Book review: "A Reliable Wife"

My book club selected "A Reliable Wife" by Robert Goolrick as our August read based on this review from the Washington Post:

"Don't be fooled by the prissy cover or that ironic title. Robert Goolrick's first novel, 'A Reliable Wife,' isn't just hot, it's in heat: a gothic tale of such smoldering desire it should be read in a cold shower. This is a bodice ripper of a hundred thousand pearly buttons, ripped off one at a time with agonizing restraint."

Well, hot damn, let's read it!

I am sorry to report that not once did I need a cold shower. Yes, there was lots and lots of sex in this book, but not once did a blush creep onto my cheeks. (This makes it sound like I have a really amazing sex life that would make book sex pale in comparison. No.)

Catherine Land is a mail order bride on her way to East Jesus Nowhere, Wisconsin to be delivered to her new husband Ralph Truitt. Ralph is totally loaded. He owns the whole town and sends for Catherine with his own private rail car. She has answered his ad for a "simple woman" and en route from Chicago to Wisconsin changes out of her furs and jewels into some plain Jane gray schoolmarm dress, because she knows it's what he expects. Clearly, Catherine is a liar.

So, along the way, we learn the lie. And so does Ralph. And suddenly everyone knows the truth, but they are all still acting out the lie. Everything up until this point was exciting, then it suddenly got tedious. But, this is a whole different world -- apparently people go insane during Wisconsin winters, so I guess in the universe Goolrick invented, it could happen.

Anyway, my favorite parts of this book were the opening and closing scenes. The opening scene I explained already, with Catherine on the train. The closing scene has Ralph and Catherine coming to a new level in their relationship. It doesn't give a complete resolution; rather, it leaves the story open-ended without a definitive answer as to what will happen to the characters next. I love when books do that.

I didn't dislike the middle stuff, but it wasn't as captivating as the start and finish. I haven't decided if this is a good or bad thing in terms of the book itself. All I know is I was left satisfied, even without the need for a cold shower.

(P.S. -- The top image is the "prissy cover" mentioned in the review above. I assume it was the original cover. The one below is the new cover. I guess they thought if there was a picture of a bodice, people will buy the book in the hopes that it will be ripped at some point.)