I enjoyed reading this family drama about three women, Steph, Evie and Theresa. who met at toddler group and went on to have a long-standing friendship. We follow their journey from their twenties to their sixties, enjoying the ups and downs of their relationships and friendship, seeing how their characters change and grow over the years. We learn the secret of why Evie and Steph fell out for years, and why Theresa didn’t try harder to get them to make friends again. As we read the story we see that other people’s marriages aren’t always how they seem, and even strong women like Steph can feel trapped in their marriage and turn a blind eye to some things for peace and the greater good of the family. All the characters were so relatable and it was an interesting read.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for a wonderful novel!! Other People’s Marriages was a breath of fresh air about long standing women friendships. I really loved the women characters and their thoughts during thirty five years of friendship. The ups and downs of friendships, how Blessed we are to be able to keep them going sooo long. A really good read.

Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC of 'Other People's Marriages". I really enjoyed this fast paced, emotional novel. The protagonists were likeable and I was instantly rooting for them. A great easy read.

Kerry Fisher took a common concept of women’s perception of self, love, family, marriages and if you’re lucky, your best girlfriends. The novel is a phenomenal and real exploration that blew my expectations out of the water. All people change and grow throughout their lives; some prosper from their adaptability while sadly others remain stunted and stuck. But given this story focuses on 3 friends who met in their 20’s as young married Mum’s at a Mum and baby group it was heartwarming to see the women and their friendships evolve over the years. And not every friend group or couple looks exactly like anyone else’s. We are all different. And some of us are hardwired to handle situations in a multitude of ways. Kerry Fisher captured each unique relationship so well that even if we couldn’t identify with each character, we immediately recognized someone. Be it ourself or our friends from this particular group and those of their partners. Who we are and how we act in our 20’s and early 30’s can look very different in our 40’s and beyond. But if we are lucky enough to find friends that are constant and a source of comfort, we are truly blessed. On examining relationships with our significant others, in this case the women’s husbands, we can all identify with growth, change that are present in all marriages.. At some point on this journey called life if we are able to grow and learn about ourselves and the key people in it, a few close friends make the journey all the richer. Again, Fisher captures the lives of 3 women who are all very different but it is their love for each other that allowed them to confront life’s joys and challenges in very relatable and real ways. Whether combining motherhood and a career and a so-so marriage, raising a family with a great partner or a subpar one, no one really knows that the choices we make aren’t always what we had hoped for. What is the same is that most of us are doing the best that we can at the time. The story arc starts in the past and we follow the triumphs and the heartache over the years through the eyes of Steph, Teresa and Evie. Whoever you identify with the most will still be a refreshing take on the fact that none of us are stuck. Things can change and often do whether you want them to or not. And if you can, lean on and try to accept the gift of friendship from the ones who know you best. The good the bad and the downright ugly. The journey is guaranteed to be all the sweeter for it. Special thanks to Netgalley and Bookoutre for another fantastic read.

I discussed this book in my last podcast episode and wrote about it in my last reading post as well - I really enjoyed it! I had never read or even heard about this writer before this book and enjoyed it so much. Its a fantastic tale of friendship and the best part - Its about a group of 60+ year old women. I am in my thirties and would ordinarily think its not something I would find common ground with but Kerry Fisher's storytelling is just so good it totally resonated with me. Its very realistic and .....(continued in link)

Evie, Steph and Teresa meet as young mothers and a mom and tot group. This books explores their friendship through many years. Author, Kerry Fisher, did a good job vacillating between past and present day writing. I enjoyed knowing the history of the three friends as it strengthened the characters in this book. However, some of the scenarios and characters were completely unbelievable so it made it hard to relate. Overall this was a decent book and an easy summer read.

***Huge thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Kerry Fisher, Other People’s Marriages, bookoutre, 2021.

Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with this proof in exchange for an honest review.

Kerry Fisher is one of a small group amongst the writers of domestic drama with a feminist foundation that I admire and enjoy. Yes, there are others who attempt to write in this genre and succeed well enough to provide a satisfying and, at times, likeable read. However, Kerry Fisher does more. Her use of a familiar device, some older women friends, a secret, chapters that alternate between characters and past and present, is particularly well developed. Slices of the women’s lives, and secondary characters, brought together over time insist that readers become drawn into the deliberations and lives enacted on the page. These lives are so full of comic moments, heartache, drama, friendship, enmity, and reality with which it is so easy to engage, that the women, likeable or not, with whom it is simple to agree or not, become a familiar part of readers' lives, at the time, and after the book is finished.

Other People’s Marriages begins in 2018 at Steph’s sixtieth birthday party, catering has been organised by her husband, Mal, despite her protestations that she would like to do it. One long term friend, Teresa, and her husband, Paul, are guests. Evie and her husband, Neil, are not. On the weekend away to celebrate Evie and Steph’s thirty seventh birthdays, Teresa and Evie begin the lie that leads to Evie maintaining her distance from Steph, and Teresa the difficulty of maintaining her friendship with both Steph and Evie, while discouraging them from resuming their friendship.

