WHEW! Mary Monroe took us on a ride with this one! I love how she realistically writes historical fiction. So many times, we are supposed to believe that people in an historical time period were perfect and didn't have the same problems that we have today. I loved the characters and the pacing of this book and I am EAGERLY waiting for the next installment in the Wiggins family saga!

Mrs. Wiggins is the first book in the Lexington, Alabama series by bestselling author, Mary Monroe.

Maggie Franklin and Hubert Wiggins have been the closest of friends since their childhood. Their marriage was just an extension of that friendship. Life provides for them but not without some hiccups. It’s how you handle the hiccups that determines who you are. What sort of people are Maggie and Hubert?

Mary Monroe is a bestselling author for a reason. Novels like Mrs. Wiggins are the reason. She blends impeccable characterization with an intriguing plot for an impressive product. These characters are very well-developed but not entirely likable. The story develops a little slowly, but soon takes off like a rocket. Monroe utilizes the southern Depression-era scenery and lifestyle to her advantage. Mrs. Wiggins is a more than good read; I give it 4 out of 5 stars, deducting one star for the initial pace, and recommend it to fans of historical fiction.

My thanks to Kensington Books, Dafina, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book. However, the opinions expressed in this review are 100% mine and mine alone.

I am a member of the American Library Association Reading List Award Committee. This title was suggested for the 2022 list. It was not nominated for the award. The complete list of winners and shortlisted titles is at <a href="https://rusaupdate.org/2022/01/readers-advisory-announce-2022-reading-list-years-best-in-genre-fiction-for-adult-readers/">

Maggie Franklin, the daughter of a prostitute and an alcoholic father is childhood friends with Hubert Wiggins, the pastor’s son and nephew of the town’s undertaker. Having been friends for so long, they both knew and held each other’s secrets. Secrets that lead them to marry and deceive their family and friends. Maggie and Hubert are able to keep up their ruse, even welcoming a young son into their family. Maggie’s love for her family runs deep so when Claude became an adult and sought a wife and Hubert wanted to move on and live in his truth, she takes action to keep her family intact.

MRS WIGGINS, started a bit slow as the characters were introduced and we got to know them, but that soon changed as we were introduced to a different side of Maggie. Acting out of desperation and love, she manipulates situations that keep her family together. The lengths she went to were shocking and oftentimes tragic. This is a real page-turner.

This was an interesting read and while I didn't absolutely love it, it was a unique read! I appreciated the historical perspective, but it was also incredibly moving and emotional.

The setting is rural Alabama and the year is 1917. Maggie, the daughter of an alcoholic father and former prostitute for a mother, agrees to marry her best friend, Hubert Wiggins, the son of a preacher, who is also holding a secret. Four years into their marriage and their plot to fool the world begins. Many people are deceived in the process.

As I read this book, innocent Maggie transforms into a conniving human being...right in front of our eyes.

I loved this 💎💎💎💎💎 book by Mary Monroe, and recommend it to lovers of Historical Fiction.

This was a great read. I featured it as Book of the Day on all my social media platforms, and I’ll include it in my monthly roundup of news releases for my Black Fiction Addiction blog.

This book had me from go! It was fantastic!
This storyline had things I didn't see coming!
It would make a great book club or summer read. Or Both!

Maggie Franklin is the daughter of a retired sex worker and the town drunk, but her marriage to Hubert Wiggins, the pastor's son, will be the social uplifting Maggie needs in order to be seen as respectable. However, their marriage, right off the bat, is filled with secrets and deception. So begins the dark, and sometimes humorous, the tale of the Wiggins family.

Told in first-person from Maggie's POV, we learn about Maggie and Hubert's marriage and Claude, their son. The entire time, I was waiting for the next shoe to drop, held in suspense by the lies of the Wiggins family. We learn that Maggie will do everything in her power to keep her family safe, but with unforeseen consequences. Many of the characters are despicable, especially in their treatment of Maggie, but it's not completely unbelievable in the 1960s/1970s South. I was able to guess the ending and the consequences of Maggie's rash actions. There were a few too many "I declare" that made the book seem satirical or as a parody of people in the South. However, this was a quick read that was shocking and kept me entertained for an evening.

This book was a 5 star read. It took we a while to get into it, but I am glad I stuck with it. It was an unexpected good read with a few twists. Good read.

This is one of best book 2021 i have read so far, from the page 3 I was hook my mouth stay open reading. This excellent novel Mrs.Wiggins was that woman love her my favorite character the things that happen in this book blew my mind can't wait for more from Mary Monroe.

This was such a superb read. I have been waiting to read this book since I heard about it last October. And the book and author did not disappoint. This was such a shocking and amazing read, and I can't wait to read the next book in the series. Phenomenal job. I loved the characters, as well as the flow of the story. And there were so many surprises that my mouth dropped open many times.

Whew child. This book was crazy!! (in a good way). There was so much happening.. I loved it. that darn Mrs. Wiggins said NOT TODAY!!

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* Wow did NOT see that coming! like wow. omfg. .loved it lol will recommend

Great read! Looking forward to reading more by this author! I highly recommend this book and author to all!

When I saw that Mary Monroe had a new novel out I immediately jumped at the opportunity to read it. I have not read any work from the author in years but I am glad that her writing style is just as I remembered it. The storyline is pretty good, it reminded me of the days that I would visit family deep in the country- not that this is a bad thing. It just felt like the setting was down in the delta and the author accomplished what she intended to do. I do feel that the book moved slower than I anticipated and it took me longer than I expected to really get into the story line. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me this ARC.

