Secret Obsession by Kimberla Lawson Roby
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Release Date: 6th September 2011
Rating: 4/5
Source: Received from Netgalley.
Amazon Summary:

Paige Donahue has always lived in her sister Camille’s shadow. As children, Camille had the grades, the friends, and their parents’ love, while Paige was left with hand-me-downs and criticism. Now as adults, Camille lives an idyllic life with her husband, Pierce, and her two perfect children in a beautiful home, while Paige is stuck in a small condo with bills she can’t afford to pay. But no more. With seeds of doubt planted in both Camille’s and Pierce’s minds, Paige’s plan to steal her brother-in law starts to work. But when he reveals his decision to make his marriage work, a desperate Paige moves from envy to madness. What results from her dangerous scheme is something no one could have imagined.

Secret Obsession is the kind of novel I wish more authors would write. Honestly, I do. I’m a huge fan of Chick Lit, but rarely is there a plot where the main character does something terrible. In the case of Secret Obsession Paige Donahue wants to steal her sister Camille’s husband and as soon as I saw that premise on Netgalley I requested it straight away and was thrilled to be accepted to read and review it. The moral dilemma put me off, but the plot fascinated, too. I wanted to know Paige’s reasoning and so I eagerly devoured it in the course of a few days.

Secret Obsession is a Marmite book. You’ll either love it or you’ll hate it. Either you’ll read the description and instantly read it or you’ll put it down in disgust. I felt both. I felt repulsed knowing what I was going to read about, but I wanted to read it anyway because I like a novel that’s a bit different and Secret Obsession is certainly that. I liked the idea that after many years of living in her sister’s shadow, Paige was ready to snap, that for once she wanted to win and the only way for her to win was to steal Pierce, so she sets about ruining their marriage. It’s despicable, no doubt about it, but it’s addictive and highly readable, too. I’m not sure how believable the plot is in terms of… well, everything, but for the sake of fiction I’ll let it go. I mean it could happen. People steal other people’s husbands and wives all of the time, and I’m sure some of those people are sisters/brothers/daughters/sons etc so it’s not all beyond the realm of unbelievability.

The things Paige does to try and steal Pierce are rather disgusting. It’s quite something that I managed to get past the first 10 pages, because what Paige does, what she sets up, what she lets people believe is horrible. It’s deplorable, even worse than trying to steal her sister’s husband and that’s saying something. A lot of people will read that and slam the book down, and I’m a tad surprised it was allowed to fly, that the publishers kept it in, though despite being totally horrific it also helped us see Paige’s mind-set. It’s sort of like a see-saw, really. It’s really rather a gray area, it’s undoubtedly sick, but from Paige’s point-of-view it’s her only option. Despite the questionable nature of the plot, of Paige’s actions it’s a very readable book. The fact the book is a mere 192 pages meant I got through it very quickly and the pace was always fairly high as there was so much to do, so much to set in place and have to resolve and I think Roby for the most part wrote an excellent piece of fiction.

The characters are terrible people, with few being redeemable. Paige is a character nobody will like. I freely admit I hated her. I mean, you don’t do that! You don’t try and steal your sister’s husband! It’s out of order. I never wanted her to succeed, and I was waiting for her life to finally come crashing down around her. Her sister is better. In fact, Camille was the only likeable character, perhaps along with Karla, Paige’s best friend. Camille I rooted for, Camille I wanted to yell at and tell her what was going on. Her husband, on the other hand, no thank you. Pierce was not as bad as Paige, but he’s hardly an angel, as we learned during the novel. Paige and Camille’s parents faired no better, and all around it was really hard to find more than Camille to root for, because the rest were all truly mean and horrible people.

I enjoyed Secret Obsession, it was a quick read and I did find myself wondering what lengths Paige would go to next to secure Pierce. I did want to see what happened in the end. I did find some of the writing to be a bit convenient - some conveniently placed conversations, particularly one that occurs a little way into the book between Paige and her mom that was just a bit too soap-operaish to be believable. I also disliked the way the characters all called each other “girl” because that never rings true (“Hey, girl, you’ll never believe what happened,” Camille says at one point, or words to that effect and it was very cringeworthy). But for the most part I thought it was a very interesting novel. Not perfect, not a happy novel and with a rather too-good-to-be-true Epilogue which was far too sweetness and light for me but it was readable and I’m glad I did because it was a novel that made me think, made me wonder and made me realise I’m rather glad I don’t have a sister like Paige. I would recommend it because it is a novel that’s different to what I usually read and despite the lengths Paige go to be a bit uncomfortable, if you can get past it, it is a novel well worth reading.

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