The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose

The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose

The Perfect Marriage was Jeneva Rose's debut novel from 2020, which was recently reedited and republished. It is a favorite on TikTok and the sequel, The Perfect Divorce, was released this past April. It deals with death and murder, infidelity, drug abuse, bullying and toxic relationships (like, a lot of them), physical abuse, blood, stalking, pregnancy, sexual harassment, and injury.

Sarah Morgan, high-powered criminal defense attorney, has been married to her author husband, Adam, for long enough that the honeymoon phase is well in the past. And Adam has begun to resent his wife for how successful she's become since he's been unable to write for years and he feels like she puts her career before him most of the time. So obviously, he uses the vacation cabin they bought outside of DC to facilitate his writing to start an affair with a local, Kelly, which he's kept hidden from his wife for two years. After a night together, Adam leaves his mistress in bed at the cabin to return to his wife in the city, only to find the cops waiting for him the next morning. Kelly was found stabbed to death in his bed and the cops seem to think he was the one to do it. Now he has to turn to the best criminal defense attorney he knows - the wife that he's betrayed.

I don't understand why this book is so incredibly popular. Firstly, we have the obvious issue of a wife defending her husband, who is being tried for the murder of his mistress. That screams conflict of interest. Getting past that, Adam is the most unlikeable character I've read about recently - and I read We Should Never. He is on trial for murder and is more concerned with whether or not his wife still likes him. Listen, if you don't think your wife likes you and would rather see you rot in prison, maybe don't hire her as your defense attorney. None of the characters seemed particularly well fleshed out. The majority were very one dimensional, maybe Sarah had two dimensions but that is a big maybe. It did move quickly, I'll give it that, and it wasn't particularly short. The other good thing was that I didn't see the end coming. I wouldn't say that it shocked me or even surprised me, I just didn't expect it to go that way. In short, the best part of this book was the cover. This is one I'm going to enjoy complaining about for months to come.

I'm giving The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose 3 stars out of 5. I didn't love it, I didn't even really like it, but I also didn't hate it. I might even read the sequel in the future, if for no reason other than something new to complain about.

For more from the author, check out their website at https://www.jenevarose.com/

Pairs well with crispy hashbrowns and getting too old to enjoy gushers.