Lauren Weisberger: The Wives

Published By: HarperCollins

Buy It: here

What the Blurb Says:

He set her up. They’ll bring him down.

Emily Charlton does not do the suburbs. A successful stylist and image consultant to Hollywood stars, she cut her teeth as assistant to legendary fashion editor Miranda Priestly in New York. But with Snapchatting millennials stealing her clients, Emily needs to get back in the game – and fast.

She holes up at the home of her oldest friend Miriam in the upscale suburb of Greenwich. And when Miriam’s friend, model Karolina Hartwell, is publicly dumped by her husband Graham, a senator with presidential ambitions, Emily scents the client of a lifetime.

It’s not just Karolina’s reputation that’s ruined. It’s her family. And Miriam and Emily are determined he won’t get away with it. First they’ll get Karolina’s son back. Then they’ll help her get her own back. Because the wives are mad as hell . .

What I Say :

Many Thanks to LoveReading and Harper Collins for a copy of The Wives in exchange for an honest review.

Emily, Miriam and Karolina are three successful women who are all in the throes of coming to terms with changes in their once successful and privileged lifestyles.
When Emily’s business starts to suffer at the hands of a younger rival, she decides to visit her friend Miriam, once a successful lawyer and now a stay at home mum.  Miriam’s friend Karolina is set up by her husband to appear that she has been driving her step-son and some other children whilst under the influence of alcohol.  The reason – so that Graham has a way to seamlessly and blamelessly exit their marriage, for a younger and more career enhancing model.  

The Wives know what they have to do – they have to work together to save their friend and bring Graham down..

To do this, they have to use all the professional knowledge and power that they have to ensure that Graham is punished for what he has done.  Karolina knows a huge secret about Graham’s past, that would undoubtedly shatter the Presidential aspirations that he has, and it is a race against time that pits the women against the assured and suave politician as they strive to make sure he is made to pay for his behaviour.

Emily’s talent for dealing with difficult celebrities and their sometimes unsavoury situations, means that she knows exactly what to do to make sure that Karolina’s reputation is restored. She knows that image is everything, and that what matters is that Karolina is portrayed as the victim rather than the villain in order to sway the public towards her.  The three women head to a luxurious spa under the pretence of Karolina needing to ‘contemplate’ her actions, and while they are there, the plans for revenge are laid.

Add a little of the fabulous Miranda Priestly to the mix – a gloriously unapologetic character who helps Emily gain some more information on Graham, in exchange for Emily’s time, and the women are ready to strike.  It is when Miriam inadvertently discovers the biggest deception of all that Graham has been hiding, that Karolina finds the strength she needs to work with Emily and Miriam to bring her husband down once and for all.

As the novel progresses, The Wives learn about themselves and each other, their strengths and weaknesses, their power as women and as friends.  It is as it heads towards its brilliant page turning conclusion that Emily, Miriam and Karolina find the peace and satisfaction they have been looking for.

Is The Wives glamorous, hedonistic and escapist?  Absolutely.  Are the characters living lives we could only dream of? Completely, but that is what is so refreshing about this novel, that Lauren Weisberger defiantly and confidently writes about these women, and makes us feel empathy for them.  The characters are real, three dimensional women, who in spite of the luxurious lives and bottomless bank balances, are still concerned about the same things that we are.  Not once did I resent them, instead I wished I knew people like that too..

The Wives is a whip smart, funny and brilliant read. It not only shows the power of female friendship, and the amazing things that happen when women work together, but also that when the worst things possible happen to you, that we all need our women friends right behind us to face the world.

Lauren Weisberger writes like a dream, her descriptions of excruciating social situations and relevant cultural references are acerbic and spot on every single time. There is not one wasted sentence.

I read The Wives in two days – I loved every single page, and as a huge fan of The Devil Wears Prada, I cannot tell you how fabulous it was to meet Emily and Miranda Priestly all over again.

If you pack just one book for your summer read this year, make sure that it’s The Wives.

I loved it.