The Accidental Wife (by Rowan Coleman)

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I had not heard of Rowan Coleman when I spotted a couple of her books for sale inexpensively on a church bookstall. I had a quick glance at the blurb on the back and thought they would appeal. I’ve just finished reading one of them, ‘The Accidental Wife’, and - slightly to my surprise - I enjoyed it very much.

The story is about two women in their early thirties, Catherine and Alison. We meet them separately in the first chapters of the book, but it quickly becomes clear that they were best friends for many years, until Alison betrayed Catherine’s trust by running off with her boyfriend - and they have not been in touch for the past fifteen years.

However, Alison and her husband Marc are moving to the small town where Alison grew up. They have three children: the teenage, moody Dominic; the optimistic, outgoing eight-year-old Gemma, and the sensitive, thoughtful five-year-old Amy. Gemma doesn’t mind where they live, but Dominic is angry at leaving behind his friends and the environment he knows so well, and Amy is very worried about having to go to a new school. It’s also clear that Marc is a wheeler-dealer who is not faithful to Alison. However he has made a lot of money, and they are moving to a huge and expensive mansion.

Catherine, who is very tall and thin, with red hair, is married to the even taller Jimmy. They still live in the town where they grew up, in a small and somewhat shabby house. Jimmy is a musician who just about makes ends meet with events and some teaching; Catherine has a job, too. They have two daughters the same ages as Alison’s girls. However something happened a couple of years before the story begins; we don’t learn what it is until a bit later in the book, but it was enough to make Catherine throw Jimmy out. In the past year they have reached a mostly amicable friendship and the girls keep hoping he will move back in again…

There are some flashbacks to Catherine’s teenage years, when she first met and fell in love with Marc. Catherine had physically abusive parents, and would have had an utterly miserable childhood had it not been for her friendship with Alison. Alison was daring and popular, and Catherine did a great many things that her parents knew nothing about. Marc was the first boy Catherine liked… and while she knew their relationship wouldn’t last forever, she was devastated when he and Alison betrayed her.

I was reminded more than once of the complicated love quadrangle in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. Jimmy is - or was - in love with Catherine, but she has never given herself entirely to him, still convinced that she has not recovered from her first love for Marc. Marc does love Alison, but she’s not convinced she still loves him. In addition, Alison was always very keen on Jimmy when they were at school, but Jimmy never noticed her.

I liked Catherine so much. She’s a bit awkward socially, but does what she can to help other people, and she has an excellent relationship with her daughters. She has high principles but she’s not rigid about them. And while the inevitable meeting with Alison and Marc is extremely painful to her, it gives her the chance, finally, to come to terms with some of the past. Jimmy, too, is a likeable person, and I found myself feeling quite sorry for him at times.

Alison, on the other hand, is a bizarre mixture of friendly and utterly selfish. I didn’t much like her, except in her interactions with her children. Dominic and his father clash regularly, but she manages - mostly - to relate to him reasonably well. I didn’t like Marc at all. He is manipulative and promiscuous - his only redeeming feature is that he is fond of his daughters.

Then there’s Kirsty, Catherine’s next-door neighbour and friend, who is a caricature of a frustrated single woman. She is selfish too, although she is also kind-hearted underneath. She keeps falling for different men, some more suitable than others; when all is going well, she is an insatiable nymphomaniac. I didn’t believe in Kirsty at all, but she’s useful as a kind of confidante and go-between.

All this is just to introduce the cast. It’s a character-based novel without a great deal of plot, other than the gradual revelations of past hurts, and some resolution as the people concerned look to the future. It’s very well crafted; there weren’t any great surprises, but I found myself rooting for Catherine so many times. I felt anxious when it was clear she was going to meet Alison, and I was concerned that she would do the right thing when she is alone with Marc. I hoped she might discover some deeper feelings for Jimmy, too.

I loved the scenes with the children. Admittedly it was hard sometimes to tell the four girls apart, but there was some low-key humour in Catherine’s younger daughter being very religiously aware, using Catholic terms - at times - inappropriately. I thought the scenes involving Dominic were very well done.

There’s quite a bit of introspection, but I didn’t find it overdone or repetitive, as happens in some novels. There are rather a lot of intimate discussions and encounters, mostly involving Kirsty; but thankfully all the ‘action’ is off-stage. There’s more bad language than I like, too; yet it’s not inappropriate, and is mostly used by someone who is extremely angry, or by Dominic when he wants to shock or be offensive.

After the first few chapters I found this book difficult to put down, and am looking forward to reading more by the same author. Recommended to anyone who likes character-based women’s fiction. No longer in print in paperback form (though it can often be found second-hand) but 'The Accidental Wife' is available for the Kindle.

Review copyright 2019 Sue's Book Reviews