THE NEW HUSBAND by D. J. Palmer

One day while sitting in the cafeteria, a boy I once judged and dismissed, a boy who was an outsider himself, asked if he could join me for lunch. I was reluctant at first, but then we started to talk and I found that this boy, a boy I never would have considered before, was smart and funny, generous and kind.
That was Benjamin Odell. He turned out to be my best friend and he’s one of the reasons my family is still alive.
Judging others is easy. It makes us feel superior.
So what to do?
It’s simple. Don’t rush to judgement.
Have humility. Show empathy.
Ask: What can I do to help?
I believe we all want the same things out of life. We want to be loved, accepted, to belong to someone, to feel wanted and valued. Sometimes we make poor choices on this journey. Instead of sitting in judgment of those choices, let’s help each other get back on the right path.

Those are the main things I took from this awesome story. I did judge the mother, Nina, in this story. I judged her harshly. I felt so bad for that when I got more into the story and knew why she turned to someone when she was feeling so weak and alone.

This is my second book by D. J. Palmer and I can assure you it won’t be my last. From the very first page to the very last word this book had me in it’s grips. It had me on edge and in tears in many places. It was one that will make you eventually look back and say what would I have done? Would I have been strong enough? Would I have seen what was clearly right in front of my eyes? We are all truly way to quick to judge others. For whatever reason we tend to do that and it’s time to stop. To see what may be causing people to do the things they do. Now I have to say that some people, like Simon, yes we can judge him. He’s not the best of the best. But we also need to understand why he is like he is. If we can.

This story is told from the mother, Nina, and her thirteen year old daughter, Maggie’s, perspectives. Nina has a hard time after the loss of her husband, Glen, goes missing. She doesn’t know if he is dead or alive. Things don’t look good for him though no matter what happened.
Maggie never believes her dad is gone completely. She hates Simon, the man her mom fell for and ultimately decided to marry one day. Maggie didn’t trust him at all. She wanted her dad and as with most children her age was not going to accept anyone else.

This book will take you on a roller coaster of a ride that you can’t get away from. The ups and downs will leave you breathless and screaming for everyone to wake up and see what is going on. It’s a very intense story of love, loss, new beginnings, letting go, murder, adultery and even forgiveness. You will definitely be breathing heavy at the end when it all comes together. You won’t want to miss a thing. It’s like watching a movie and you can’t take your eyes from the screen but you also want to hide and scream at the people to stop, to look out.

This book had some great characters. Some you will love and others you will hate. But they are all well developed and their parts are done to perfection. To me this book was done to perfection. It was totally one of the best thrillers I have ever read.

Thank you to #NetGalley, #D.J. Palmer and #St Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

It is another big 5 stars and the highest recommendation from me.