The Replacement Wife

Eileen Goudge

Mar 2012 · Open Road Media

About this ebook

A professional matchmaker with six months to live tries to find her husband’s next wife in this poignant novel by a New York Times–bestselling author.
 Camille Hart, one of Manhattan’s most sought-after matchmakers, has survived more than her fair share of hardships. Her mother died when she was a young girl, leaving her and her sister with an absentee father. Now in her forties, she has already survived cancer once, though the battle revealed just how ill-equipped her husband Edward is to be a single parent. So when doctors tell Camille that her cancer is back—and this time it’s terminal—she decides to put her matchmaking expertise to the test for one final job. Seeking stability for her children and happiness for her husband, Camille sets out to find the perfect woman to replace her when she’s gone.
 But what happens when a dying wish becomes a case of “be careful what you wish for”? For Edward and Camille, the stunning conclusion arrives with one last twist of fate that no one saw coming.
At once deeply felt and witty, The Replacement Wife is an unforgettable story of love and family, and a refreshing look at the unexpected paths that lead us to our own happy endings.

Ratings and reviews

A heavy book in two ways, quite a chunkster in pages and a heavy topic that at times was hard to swallow, but in a good way. From the beginning you fall head over heals for Camille, a mother of two young children who are on the cusp of the teenage years and need a mother now more than ever. She has already battled cancer once and now facing it again, the prospects look grim. With a profession as a match-maker, she decides that fixing her husband up with a future partner will help the family avoid undue heartache and pain when she leaves them. From there the story takes quite a few twists and turns. I never reveal plot points that may ruin a story, but this one has the reader on the edge of the seat from beginning to end. I wanted to know how Camille and Edward were going to fare after the endeavors that this journey called life would take them on. I may have read this book with deeper meaning because of what is going on in my personal life. Recently engaged and planning a wedding and a marriage, it was hard to think about a future without this boy next to me and then to think if I would then find someone to accompany on the rest of the journey or if I would finish this life alone. Hard thoughts for me, but I crave books that make me reflect on topics that I wouldn't otherwise think about.

I felt the book was realistic. It's not everyone's happy ending and that's ok. The main character pretty much played with fire and got burned.

About the author

DIVEileen Goudge (b. 1950) is one of the nation’s most successful authors of women’s fiction. She began as a young adult writer, helping to launch the phenomenally successful Sweet Valley High series, and in 1986 she published her first adult novel, the New York Times bestseller Garden of Lies.
 
She has published fifteen novels in all, including the three-book saga of Carson Springs, Thorns of Truth—a sequel to Gardens of Lies—and 2012’s The Replacement Wife. She lives and works in New York City./div