The three women met at a mothers and toddlers’ group in 1984. Their characters are described through Teresa's internal misgivings about her ability to make friends; Steph’s strong, independent behaviour and assertions; and observations about the women and their sons. Teresa is worried that her son, Ross is reluctant to join in group activities;. Steph has no such reservations about her somewhat recalcitrant son, Ben; and Evie is satisfied with her role as a full-time parent to Isaac. Her pleasure in interacting with him is unfamiliar to Teresa and Steph who love their work outside the home, albeit unlike Steph, Teresa’s is not full time, involving overseas conferences and high-powered absences from husband and son.

The marriages unfold, with their highlights acknowledged and failures hidden from public view, and sometimes from the women themselves. While controlling partners are recognised in others’ marriages, they are not in their own. Where the women have adopted strategies to deal with disappointments, these become mill stones without them fully recognising them as such. Words are sometimes weapons, at other times diffuse difficult situations. Theoretical aspirations, easy to adopt during the early years of marriage, become muted, despite disappointments. The three sons become adults, and their early connection based on their parents’ proximity over the years and shared holidays, are left behind as they become individuals with their own relationships. Their son’s adult ties, as well as the women’s relationships with friends and husbands’ impact on them and their ability to fulfil their ambitions.

Kerry Fisher develops these diverging, contrasting and often lovingly dependent relationships with sensitivity to the three main women’s need to negotiate through roles that often provide them with few options. Their flaws are treated with understanding, so that where friends fail to act as they should, there is enough detail to elicit understanding of their position. Similarly, feminist ideals are dealt with in away that makes it easy to identify with the way in which they are sometimes met, sometimes not. Each woman’s journey is one that can be understood, however often one might think, ‘just get on with it!’

Secondary characters’ dilemmas also resonate in a way that makes them an integral part of the way in which Steph, Evie and Teresa develop from their first meeting to the end of the novel in 2022. Kerry Fisher explains this looking into the future as one in which no-one needs to wear a mask, and can ‘be free to meet, gather and hug as much as we want to’. For me, Steph, Evie, and Teresa are characters who do not willingly leave the page, even when that page is the end of the novel. It could not have happened any earlier than in 2022.

“Other People’s Marriages” opens with Steph’s 60th birthday, an occasion where she finds herself musing over the state of her life, her dull marriage, and her friendships. Although Steph, Teresa, and Evie are as different as can be when they meet as young mothers in 1980, the three women forge a strong friendship. The story alternates between present day and past instances that highlight the ups and downs of their relationships and the evolution of the women themselves.

Although this novel is ostensibly about marriage and how you never truly know the innermost workings of someone else’s relationship, the decades-spanning friendship is the star of the story. It’s a treat to see women’s friendship so beautifully written. Kerry Fisher is very skillful at characterization, and “Other People’s Marriages” is no exception. The three women feel real and relatable, and you’ll wish you could be friends with them too. You’ll feel drawn to Steph’s free spirit just as much as Teresa and Evie were back in 1985.

I really enjoyed this book, which shares plenty of life lessons on life, love, and forgiveness. It’s a compelling read that packs an emotional punch.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for providing me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was an enjoyable quick read and was exactly what I was looking for.
This is the first book I've read from the author and will definitely be checking out further books from Amazon

Other people's marriages... what do we know about them? Not very much, unless you know those people well and you can even consider them friends. In that case you might see some cracks or you can see how happy the couple is. But even if you are close friends and you see each other regularly, you can still see things that aren't there, because often people only show what they want others to know. The rest stays hidden.

What would you do when you think you found something out? Would you tell or would you keep quiet? After all you are not sure you have it right. You might cause trouble and hurt and what if you made a mistake? Should you warn your friend and risk wrecking a family or should you keep silent, because that's the best way to protect them?

Should you let yourself be unhappy in order to keep your family together, but can you provide a happy home this way? Or is it better to go separate ways, become who you were again and stop acting or treading on eggshells for the rest of your life?

This is a story about relationships, family, making the right choices and true friendship. Even if a friend does something you feel deceived by, you will realise they did it to protect you and because they really thought it was for the better.

The characters were well developed and I enjoyed the story a lot. Sometimes you wonder how people that are so different can become such good friends, but it's not only when you talk about love that opposites attract. Often you need a friend to complement you and not to be your mirror image. 4 stars. 

Thank you

This book tells the story of three women who meet at a baby group in 1984. It alternates between then and recent years and develops into a very readable family drama. A enjoyable easy read. Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read an ARC

This is exactly as it says ‘on the tin’! It’s May 2018 and as Steph’s 60th birthday approaches she’s feeling rebellious as she mulls over life’s lost opportunities, the live wire woman she was when young and the fact that husband Mal is now very dull. Steph meets Teresa (married to Paul) and Evie (to Neil) in 1984 at a mother and toddler coffee morning and her joie de vivre attracts both women. In 1995 Steph has a major falling out with Evie and Neil while on holiday in Norfolk and they haven’t spoken since. Steph realises how much she has missed Evie - can they reconnect? The story is told by the three women and alternates between 2018/19 and the years from 1984.

