“THE MARRIAGE LIE” by Kimberly Belle

When I read this paragraph at the beginning of the book “The marriage lie,” my hopeless romantic heart trembled.

“- You are my favourite person on the planet, he murmurs in my ear, and I smile.

These are the words we’ve chosen instead of the more standard <<I love you>>, and to me they mean so much more.

– You’re my favourite person, too.”

When I got to the next paragraph, I said YES! There are still good marriages in the world. Or at least in this book.

“My girlfriends assure me this won’t last forever, this connection I feel with my own husband.
Any day now, they tell me, familiarity will fizzle my fire, and I will suddenly start noticing other men. 

The seven-year itch, my girlfriends call it, and I can barely imagine such a thing, because today–seven years and a day–Will’s hand glides across my skin, and the only itch I feel is for him.”

But after this, it’s a free fall.
Will, the loving husband, dies in an airplane accident. And Iris, the loving wife, founds out that her husband is not in the plane he was supposed to be flying in.
Naturally, the next question I asked myself was if the husband was cheating on his wife. (after all the swooning I did before!)

“How well do I know my husband?”

I waited breathlessly to read the final chosen by the writer, Kimberly Belle. And I did not expect to be that one.
Mainly, I liked how the writer used Iris’s profession as a school counselor at a private school and how she made sense of her husband’s mistakes.

“Children are the product of their parents, and crappy or nonexistent parenting skills load down a child with baggage that’s no fault of their own.
I’ve said it often enough that Will knows I believe this to be true.

But he also knows I teach my students to move past their baggage by becoming accountable.
I teach them responsibility for their own actions and behaviours, to follow the rule and live up to expectations.”

Kindle, 2017