BOOK REVIEWS by LINDA MOORE: MY DARLING HUSBAND by Kimberly Belle

"Riveting suspense, truly surprising revelations, and silky smooth writing make this one unmissable!" — Joshilyn Jackson, New York Times bestselling author of Mother May I

Bestselling author of DEAR WIFE and THE MARRIAGE LIE, Kimberly Belle returns with her most heart-pounding thriller to date, as a masked home invader reveals the cracks in a marriage.

Everyone is about to know what her husband isn’t telling her…

Jade and Cam Lasky are by all accounts a happily married couple with two adorable kids, a spacious home and a rapidly growing restaurant business. But their world is tipped upside down when Jade is confronted by a masked home invader. As Cam scrambles to gather the ransom money, Jade starts to wonder if they’re as financially secure as their lifestyle suggests, and what other secrets her husband is keeping from her.

Cam may be a good father, a celebrity chef and a darling husband, but there’s another side he’s kept hidden from Jade that has put their family in danger. Unbeknownst to Cam and Jade, the home invader has been watching them and is about to turn their family secrets into a public scandal.

With riveting twists and a breakneck pace, My Darling Husband is an utterly compelling thriller that once again showcases Kimberly Belle's exceptional talent for domestic suspense.

Jade

3:18 pm

I see the black figure in the shadows, and my first thought is of the kids, an immediate, full-throttle alarm that comes on like a freight train. This is parenthood in a nutshell: utter terror for your children’s welfare, always. It’s something Cam and I never thought about back when we were trying to get pregnant—the overwhelming insecurity when the doctor settled our babies into our arms, the unrelenting worry whenever they’re not near. I spot movement and I reach for them at the same time—instant and instinctual. My brain identifies a person, a male-sized form that does not belong here, and I shove their little bodies behind mine.

A man, looming in my garage. Breathing the same air.

I don’t move. I can’t. No fight. No flight. I just stand here, transfixed, dumbstruck, stock-still.

I think of my phone, buried under the mail and trash in my bag. I think of the panic button on the alarm pad in the house, on the other end of a breezeway and tucked safely behind a locked door. I think of my keys, next to my phone. Even if I managed to get us out of this garage, where would we go? I’d never make it inside the house, and the backyard is fenced, the gates either electronic or secured with a complicated, child-safe latch. There’s nowhere to escape.

“Don’t move. Stay quiet and I won’t hurt you.”

The voice is so frighteningly close. Hoarse, rattling in air hot with my sticky fear, and I don’t believe a single word. Especially not when he steps closer, and I get a better look. The man is wearing a mask. He’s holding a gun, a stubby black thing in a fist. Head-to-toe black, every bit of him covered, even his hands. His fingertips.

Run. I scream the word in my head, urging myself on. Grab the children and run.

Now.

A chill races down my spine. The hairs soldier on my skin.

This man is here to hurt me. To hurt us.

And still I can’t move.

So this is it, then. This is how my body responds when faced with sudden fright, with this hot, sluggish horror—like when your fingers brush over a strange lump under your armpit and you realize your life has veered sideways. Some people run. Others scream. Me, I just stand here, paralyzed by the mounting terror.

The kids, too. They stare at him with big, frightened eyes. A little hand grabs my pants leg.

“Please,” I somehow manage to squeak, but I can’t finish. Please don’t touch the children. Please don’t shoot us. The words are too horrifying to say out loud.

He moves closer, his gait smooth but there’s something sinister in the way he’s walking across the concrete floor. He’s like an animal on the hunt, joints loose, ready to pounce. All dangerous, coiled energy lurking just below the surface.

“Take my car.” I hold out my bag, a stupidly expensive designer thing from a couple years ago. “The keys are in here somewhere, and so’s my wallet. I—”

“I don’t want your purse. Don’t want your car, either.” His voice is deep and scratchy, the kind that sounds filled with cigarette smoke.

My stomach spirals, and I search his face for more, but the parts of him I can see—his lips, his eyes—are closed off. I search for something recognizable, something human I can appeal to, but there’s nothing. It’s like searching for meaning on a covered canvas.

Still, I take in every detail I can see and commit them to memory. Just under six foot, medium build, broad shouldered. Caucasian. I know this from his eyes, olive green and flecked with amber, the pink patch of skin around his mouth. His teeth are white and straight, the kind of straight that comes from braces.

“Do you want money? I don’t have cash, but take my card. My pin is 4-3-0-8.”

