Book Review: A Husband's Confession by Zoe Miller

"A deserted laneway.

A hit and run accident.

Two families will never be the same . . .

Max and Ali Kennedy own a renowned artisan bakery in Dublin's creative quarter. Max has given Ali everything she ever wanted - marriage, children and security. Now, her biggest fear is that her precious family will be taken away from her.

Across the city, Finn and Jo Kennedy live a life of responsibility and success - far removed from the carefree couple they were when they first met in Australia twenty years ago. But in the best of marriages, appearances can be deceiving.

When a tragic accident befalls one of the families, a long-buried secret between the Kennedy brothers comes to the surface and a house of lies comes tumbling down.

As the couples discover life-changing truths about their marriages, they must make a decision - to forgive, to forget or to move on?"

Rating: 5/5

You can buy A Husband's Confession as a paperback or an eBook now.

Zoe Miller is an Irish author who I have really come to love, and I eagerly await her books because I know I'm guaranteed a really good read! Zoe's latest book A Husband's Confession is no exception to this rule - I was gripped from the beginning and was left wondering what on earth was going on, and what secrets were going to be revealed next! If you haven't read any of Zoe's books yet, then you can't go far wrong than by starting with this book.

Max and Ali own a successful bakery together, with Max being the baker and Ali handling the paperwork side of the business. They're happily married, with 2 children and a lovely home. Ali finally feels like she's settled in a family, but when a tragic accident occurs, everything that Ali holds dear is suddenly at horrible risk. Finn, Max's brother, is married to Jo, and has a successful television career although all is no quite as it seems behind the closed doors of Finn and Jo's home. They met in Australia twenty years ago on a whirlwind romance, but are things still as loving as they were then? As the Kennedy families struggle to get past the shock accident, secrets are revealed, things that people would rather forget...

I don't really want to spoil too much about this book because part of the brilliance of it for me was discovering things as they come along, and that includes the accident, and what happened after that. However, the two Kennedy families are the main part of the book and they are definitely riveting in their own ways! I really loved Max and Ali, they seemed to have a really loving marriage and enjoyed working together too, something some couples can't balance easily! However, they bounce off each other well, and I found that Miller wrote their relationship perfectly, they were still clearly in love with each other and I felt they juggled their work life with their home life and parenting really well, I liked both of them.

Finn and Jo were a different kettle of fish, and Miller makes the differences quite blatant. You certainly feel that Finn and Jo's relationship isn't as loving as it was - this is shown cleverly through flashbacks to them meeting in Australia all those years ago, their quick romance and subsequent marriage too. We also get hints of Jo's troubled home life - I really enjoyed reading about these two, and the scenes in Australia were really fun to read. As well as these main characters, we meet a few others, including staff in the bakery but it is mainly these four who the story focusses around, and I felt the book worked well with a small cast of characters. The scenes within the bakery were fun too, giving the feeling of a bustling family run bakery frequented by the locals due to the scrumptious things on sale, and I loved that it was a small business doing hugely well too!

What I really enjoyed about this book was the mystery element. For a long time, we have no idea how or why the accident occurs, or the secrets that the couples are hiding from each other too. Quite often when I read books, I can guess things before they come up, but I really didn't see them in this case. I loved the Miller was able to keep it from her readers, leading us up the garden path for a few things, and subtly hinting at others, I tried to have a guess at a few but was way off the mark! The drama is definite pronounced throughout the book, I found the pace was slow enough to really drag out the mystery elements as much as was needed, but there was enough going on that I was never bored or wanting to put the book down - quite the opposite! Miller is a fantastic storyteller, with great characters, settings and plots, I always finish her books with a smile on my face having really enjoyed what I have just read. A Husband's Confession was a fantastic book, and definitely one I can recommend.