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Whenever I see anything about plural marriages, I'm always fascinated. Let's be honest, one marriage is hard enough... who's got the energy to sign up for more than one at the same time?

Thursday is married to Seth, but he also has two other wives. None of them have ever met or know much about each other. One day, Thursday finds a receipt in Seth's pocket for a woman named Hannah, and she deduces it's one of his other wives. She's so curious and starts digging around. As she does, she realizes that something isn't quite right. So what secrets is Seth hiding? And who are his other wives?

I picked up The Wives more or less on a lark. It had been getting great reviews, the premise is interesting enough, and plural marriages just sealed the deal. And the first half delivered. It was entertaining and interesting, focusing on the mystery of the other wives and what secrets Seth could be hiding.

Then, the book took a left turn and became a different story altogether (at least to me). It started being crazy, with so many convoluted twists, all of which are ridiculous and cannot possibly happen. Even the characters became different people. It feels like the author made a list of the craziest things she could think of, and then wrote them all into the second half. And just when I thought it was over, we are hit with one last parting shot right at the end, just to cement the insanity.

Sigh. I was promised one story, and it was a good one. I was following along, happily reading and anticipating what's to come, and then it zoomed into a completely different direction. In doing so, it abandoned the story I was hoping for. The disappointment of realizing I'll never know what happened in the story I thought I was reading is a sad and unsatisfactory pill to swallow.