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Iris Hedge came to New York City to get away—to try something different. Her new job seemed like the perfect thing to help her get over her failed marriage and the husband she left behind in California. But not long after arriving in New York, she finds herself without a job—or many friends, for that matter. One afternoon, a money-making opportunity falls in her lap—in the form of a little amateur detective work for her friend’s sister, Vickie, who’s convinced that her husband, Steve, is cheating on her.
Iris finds pretty quickly that she’s really not a very good detective. She can’t figure out what Steve is up to—and she can’t give Vickie proof that he’s cheating. And it’s not long before Steve figures out that she’s following him.
Desperate to help Vickie—who’s pregnant and beside herself, afraid of what will happen to her marriage and her child—Iris works out a deal with Steve to try to save the marriage. But the more time she spends with him, the more she has to remind herself that his handsome, intriguing, seemingly perfect guy is also the [possibly cheating] husband of a woman who’s quickly becoming her friend.
Lately, I’ve been having a hard time finding female characters that I really like. Iris could have been a character that readers could really relate to—a woman who’s been through a hard time but who’s doing her best to learn and grow from the experience. Instead, she spends much of the book wallowing in her misery and whining about her situation and her neighbors and wasting her time on a deliberately dead-end relationship. Sure, we all tend to whine and wallow from time to time—and not all of our relationships are always the best for us—but it takes Iris a bit too long to snap out of it and pull herself together. Some of the other characters are interesting—like Joy, Iris’s New Age guru mom, or Simon, her stylist neighbor—but they’re not developed enough. And Iris’s detective work could have spiced up the story—but there’s not nearly enough of it. Possibly the book’s greatest offense, however, is the end of the story, where the author throws in a twist that feels forced and far-fetched.
It’s About Your Husband had the potential to be a fun little chick lit treat about a bumbling detective who turns her life around—but it just didn’t work out that way. It’s a well-written book with the makings of a great story and a cast of characters who have plenty of potential, but, unfortunately, it falls short in a few too many areas to be a truly satisfying read.
