Absolutely loved this book I was hooked from the beginning. A heartfelt read would recommend it to anyone thoroughly enjoyed it.

So much gratitude to Kate Field and Avon for the chance to read and review this book. It brought me to tears. What an emotional read. I totally fell in love with the main character Mary Black. Such strength and resilience she has through out this book. The book will stay with me as it made me think and reflect about how we interpret others actions and opinions, and this impacts our decisions. Amazing book. Loved it.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book - straight away it was a book that I could not wait to get home from work to carry on reading, and I could not recommend it more.

The book starts with Mary Black who, right at the start of the book, spots her husband of 20 years holiding hands with someone else - another man. This is by no means a spoiler, as this is shared in the book’s synopsis, but it was enough of a teaser to entice me to read the book. What follows is much less like the traditional ‘chick lit’ read, as this book a lot more depth and originality, and it was certainly more unconventional, owing to the fact that it addresses the husband’s homosexuality.

I haven’t a single complaint about this book - read it!

A romantic novel a novel that starts out with shock heartache.After twenty years of marriage a woman is told by her husband he is leaving her surprise enough but he tells her he is leaving her for a man..
Recovering from the hurt the heartache she must pick up her life care for her family and find herself again.A sad story that turns into a lovely story romance.#netgalley #avonbooksuk,

Mary’s life has been complacent...until now. Leo, her husband of twenty years has come out of the closet in an unfortunately public way with his partner Clark, causing a flurry of small town gossip. Her daughter, Ava, appears to despise everything Mary says or does, then again, Ava’s a typical, broody teenager. Her son, Jonas, is growing up and looking forward to moving out. Her mother is carrying on with a secret gentleman. So many changes are happening in a short span of time. The only normal in Mary’s life seems to be her dog Dotty, and maybe her ex brother-in-law, Ethan, and mother-in-law Audrey. Needless to say, Mary’s world has turned upside down. Does she get mad, get even, or go with the flow?

Mary’s journey of self-discovery was a plethora of feels. Mary was smart and sweet, but beige definitely described her to a T. She went along with everything anybody said, whether she agreed or not, and while the constant repression of herself eventually erupted with flair, I really, really wished it had happened sooner! Mary’s decision to take the safest route to love, settling for friendship and comfort, rather than taking a risk with the unknown, changed the direction or her life. She bottled up so much of her own identity and personality into her role as wife and mother, she floundered in the wake of Leo’s news. Personally, I couldn’t have swallowed my tongue and smiled through family holidays and being in an ex’s wedding as best woman! I wanted to shake some sense into Mary’s thick noggin so many times, especially when it came to Leo selfishness and Ethan’s obvious attempts to draw her out and show her what had been under her nose the entire time! Someone who loved and appreciated her for herself, without any colored glasses from society’s expectations.

Mary kept her head in the sand like an ostrich for longer than I thought she would, but I’ll give her credit. She was extremely gracious in her attempts to keep her family together and went above and beyond the call of duty! However, I do wish there was an extended epilogue into Mary’s new life that would have tidied things up somewhat considering selfish Leo had almost all his wishes and desires granted!

The Man I Fell In Love With was hard to put down! I loved the dynamics of each relationship and how each one had a different sort of love attached to it. I found myself invested in Mary’s personal turmoil and her new ‘normal’ blended-family relationships and was cheering for her to take that first step and live the life she was meant to have! Overall, this was a fantastic read and I’m happy to have discovered a new author!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book courtesy of Avon U.K. and Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
The Man I Fell in love With actually made me quite sad. Books where characters are told lies instead of the truth because it was ‘better’ for them frustrate me. I know that without these circumstances there would be no story, I just wish it hadn’t been decades before the truth came out.
The book itself was wonderfully written, the plot flowing perfectly, and I can’t fault the characters or outcome. The side story about Alice Hornby was nice too.
In the end, it made me want to grab Mary by the shoulders and shake her and deliver those mantras we’re told to live by, ‘You only live once,’ ‘Dance like no one’s watching,’ ‘Who cares what other people say about you?’ It felt so believable that I really hope Mary is growing old with Ethan right at this moment.

In the first sentence, Mary Black discovers her husband Leo, holding hands with another man in the middle of a charity event. I read this and thought , here we go, another predictable cliched book of wife discovering husband is gay. But The Man I Fell In Love With is so much more than a one dimensional plot. Mary and Leo have been together since they were 15, living a calm, beige, ordered, academic life that Mary thinks is fine and stable. She doesn’t want drama in her life since as a child her father walked out, but when Leo leaves and starts a completely different and happy life, Mary is forced to take stock, and she’s not comfortable with what she sees. Add Ethan, Leo’s brother to the mix, who as a friend tries to get her to open her eyes wider to the possibilities of happiness in life, and two old women in a bookstore that jump start her own career, and you’ve got a great novel that was wonderful to read.

Mary Black's comfortable life is blown apart when she sees her husband (and childhood sweetheart) holding hands with another man at a Christmas Party. Suddenly her marriage to the boy next door is a sham and she finds herself not only the subject of small town gossip but separated from a man who was her best friend as well as her husband.

Juggling her 'marvellous' mother-in-law, who still lives next door, her mother, who lives in a converted garage attached to Mary's house, two teenage children, her soon-to-be ex-husband Leo, his brother Ethan, and his lover Clark, the dog Dotty, her BFF Daisy and the promotion for Leo's book on the little known Lancastrian author Alice Hornby Mary tries to please everyone all the time, after all that's what she's done practically her whole life, until Ethan points out that her life has been beige.

As the book progresses we see the secrets and lies that have pushed Mary down her life's path. The incidents that have shaped her behaviour and coloured her attitude towards others. I have to say by the end of the book the only character that I felt came out well was Ethan, everyone else appeared to behave very badly, to lie, and to keep secrets for, that terrible cliche, 'her own good'. Leo, in particular, seemed to be a cheating, selfish, egotistical, lazy waste of space - personally I would have set fire to his car. Mary on the other hand appeared to be a complete doormat, I did wonder if Mary would have been so accepting/forgiving if Leo had left her for another woman, and I did want to shake her at times and tell her to get a job.

I also thought there were too many coincidences, things tied together too neatly and everyone turned out not to be so bad after all, maybe its because Mary resolved her issues from the past.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed this novel. I liked the unravelling of past secrets, I liked the romance and I liked the Mary Hornby sleuthing.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

This book started with a bang! Mary founds out her husband is having an affair with a man and is leaving her. Her life as she knew has changed overnight, as she starts to get it together and try to move on, she is constantly tempted by a man she is not supposed to have. This book is about a woman coming into her own and taking responsibility for her own life. I was frustrated at how naive Mary was at times but as we all know some people are really like that. I could not put this book down as I was dying to find out what her final decision would be.


PS: The review will be posted online on January 8th.

The Man I Fell in Love With by author Kate Field is a warm, different look at marriage hardships. The author has put a lot of heart and emotions in this book.. I would recommend it!
Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC copy of The Man I Fell in Love With in exchange for an honest review.