Book Review: "His Other Wife" by Deborah Bedford

Summary from Christianbook.com: Dedicated to raising her son since her divorce, Hilary views Seth's high school graduation and full college scholarship as evidence of her success. But when an accident at a post-graduation campout lands Seth in jail, his stepmother, Pam, blames Hilary. Is Hilary's love strong enough to join forces with Pam to redeem Seth's future?

Infidelity is another subject that keeps creeping up in the books that I read. I swear I don't mean to keep choosing books like this. The interesting part is that I am getting hit with it from all the angles so the different perspectives are quite interesting.

If my husband cheated on me, told me he had stopped loving me, left me and remarried the other woman, there is no way that I am going to be friends with him and his wife. If there were children involved, I would stay civil for the sake of the child but I am not going to be friends with him. I could not do what Hilary did and have them stay over in my house. I would darn well not let the new wife talk down to me or tell me how bad of a parent I was. I know that Hilary was trying to not let her temper rise or have it show in front of Seth but I really thought there was situations where she was a doormat. I don't know if she's showing the whole "turn the other cheek" method but I really got frustrated with her for not standing up for herself.

I'm wondering why Hilary never remarried or even thought about dating again. I thought there might have been some hint of a relationship between her and another character but it's never brought up or mentioned. I understand that she poured her life into her son but I felt that a lot of the doubt and insecurity not to mention anger that she's harboring could have been helped if she at least tried to date again. She never flat out says that she didn't want to find someone else so I'm wondering if it's the old Christian fiction standby of you can't remarry if you're divorced type of deal.

While it was interesting to see the viewpoints from Pam and Eric, to be honest there was nothing they could say that could really elicit sympathy from them. I blame Eric the most for the whole situation and frankly did not feel like he was suffering any throughout this whole situation. On a normal basis, I could maybe identify with Pam's insecurity but really? She's jealous of the ex-wife and her husband's first son? Well maybe you should have thought of that before getting involved with a MARRIED man? I'm sorry, there's just no sympathy on my part for her and him and their attitudes were self righteous and selfish.

I found Seth's story to actually be the most interesting. I felt that Bedford did a really job of portraying him as a teenager on the verge of becoming an adult. His actions, moods and what he said was exactly how I expected someone his age to act. I wish we could have read more from his point of view. Overall this is a very interesting book because of the subject matter. Hopefully I will never find myself in Hilary's situation but I know that there are many who are in that way right now. I think there is a lot to discuss after reading this book and a lot to think about, which I think is a big selling point for the book.

His Other Wife by Deborah Bedford is published by Faithwords (2011)

This review copy was provided by the publisher