One of the greatest strengths of this fascinating novel is the characterisation, which is very strong. All of them are well developed, acutely observed and easy to visualise. They aren’t all likeable especially the men with the exception of Paul and you feel you have a fly on the wall view of their marriages, their relationships with their children and their friendship. They’re all very different personalities and it’s especially interesting to see how Evie and Steph have flipped personalities over the years. What happened to you Steph??? Where did you go??! I enjoy how it all comes to a head in 1995 and we the follow the ramifications of the friendship split with Teresa as the piggy in the middle. This is a very reflective book on how people change as they grow older, hit bumps in the road which reveals the fragility of life and relationships built on sand. The women come to the realisation that they are each other’s people, age and wisdom and all that jazz though not so much they can’t still have fun! The novel is punctuated with some really good humorous statements especially from Steph who hangs the whole thing together. I want these women as my friends!!!

Overall, I really enjoyed this novel, it’s very well written and makes for a compelling read.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Bookouture for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

Thanks NetGalley for the chance to read and review. Compelling story of 3 women that moves well between past and present. Really enjoyed the writing style and character development. Enjoyable and easy to read.

Steph, Evie and Teresa realized one of the true jewels in life is the long lasting friendship that can transcend any sort of hardships because sometimes you cannot share the truth in order to protect those you love. They also realized that in order to make a marriage work that there needs to be gentleness and involvement in each others lives rather than running in parallel lines similar to Steph and Mal. Evie no longer let herself feel less than. Teresa realized what she had with Paul was special and unique and became stringer because of it. It was fortuitous that they met through their boys in play group but in doing so, they became family.

I always enjoy this author’s books and this one didn’t disappoint.

Steph, Evie and Teresa met at a baby group when their sons were small and became the best of friends. As they are now all in their sixties, a secret that Evie and Teresa have kept for decades comes to light, the repercussions of which could destroy Steph’s marriage and blow up their friendship.

A great story of family and friendship which was an easy and enjoyable read.

This book was an easy read, but I kept waiting for something to happen. It didn’t. So while it was a pleasant enough read I wanted more meat to it!

I love Kerry Fisher’s books, which always deal with really believable characters and situations to which, as in real life, there are often no easy answers.

The story follows three women, now in their sixties - Steph, Teresa and Evie - both in the past and present. When a rift many years earlier between Steph and Evie is finally healed, long hidden truths begin to come to light.

All the women are married, with sons of the same age - they first meet at a baby group in the ‘80s - and it did take me a while to remember which husband and child belonged to which woman.

Steph is the woman we see most of and I really liked her character - gregarious and unapologetic about living life her own way and pursuing her career. Nevertheless, Steph in her sixties feels trapped by an unfulfilling marriage.

I’m not sure I enjoyed it quite as much as some of Kerry’s other books, but nonetheless it was a really good read. Many thanks for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

I received Other People's Marriages as part of a NetGalley giveaway.

Despite their different personalities, Steph, Evie, and Teresa were best friends since they were young mothers to toddler boys, until a beach getaway uncovered secrets and tensions between the women and their husbands, and led to an estrangement between Steph and Evie. Nearly twenty-five years later, at age sixty and trapped in an unfulfilling marriage, Steph seeks to reconnect with her friend, who has recently gotten divorced herself. In doing so, however, the trio must confront the issues that drove them apart a quarter century earlier in order to move forward together.

I really enjoyed this. It's a very character-driven book, with lots of introspection about the process of getting older: the regrets, the changing perspectives, and the forgiveness of mistakes (or simply different decisions) made earlier in life. Fiercely independent, black-and-white thinkers begin to see shades of gray, while those with softer hearts learn to stand up for themselves and their needs and wants. I was proud of each character, particularly Steph, for the unique growth they demonstrated over the course of the book, leading to a rewarding but realistic conclusion.

Steph, Evie and Teresa all met at a mother and baby group. They shared many trials and tribulations together. So at Steph's 60th birthday party the only person she misses is Evie who she fell out with 23 years previously. Through chapters from each woman's perspective we learn what happened to tear them apart and can anything bring them back together.
This is a great story about long term friendship and a family drama novel. Very well written, makes the reader invested in the story to find out more
Many thanks to Netgalley and publishers for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own

I had a few books on my list to read before this one but yesterday I thought I’d take a quick peek. Well, hours later and I’d devoured the whole thing! Fabulous family drama. A very emotional story that will tear at your heart.
I was so engrossed in the book where I was not aware until the story end. The writing is exquisite. It feels like you are living in the book. Such a great story.
Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this fabulous novel in return for an honest review. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️