Book Club: “A Better Man” blogger reviews

Our latest BritMums Club book is “A Better Man”, by Leah McClaren. Book Club hostess Jacqueline Steward, who blogs at Best and Beyond, starts us off on the discussion below. Read what she thought about the book and join in.

What would you do if you found out your neglectful partner was secretly planning to divorce you?

Leah McLaren’s second novel A Better Man explores the length professionally successful, neglectful and extremely wealthy Nick will go to retain a bigger share of the families wealth after divorcing his wife, Maya. Through a series of carefully prepared strategies he plans to get his homemaker wife financially independent again before he divorces her. The novel is searingly up front about his motives and feelings towards his once high-flying lawyer wife who ironically specialised in family law before having her much-loved twins.

It is smoothly and engagingly written and many of the changes he witnesses in his perfectionist wife’s behaviour from high flying professional career woman to nurturing mother I could relate to. I’m sure many of you did too. Who doesn’t want their children to be happy, confident and secure with a good spattering of nutritious food?

We all have an interfering friend and without giving anything away the best friend Gray kept bringing to mind Philip Seymour Hoffman. I don’t know why. I was probably reading too much into his surname. Was this a play on that recent publishing phenomenon? I longed for the male perspective throughout as it shifted to Maya significantly at the end. Although I was delighted that she took control of her situation and transformed a dire situation into something much more empowering.

This is a great holiday or train journey read. It’s well-written, engaging, topical and a searing observation of modern marriage and without giving the end away an interesting conclusion. Although I’d love a house the size and scale of theirs it demonstrated fully that money doesn’t buy happiness or love.

A Better Man by Leah McLaren published by Corvus Books is available online and at all good bookshops in paperback rrp £7.99

If you have a review of A Better Man, please leave the link below.

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