“Jade. Shh.”

My name on his tongue tightens a knot of panic in my gut, and I scurry—finally—backwards, putting some distance between me and this man, pushing the kids behind me and towards the door.

Stay calm.

Don’t panic.

Whatever happens, do not let the gunman in the house. That’s how people get killed. That’s how entire families end up in a pool of blood. As soon as you let the gunman into the house, you’re already dead.

Excerpted from My Darling Husband @ 2021 by Kimberly S. Belle Books, LLC, used with permission by Park Row Books

About the Author:

Kimberly Belle is the USA Today and internationally bestselling author of seven novels, including her latest, My Darling Husband (December 2021). Her third novel, The Marriage Lie, was a semifinalist in the 2017 Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Mystery & Thriller, and a #1 e-book bestseller in the UK and Italy. She’s sold rights to her books in a dozen languages as well as film and television options. A graduate of Agnes Scott College, Belle divides her time between Atlanta and Amsterdam.

Social Links:

Author website: https://www.kimberlybellebooks.com/

Facebook: @KimberlyBelleBooks

Twitter: @KimberlySBelle

Instagram: @kimberlysbelle

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/kimberlybelle

Buy Links:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/My-Darling-Husband-Kimberly-Belle/dp/0778311562/

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/my-darling-husband-kimberly-belle/1138090011?ean=9780778311560

Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/books/my-darling-husband-9780778312116/9780778312116

IndieBound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780778312116

Books-A-Million: https://www.booksamillion.com/p/My-Darling-Husband/Kimberly-Belle/9780778311560?id=8388215054600

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/my-darling-husband

AppleBooks: https://books.apple.com/us/book/my-darling-husband/id1539274871

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Kimberly_Belle_My_Darling_Husband?id=6JMHEAAAQBAJ

Libro.FM: https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9781488212611-my-darling-husband

Indigo: https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/my-darling-husband-a-novel/9780778333135-item.html

My Darling Husband

Kimberly Belle

On Sale Date: December 28, 2021

9780778311560, 0778311562

Trade Paperback

$16.99 USD, $23.99 CAD

Fiction / Thrillers / Psychological

352 pages

MY THOUGHTS

Every book I read by Kimberly Belle takes me away to a place that is thrilling and on edge. The deepest parts of my heart is always touched by her books. This one is one of the best yet. About a mother and what she will do to protect her children from a desperate man who is walking a fine line with reality. Yet he is also worrying about his child. But there are lines you just do not cross. He crossed the wrong one.

This book is about a mother, Jade, who sees a strange man everywhere she goes. He makes her feel creepy and afraid. Her husband , Cam, sort of brushes her worries off, at first. Jade is fiercely protective of her two children, Beatrix and Baxter nine and 6 years of age. When she is faced with the worse kind of fear any mother would face she does not hesitate to let the man know that she will fight to the end for her children. She is the kind of mother everyone needs and every mother should be like. She will take a bullet for her children. A day of horror. And she will endure almost anything. She's a strong woman with a weak spot too. She's a loving wife. A devoted friend. She has empathy for even this stranger in ways. Until she thinks her daughter is in danger. Then the fight is on.

This book shows you what it is like to have a home invasion. To have your everyday life uprooted at the hands of a stranger who you may or may not know. It will show you the strength and weakness of a woman who is fighting for not only her life but also her children. The love she has for her husband. The faith she has in him. Cam is the love of her life no doubt. But he also has a few weaknesses that do not look good on him. He is totally about business except he does love his family. He loves them enough to do anything to save them.

This story talks about how unfair the healthcare system is in the USA. And it's so true. How a child can lose their life because of an insurance company refusing to help. Refusing to pay for a treatment that can save their life. What a person will go through to save this child. Any child. The desperation and total helplessness.

This is a very emotional story in places. It's a touching story and a very tense one too. Edge of your seat. You feel like you are there. Like you are in that chair. Listening for a child's voice. Listening for that possible gun shot. Or that scream. Tears. So many fears. This is a book that takes you where you hope to never have to really go. It's so good. So edge of your seat good.

I really liked this family. Cam and Jade seem to be so happy. So together. Yet there are things about Cam that were not so good. He could be cold in so many ways. But he does love his family deeply. It's others that he tends to treat bad. He's a businessman through and through.

Thank you to #NetGalley, #KimberlyBelle, #Harlequin for this ARC. This is my own true feelings about this book.

5/5 huge stars. I highly recommend this one.