Review: A Sociopath's Guide to a Successful Marriage

A Sociopath's Guide to a Successful Marriage by M.K. Oliver
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"It's a strange coincidence that she killed  my husband, and I killed hers, but what are friends for if not to help you rid of undesirable partners?"

I must say that for the first maybe quarter of this book, I was appalled; however, the more I read, the more I couldn't stop reading. I just had to find out how far Lalla Rook would go to get everything she desired.

After a while, I just started cheering for her, and does that make me a sociopath, too? *chortle*

I loved how she finagled everything to make her life exactly the way she wanted it to be. I may not have agreed with how Lalla went about it, but she put a lot of effort into it.

The secondary characters and their problems added something just a little bit extra to this novel, and I especially loved Cait, or shall we call her Flame?

I think this would make a great book club read because you'd get to discuss just how far Lalla was willing to go, and you all would wonder the same thing about yourselves.

I really liked this novel and hope to see more from Mr. M.K. Oliver in the future.

*ARC was supplied by the publisher Atria Books/Simon & Schuster, the author, and ATTL/Edelweiss.

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SUMMARY: "A whip-smart and darkly funny crime novel—perfect for fans of My Sister, the Serial Killer and The Maid—that follows a wife and mother with a deadly secret that she must suppress if she wants to maintain her picture-perfect façade.

Meet Lalla Rook. Lalla has a lot on her plate: She needs to guarantee her husband makes partner, secure her dream house in Hampstead, and get her daughter into a prestigious prep school. And on the afternoon she stabs a stranger seven times after he breaks into her living room, she has a four-year-old’s birthday party to host.

With an unambitious partner, two demanding children, and a barely adequate large house in a nice (if not quite fashionable) part of town, Lalla’s life isn’t quite perfect yet. And she can’t pretend she hasn’t missed the adrenaline rush that comes with transgressing. Besides, as a wife and mother, she’s already an expert multi-tasker. So, disposing of a body, framing a friend, and being the world’s best mother can easily be managed alongside the usual domestic minutiae.

It’s just that her husband Stephen seems distracted, her daughter’s drowning of the class hamster is affecting her academic future, and then there is the unexpected intruder. Who is this man and what does he want from her? Because Lalla has a past she’d rather keep hidden—and the sudden appearance of the police means that avoiding them will be yet another task to cross off her to-do list.

Funny, calculating, hypercompetent, and ambitious, Lalla is your next favorite antiheroine. Just don’t mention it to her mother-in-law."