The Grass Widow by Vanessa Edwards - Review

Hello and welcome to my blog for my stop on the tour for The Grass Widow by Vanessa Edwards! It is a pleasure to welcome you here to my blog. Please do have a click around and read some of my other reviews. Thank you for having me, The Write Reads! 

I like thrillers like this so was intrigued by the premise of the book. I think it's obvious that Vanessa Edwards used to work in law; it's meticulously written. I could barely put the book down because it just kept me engrossed! There are so many different strands and so many different people who are all out for themselves. But most of the characters are really likeable even though they are out for themselves! 

The book revolves around a man called Hugh, but he isn't a main character at all really and it's hard to get to know him. He is married to Amanda and they live in a big house in Winchester which has taken a lot of refurbishment which has taken up all of Amanda's time. He is also having an affair with a woman called Leonie, who works for his law firm in London. Before the beginning of the book, he has broken up with her on the same day that she is made redundant. She wants to get revenge on Hugh so she gets a job at the cleaning firm that Amanda employs, wanting to eventually get to clean Amanda's house. She plans to plant things like receipts and stuff in Hugh's posessions to get Amanda to suspect his affairs, and hopes to bring his life down around him. 

However, there are other things going on too. First of all there's Simon. He is a bit of a loner who lives in a camper van. He does garden work, which he uses as a cover to size up people's houses to burgle. He manages to get a job at Amanda's house and begins to win her over by taking her food, cooking for her, etc. He's charming and so different to Hugh and eventually the two begin an affair. 

But Amanda's current cleaner, Tina, is being blackmailed by her brother in law to steal people's information from the houses she cleans. She makes some money off this which she needs for her son as she's a single mum, but she feels terrible about it. She ends up meeting Simon, who realises what she's doing and realises he needs to contain her. Then there's a woman called Brenda, also a cleaner, who knows about Simon and Amanda's affair and who sends a bribery letter. Leonie knows both these women but doesn't know everything, of course. 

The bodies don't appear in this book until really late on, because so much happens and there's just so many threads. As the reader you know everything, but no one else does. All of the women are pretty sympathetic, even those who are breaking the law, because you understand their desperation. Amanda really has a lot of growth throughout the book and I wanted her and Leonie to succeed. 

In all I'm giving this five out of five because I was just enthralled. I will definitely read something else by Vanessa when she publishes something else!