank (at his request), starts seeing a marriage counselor. In the joint sessions, Josie is surprised to find out Frank’s feelings; they barely communicated anymore except about chores and the needs of the kids. She realizes: “It was astonishing, how you could become entwined with someone, sharing a bedroom and a life, without truly being intimate.”Meanwhile, Frank is beyond contrite. He doesn’t just want to go back to “before,” he wants their marriage to be better. And there is pressure to reconcile from the kids, who are upset by changes in their home life they don’t understand.An epilogue six months later tells how Josie and Frank resolved the problems precipitated by Frank’s infidelity.Discussion: Frank is a little overly perfect - aside from the infidelity - but even that gets multiple mitigating explanations: they don’t have sex much anymore and for Josie it is mostly done out of a sense of obligation; their interactions mainly consist of fighting over who does what with the girls and in the house; with Frank out in the work world and Josie at home, they have grown apart; having affairs is epidemic; men aren’t as good as discussing what is bothering them; men compartmentalize things more than women, and so can have physical relationships without necessarily making an emotional commitment. Finally, one of Josie’s friend suggests that maybe Frank subconsciously wanted her to find out and stop him; after all, he knew what was on his phone when he lent it to her.In other parts of his life, Frank is a wonder. He is fantastic with kids! He gets up early to go to church! He volunteers for the homeless! He is generous with presents and surprises! He begs Josie to let him help with the cleaning! (He had me at that last part….)I would have liked Frank to be more realistic (or for me to be less cynical), but it does help facilitate the ending Pekkanen clearly wants to happen.Evaluation: I always enjoy books by this author. She excels at exploring nuances of relationships.
    • 5/5
      The Ever AfterBySarah PekkanenWhat it's all about...Josie and Frank appear to have a happy marriage. They have two little girls, a pup named Huck and the life they both seemed to want. Then one day...and you had to guess there would be a one day...Josie sees nine little words on Frank’s phone that alter their lives forever. Why I wanted to read it...This book’s cover actually drew me to this book. The writing was a draw, too. Josie was so hurt that everything she held dear was suspect to intense scrutiny. How can you ever again trust someone who has been so deceitful? Josie doesn’t think she can. What made me truly enjoy this book...The story was kind of hypnotic for me. All avenues of Frank’s deceit were carefully explored by Josie. It was intense...as intense as her anguish and suffering. This book explored what could happen when a sacred trust...a vow...is broken. Can it be mended? Can Josie heal and forgive? I wasn’t sure and I don’t think Josie was either. Why you should read it, too...Readers who love this kind of family drama...should love this book. I received an advance reader’s copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley and Amazon. It was my choice to read it and review it.