Mrs. Wiggins by Mary Monroe is the story of a woman who lives her life as she pleases. She was raped by a relative when she was in elementary school and it left its mark on her so when her best friend, Hubert, came up with the plan that they marry to hide the fact that he was a homosexual, she was OK with it. Maggie didn't need sex anyway. It also lent her some respectability, as her parents hadn't given her the best start, her father being a drunk and her mother being an ex-whore. The second part of the plan was to go find some random man to have sex with until she got pregnant and that would be that. It was a little harder than she thought, but the second man turned out to be perfect. He looked a lot like Hubert and he was a nice man. Once, she had almost enjoyed the sex. She was thankful when she got pregnant and avoided ever seeing him again. Claude was born and their life was perfect. Hubert went to see his friends several evenings a week and came home to her where they had a good marriage in every other way. Oh, there were problems, like the time an adult Claude got involved with the wrong woman, but Maggie took care of her and he moved on to a nice girl. Then she had the perfect job working for Mrs. Dowling, a kind and charitable white lady who treated her well and paid her twice as much for her days as anyone else would. All was well until Mrs. Dowling's brother came to stay and Maggie as he had her mother. She took care of that as well. Then it got easier. It helped that the law didn't really care what went on in the black neighborhood.

This was a terrific book. It kind of snuck up on the reader. Maggie Wiggins was a no-nonsense sort of woman who led a blameless life except when she didn't. She was a well-written character who did her best with the situation in which she found herself. Her conscience never bothered her, well not very often; about the fraud she and Hubert were living. She loved her son to distraction and it kind of shocked her when he got old enough to go his own way. She was able to justify all her actions and tuck them away in her brain in a spot they didn't emerge from often. Certainly a different take on how to respond to situations. In a way, it reminded me of The Help. I recommend lovers of excellent characters read this book. You won't regret it.

I was invited to read a free ARC of Mrs. Wiggins by Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own. #netgalley #mrswiggins

Everybody in this town knows that me and you have been real close friends since we was little kids. They ain’t ever seen neither one of us on a date with nobody else, so they ain’t got no reason to believe our marriage ain’t for real.

Don’t judge me but I hadn’t read Mrs. Monroe’s work since her God Don’t Like Ugly Series and I read that back when it was a debut novel so you know how long it’s been since I have revisited her work. This book sucked me in from page one and kept me in suspense until the very last page.

Maggie Franklin and Hubert Wiggins were best friends all their lives and knew everything about one another even the painful secrets. In Hubert’s case, his secret could tarnish his wholesome family’s image as his father was the most revered black preacher in Lexington, Alabama. Maggie’s could make her forlorn life even worse than it already was. She was the only child of the town drunk and a well known ex-prostitute trying to live a respectable life. In small towns like Lexington, no one would let you forget who you (or your parents) used to be, and respectability was everything for colored folks. Maggie and Hubert got hitched to quell the town gossip mill before it started questioning too much. She needed to marry the town’s most eligible bachelor to change her social standing and Hubert needed to keep his secret somewhere safe. Being married to a preacher’s son changed her life overnight, and when they brought a beautiful baby boy into the world, Maggie was the most envied woman in town. She had the perfect Husband, the perfect son, the perfect job, and a perfect life…and anyone who threatened to dismantle what she had worked so hard for would surely find out who Mrs. Wiggins really was.

This book was full of surprises. Anytime you think you have this storyline figured out, Ms. Monroe hits you with something else you didn’t see coming. I stayed up one night past midnight reading this book knowing I had to be at work the next day. It’s been a very long time since a book kept me on edge like this one did. This was a fast paced read that made me laugh out loud at times and I was glad to be reading this on my Kindle Paperwhite because I opened this book up anytime I had a free second to see what happened next.

If I hadn’t seen her post on Facebook, I wouldn’t have known from reading the synopsis that this book is the first of a new series by Ms. Monroe. It is marketed as a standalone and if I had read this book without knowing beforehand it was part of a series, I wouldn’t have been pleased that it ended in a cliffhanger. For that, I’ll give it a 4 star rating instead of a 5 star because cliff-hangers are a pet peeve of mine. Will I be checking out the rest of this series??? Absolutely!!! I can’t wait to see what happens in Lexington next.

Appearances can be deceiving!

In Mary Monroe’s latest novel, Mrs. Wiggins, we meet Maggie, a seventeen year old Southern woman who has had a less than stellar upbringing. Her mother and father are both known as the town prostitute and drunk, respectively, and Maggie is determined to become a better version of them. So when she marries her lifelong best friend, Hubert, it seems like a match made in Heaven. Hubert comes from a strong Christian family and they’ve determined they’re the best match for one another. Both will become the envy of their friends and family and yet, they each have significant secrets that they plan to take to their graves or have their lives upended if anyone finds out.

Maggie and Hubert have one child, Claude who is the apple of their eyes. She and Hubert are living the lives they ultimately planned and Maggie is willing to do any and everything to earn and keep all that she has, even if it means her demise.

Monroe is known for taking us deep into the depression-era south with character driven stories that will make you laugh and gasp for air all the same breath. Mrs. Wiggins does not disappoint there. There were times when the book would lose steam but it kept my attention enough to finish. I was a bit let down by the ending.

Thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Books for the digital arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book needs content warnings for sexual assault and harm/self harm (I don't want to spoil it, so I can't give more specific warnings than that), however Ms. Monroe knows exactly how to spin a tale that is like sitting around the kitchen table listening to ladies gossiping and telling the town's business. Mr & Mrs Wiggins aren't your typical couple, and the way they've constructed their lives is so unconventional, but it works for them. Until it doesn't. And the way the Mrs. works that out? WAYULL you gonna have to read it, but you will never guess.

Fabulous read. My only nit is the short, abrupt end. But I complain about the end of 905 of novels I read.