The Perfect Divorce

After The Perfect Marriage dragged me completely out of my Romantasy comfort zone and proved that apparently I do, in fact, like thrillers, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on The Perfect Divorce. I wanted to know what Jeneva Rose was going to do with Sarah Morgan next, especially after that ending. Apparently, the answer was to remind me that I learned absolutely nothing from the first book, because once again I spent entirely too much time thinking I knew what was going on.

More than a decade has passed since Adam Morgan was convicted and executed for Kelly Summers’s murder. Sarah has moved on, married Bob, had a daughter, and left her career as a criminal defense attorney behind to run the Morgan Foundation. Now Sarah and Bob are getting divorced, and considering these are two attorneys who know each other extremely well, this was never going to be a quiet sign-the-papers-and-go-our-separate-ways situation.

Then new DNA technology throws the Kelly Summers case right back into the spotlight. Evidence from the original investigation is retested, questions surface about whether Adam was wrongfully convicted, and suddenly a case everyone thought was long over is being pulled apart again. Add an increasingly ugly divorce, missing women, old characters resurfacing, and plenty of secrets, and there was more than enough happening to keep me questioning everyone.

This time, the story moves between several POVs, including Sarah, Bob, Sheriff Hudson, and a mysterious unknown narrator. I liked having the wider view because everyone seemed to hold a different piece of what was happening, while I was left trying to figure out which pieces actually mattered and how the hell they all fit together. Despite having more perspectives and moving parts than The Perfect Marriage, the short chapters kept things moving and stopped the story from feeling too bogged down.

Sarah was still easily one of the most fascinating parts for me. She is smart, controlled, calculating, and frighteningly good at staying several steps ahead of the people around her. After everything that happened in The Perfect Marriage, there is something incredibly entertaining about watching people deal with Sarah when you already know there is far more going on behind that calm exterior than she lets anyone see. She is definitely not someone I would want to underestimate.

Bob, meanwhile, spent a good portion of this book making me seriously question his survival instincts. Sir. You know damn well what your wife is capable of. You have considerably more information about Sarah Morgan than the average person, and somehow you still decide that getting into an ugly divorce and trying to outmaneuver her is a good idea? How are you going to know everything you know and still poke the freaking bear? I’m not saying the man needed to give Sarah everything she wanted, but a healthy respect for self-preservation probably should have entered the conversation at some point. If anyone should know better than to underestimate Sarah, it’s Bob.

Their divorce quickly becomes a battle over their daughter, money, secrets, and who can gain the upper hand first. Neither trusts the other, both know exactly where the other person’s weak spots are, and neither is particularly interested in playing nice. That made the divorce itself almost as interesting to me as the investigation because I was waiting to see who would make the next move and how the other would respond.

There is a lot happening in this book, and at times it did feel busier than The Perfect Marriage. There were a few places where I had to mentally reconnect who knew what and how everything fit together, but it never lost my attention. More importantly, Jeneva got me again. I had theories. I was confident in those theories. I may have even mentally congratulated myself for figuring things out. Only, I hadn’t really figured things out.

Obviously, I’m not touching the major reveals because figuring out who is lying, what actually happened, and how everything connects is half the fun. Once all the pieces started falling into place, some things I had questioned earlier suddenly made a lot more sense. Apparently, my newfound thriller-reading skills are still a work in progress.

There is some explicit sexual content, so I’m giving this 2/5 peppers. It’s on-page, but it isn’t a major part of the story. The divorce, investigation, secrets, and manipulation are very much the focus here.

Overall, The Perfect Divorce gets 4.5/5 stars from me. It was a little busier than The Perfect Marriage, but that was really my only issue. It kept me interested, gave me plenty to question, and proved that I at least like these thrillers. Whether that’s because Sarah Morgan and her particular brand of chaos are exactly my kind of entertainment, or there’s been a little Sherlock Holmes BookDragon hiding underneath all those Romantasy scales this entire time, remains to be seen. Give her a magnifying glass and a few more thrillers. We’ll find out.

Would I recommend it? Absolutely—but read The Perfect Marriage first. So much of what makes this book entertaining comes from already knowing these characters and what happened before. And if you do, I have a feeling you’ll spend at least part of this book asking the same question I was:  Bob, what the hell are you doing?

Review By: SASSY
Owner • Creator • Queen of the Chaos
SassyReviews.com
Read, Reviewed, & BookDragon Approved… or Not.