Author: Margot Hunt
Genre: Thriller
Pub Date: December 11, 2018
Feel Learn Wonder Rating: 4/5
I’m going to start this post with a correction that I feel should really be made, and may impact your interest level in this book: The tagline on the front cover reads, “It was the perfect marriage, until everything went perfectly wrong”, but that’s not the intrigue of this book. In my opinion, the way it should be phrased is, “It was the perfect murder, until everything went perfectly wrong.” Now if that’s not intriguing…..
For Better and Worse is the story of Natalie and Will – two lawyers who bonded on their first date over how being a lawyer would allow them to literally get away with murder. They understood the system, the loopholes, and the paths detectives would take, and therefore it would be easy for them. It was all hypothetical until something happened to make them consider the what ifs. What if they did pull off a murder? Could they really get away with it?
What drew me to this book was the feeling that the story would keep me on the edge of my seat through the complexity of the situation, not just the risk of violence. I’ve noticed that while I’m reading less thrillers than I used to, sensing a psychological element can often push me to pick one up. This book had it all in that regard – family drama, a murder, and strong vibes of a police procedural.
Similar to The Husband’s Secret this book was engaging and relatable — even though I don’t expect to ever wind up in their position. And what I think this book did well is how calm the plot was kept despite how not calm the plot was. Here we are with our protagonist considering murder and I, the reader, was thinking, “you know, that’s really not a horrible idea.” How did this book get me to that point? But I could feel the ethical debate and even though through the law and society, and really all concepts of right and wrong, I knew murder was the wrong choice, I found myself conflicted.
While this book may still be classified as more of a thriller than a work of literary fiction, I love that it allowed me to feel that internal conflict, and let me learn in and embrace it. I felt so connected to this book in a way I haven’t with other books of this style, and for that reason I would strongly recommend this book.
One final caveat: Without dwelling on it too much, I did find the ending a bit frustrating. It was disconnected from the rest of the plot and an end that didn’t need to be added. Again, similarly to The Husband’s Secret, I’m going to pretend that the ending didn’t exist, because honestly the rest of the book was just great without it.
Feel Learn Wonder 
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