the husband's secret | liane moriarty

goodreads book breakdown:

Imagine that your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death. Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest secret—something with the potential to destroy not just the life you built together, but the lives of others as well. Imagine, then, that you stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive. . . .
Cecilia Fitzpatrick has achieved it all—she’s an incredibly successful businesswoman, a pillar of her small community, and a devoted wife and mother. Her life is as orderly and spotless as her home. But that letter is about to change everything, and not just for her: Rachel and Tess barely know Cecilia—or each other—but they too are about to feel the earth-shattering repercussions of her husband’s secret.

holy moly, you guys. let me just start out by saying that this book packs the PUNCH at about the last 100 or so pages or so. maybe that's why it took me about 3 months to actually finish this book, which is a LONG time for me. i usually blow through the books i'm reading in 2-3 days, a week max, but for some reason i couldn't get into this one. there are about 4 different storylines happening at the same time (which confused the heck out of me sometimes), so the entire time i was waiting to see how they all converged.

i definitely appreciate all the background that the first half of the book provides: from how the respective characters in each storyline met to glimpses into how they might know one another, but to me, it was a pretty slow buildup to the true climax of the book. there were some parts where i was thinking to myself, "no...that can't happen...!!!" or "no freaking WAY," but the ending, and the epilogue especially, made me feel all the feels. even now after i've finished the book i'm thinking about the different endings that could have taken place--book hangovers, anyone?--but nevertheless, the ending makes you think about relationships and whether or not you can truly know everything about someone. like the book foreshadows, we all have our secrets.