Book Title: The Beach Wife
Author: Doug K. Pennington
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Release Date: March 14, 2016
Hosted by: Book Enthusiast Promotions

Kim feels trapped in a loveless marriage to a jealous, wealthy older man. He blames her for crippling him in an auto accident that he himself caused. Kim strives to make the marriage work, despite her husband’s blame, verbal abuse and bitterness. When she meets a wickedly handsome man on the beach, she fights not to want him, not to want a new life and not to fall in love.
But Derek is seductive and irresistible—a former soldier who has recently come to town to start a landscaping business. Kim falls hard for him, and he becomes addicted to her. Although Kim wants a divorce, her husband finds out about their affair, and devises a plot to destroy them both. They must struggle to survive a web of lies, deceit and dangerous passion.

My Review:

This book has a great story; it has love, revenge, money, mystery and a great amount of suspense. The action is not at all predictable and it gradually evolves in complexity. One would think this is just a regular love triangle, where the wife of an old guy falls in love with a younger and far better looking one. It’s more than this. We get to see how the mind of a sick and twisted person works when desperation and desire for vengeance take charge.

The characters are well developed and I liked how they all had some evidence of their past. Kim does not want to repeat her family’s mistakes and is willing to stick by her husband, even when he starts rejecting her. The marriage gives her addiction to smoking and a dinking habit. Derek was still haunted by the memories of his time in Afghanistan and Bill was tortured by the memory of his other wives who cheated on him. All these issues affect the characters and influence in one way or another decision.

The scenes in the last chapters are very nicely built and I appreciated having the opinion or reaction of all the figures involved. The ending was well prepared too and I do believe the author has made a wise decision in choosing an apparently not so significant personage to shed light on the facts.

While I appreciated the entire novel, I must mention that the second part of the book could use a little bit of editing. Especially the names are repeated very often and one of the chapters has a paragraph written twice. This has not affected my rating in any way.

All in all, I give my 5 stars to “The Beach Wife”. This book applies to a multiple of tastes. You may not like the romance, but you will love the suspense and the thrill of the action.

Doug K. Pennington has co-written many novels with his wife, under the pen name Elyse Douglas. Some of the novels include Wanting Rita, The Summer Diary, The Other Side of Summer and The Christmas Diary.

He has worked as a copywriter, a pianist, playing on cruise ships around the world, and as a manager for several graphics companies.

Doug lives in New York City, with his wife, Elyse, and their cat, Eaton, who loves to take little sips from a good glass of Pinot Noir.

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