Book Blog Tour of Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives by Josie Brown

Welcome to the Book Blog Tour of Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives by Josie Brown.  If you're looking for a fun beach, this just might be the book for you.


The blurb:
Lyssa Harper should have warned divorced DILF du jour Harry Wilder before she invited him to meet the mommies of Paradise Heights Woomen's League Board.  At least he brought cupcakes.  Since taking the former Master-of-the-Universe turned stay-at-home single dad under her wing Lyssa has been his domestic Sherpa, teaching him the dins and outs of life inside their gated community.  She never dreamed her friends would bombard him with casseroles, leopard-print bikini briefs, and offers to rearrange hiskitchen cabinets.

But Harry's presence soon stirs up trouble in paradise:  if Harry and his wife, the neighborhood's "perfect couple," can call it quits, what does that mean for other so-called happy couples, like Lyssa and her husband, Ted?  When Harry sets boundaries with his new fan club, he is exiled from the ladies' clique. But Lyssa refuses to snub him.  What she never expects is the explosive impact her ongoing friendship with harry will have on her close-knit pals -- and on her marriage.

Review:
I enjoyed Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives  - it has a fun blend of chicklit,  Desperate Housewives and Mean Girls.  Paradise Heights is a beautiful exclusive enclave in Northern California.  It's close enough to San Fransisco for the husbands to have prestigious, high power jobs in the city.  It's sufficiently distant for their families to have created a community of their own.

The foremost clique is the Board of the Paradise Heights Women's League.  Lyssa Harper is relatively new to the Board and enjoys the challenge, kudos, and prestige that being a member brings.  She gets along well with everyone and the camaraderie makes up a big part of her life. The Board is run with a certain strictness and efficiency by a former IBMer Margot Hardaway.  Margot runs the board with the same dedication and seriousness that got her through business school and to the top of the corporate ladder.   Margot "views the Paradise Heights Women's League as her new executive suite."   Bossiness and bullying have helped her at Paradise Heights just as they did in the workplace.  The other board members are less output oriented.  "They prefer to strategize (Colleen), delegate (Brooke), whine  (Tammy), and, when all else fails, point fingers (Isabelle).  But just as their children have playdates, the members of the Women's League have regular coffee runs, spa dates, and dinners and board meetings.  The Women's League takes care of social and charitable events, but what it does best is gossip -- they know everything that happens as it happens and to whom.  Josie Brown paints the Women's League as a mix of Desperate Housewives with the close friendships, rivalries and the undercurrent of sex.  These women are beautiful, youthful and fashionable and they intend to stay that way if it kills them.  Honestly, I enjoyed the banter and bitchiness of these friends. 

As this circle of friends draw in the former Master of the Universe and soon-to-be-divorced Harry Wilder, sparks fly, rivalries flare up, and hilarious situations abound. 

Lyssa starts out helping Harry navigate the mysterious world of Paradise Heights and parenting.  As  their children become fast friends, Lyssa and Harry do as well.  This friendship brings both complications and rewards -- and it brought me quite a lot of chuckles.

Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives is a fun, light read.  Josie Brown pokes fun with a deft touch and will leave you chuckling. 

ISBN-10: 1439173176 - Paperback $15.00
Publisher: Downtown Press; Original edition (June 1, 2010), 331 pages.
Review copy provided by the publisher.

About the Author:
Josie Brown is the author of Impossibly Tongue-Tied, True Hollywood Lies, and Last Night I Dreamt of Cosmopolitans and the coauthor of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Finding Mr. Right.  She lives in Marin County, California, with her family.  Visit her website at www.josiebrown.com

If you'd like to check out the Reading Group Guide to Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives, head to Josie Brown's website.

Participating Blogs:
All About {n}: http://www.bookwormygirl.blogspot.com/
The Book Tree: http://thebooktree.blogspot.com/
Books Gardens & Dogs: http://maryinhb.blogspot.com/
Arms of a Sister: http://armsofasister.com/
Booktumbling: http://booktumbling.com/
A Room Without Books Is Empty: http://detweilermom.blogspot.com/
Busy Julie: http://busyjulieblog.blogspot.com/
Bookin’ with Bingo: http://bookinwithbingo.blogspot.com
The Down Home Diva: http://thestuffyouneedtoknow.blogspot.com/
Me, My Book, and the Couch: http://memybookandthecouch.blogspot.com/
Starting Fresh: http://startingfresh-gaby317.blogspot.com/
Frugal Plus: http://frugalplus.com/
Avid Reader: http://www.tarmyblogspot.blogspot.com/
Marta’s Meanderings: http://martasmeanderings.blogspot.com/
Eclectic Book Lover: http://www.eclecticbooklover.com
Not Quite Susie: http://notquitesusiehomemaker.blogspot.com/
Books and Needlepoint: http://booksandneedlepoint.blogspot.com/
Books with a Cup of Coffee: http://bookswithcoffee.wordpress.com/
Knitting and Sundries: http://www.jewelknits.blogspot.com/
Just Another New Blog: http://justanothernewblog.blogspot.com/
Simply Stacie: http://simplystacie.net/
Must Read Faster: http://mustreadfaster.blogspot.com/
Booksie’s Blog: http://booksiesblog.blogspot.com/
Reminder List: http://reminderlist.blogspot.com/
My Five Monkeys: http://www.tableforseven-julie.blogspot.com/
My Book Views: http://my-book-views.blogspot.com/
Taking Time For Mommy: http://takingtimeformommy.blogspot.com/
I Heart Book Gossip: http://juniperrbreeeze.blogspot.com/
Book Junkie: http://myfoolishwisdom.blogspot.com/
Jeanne's Ramblings: http://www.jeannesramblings.com
Readaholic: http://bridget3420.blogspot.com/
Broken Teepee: http://www.brokenteepee.blogspot.com
Tethered Mommy: http://www.tetheredmommy.com/
Just Jennifer Reading: http://justjenniferreading.blogspot.com/
So Many Books, So Little Time: http://purplg8r-somanybooks.blogspot.com/
Reading With Tequila: http://www.readingwithtequila.com/
Book N Around: http://booknaround.blogspot.com/
A Journey of Books: http://ajourneyofbooks.halfzero.net/
Bella’s Novellas: www.bellasnovella.com
CuzinLogic’s Blog: http://cuzinlogic.wordpress.com/
Rundpinne: http://www.rundpinne.com