Guest review by: Becki Bayley
Kate Parker knows what she’s getting into when she marries billionaire businessman Hank Tudor—she’s his sixth wife, after all, and was by his side (as his assistant) when his fifth marriage to actress Caitlyn Howard fell apart.
How had that girl ended up the way she did – and in such a vicious way? Underneath it all lurked the stock sell-off. There was no way this wouldn’t affect the stocks even more. Shareholders were a skittish bunch. The word “bankruptcy” was tossed around a bit, and for a moment she wondered what it would be like to be married to a Hank Tudor without the billions, a Hank Tudor who lost it all because of a body found on his property. She’d grown up in a middle-class family, in a suburban, nondescript town with parents who were teachers. She worked summers and afternoons after school at the local diner, serving up BLTs and coffee and ice cream sundaes, scraping together enough money to go to the movies, concerts with her friends, putting a little aside every paycheck to help defray college costs. She knew how to live like that; she wasn’t afraid of it. Hank had grown up with money, though. He didn’t know what it was like to struggle financially.
She imagined the two of them settled into a small house somewhere. She could go back to work, and Hank could start a new business. They could have home-cooked dinners and Sundays in front of a fire, reading and just being together. No media hovering outside the door, no need for security teams.
Kate Parker wasn’t just Hank Tudor’s sixth wife. She had already been his assistant while he was married to wife number five. She knows what goes in to promoting the image the staff needs the world to see about Hank Tudor and his companies.
Official synopsis:
But honeymoon plans go awry when a headless body is discovered near Hank’s summer home, forcing Kate to contend with two more of his exes: Catherine Alvarez—the first—who lives as a shut-in with her computers, carefully following Tudor Enterprises; and Anna Klein—the fourth—who runs a bed-and-breakfast where she and her wife keep a steady eye on things—particularly Hank’s children, Lizzie and Teddy.
In this clever and suspenseful reimagining of Tudor era betrayals, these three women become entwined in a deadly game of cat and mouse—with each other, Hank, and Hank’s brilliant fixer, Tom Cromwell—as Kate seeks to solve the puzzle of who the murdered woman is, who killed her, and whether her death has any connection to the other headless body from eight years ago.
This modernization of a splash of Henry VIII’s story was an amusing read. While there seems to be a marked pattern of Hank Tudor leaving each of his wives for personal assistants, Kate Parker is sure that she understands more of what’s up than the others did. But since she’s now his sixth wife and doesn’t have any authority within his life and business dealings, she’s an outsider as the investigation begins regarding a headless body found on his property.
Kate’s confidence may be the death of her, as she is certain she knows what is happening and who all the players are. She also wants to prove that she’s more loyal than the previous wives, and would definitely never question whether her new husband could be behind any deaths or missing persons cases.
It was fun seeing the wives described as contemporary characters: a business woman, an agoraphobic obsessed with him, a lesbian who would never love him that way anyway, and a starlet, to name a few. The story was a fun premise that could be expanded to cover other wives’ stories. The book earned four out of five stars and would be enjoyed by those who appreciate the original Tudor stories, or know nothing of them and just like a curious mystery.
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Becki Bayley is a wife and mother who enjoys reading, writing, and doing Legos. When she’s not at work, you’ll find her caring for her family with love. See what else they’re up to on her blog, SweetlyBSquared.com.
