I enjoyed the plot and the book was very well written. However I didn't like the characters and it was hard having any empathy for them

Really enjoyed this booked had never read this author before and will not be the last time. now looking for more by this author

I liked the premise but the characters grated. It was ok but, for me, it played out more like an entitled soap opera than a whodunit.

This was a gripping and tense psychological thriller with an emotional plotline. I loved the writing style and was kept on the edge of my seat. Another brilliant book from the author.

So when it comes to psychological thrillers, I’m quite harsh, just because there are soooo many out there and with me it’s just getting to the point where I’m getting a bit bored with the whole genre. That sounds mean I know.

I loved the opening chapter, I thought ooh, this is going to be thrilling...then it wasn’t. I understand what the author was trying to do going back to the characters college days, setting up how their friendship came to be but it just got a little boring. I much preferred the chapters when they were older, I felt there was more intrigue there.

I think the main problem I had were the characters, I just didn’t connect with them. Kate is a spoilt rich girl, Jenny is an overachiever and then we have Aubrey who is a bit of a neurotic mess who I genuinely still don’t understand how she got into college. Their friendship was the central theme of the book and frankly at time it was toxic.

Overall this book wasn’t for me but I will recommend it to people who enjoy flawed (and a little neurotic) characters and stories of toxic friendships.

At the elite Carlisle college Jenny, Kate and Aubrey meet and become room mates and declare themselves friends for life, even though they come from different backgrounds. A tragedy occurs and they will be forever linked by this.

Fast forward to 20 years later and someone is stood at the top of a bridge being urged to jump!! Kate’s body is found. Was it murder or suicide?

This alternates between the girls at Carlisle College and the present time. I found this book slow to start but I’m pleased I did not give up as the story of the college girls grown up has more twists and secrets revealed.

The main characters were hard to like, I would definitely not have chosen these self centred girls as friends of mine!!

A slow burner with a clever twist at the end.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy in exchange for a review.

I really wanted to love this book but unfortunately it was just a bit too slow and less of a psychological thriller, more of a light suspense so it wasn't quite what I was expecting.
However, it is very well written and executed with great in depth characterisations and character driven and it still made for an interesting read.
I will defiantly read other works by Michele Campbell.

On a par with the girl before etc, this book kept me on the edge of my seat. I zipped through this book so fast, I couldn’t wait to find out what happened in the end. An easy read that keeps you guessing.

It’s nearly always someone known to the family - but who the Husband or Best Friend maybe neither - enjoyable

I wanted to love It’s Always the Husband. It started promisingly cutting between present day and twenty years previously setting the scene for what could be a thriller of a book. However, for me personally, I felt the book lacked pace and I couldn’t gel with any of the characters. I also felt let down slightly by the ending. To me it seemed somewhat predictable, however that is only my opinion.

Thank you to NetGalley, HQ and the author for the chance to review.

I loved It’s Always the Husband with its twists and turns. The suspense kept me hooked and just when I thought I’d guessed it ......... I was wrong.
A great read.

When Kate, Aubrey and Jenny are roomed together at Carlisle College no one would have expected them to end up friends. Kate is a spoilt rich party girl, Aubrey is poor and naive and Jenny is ultra focused on her future. But somehow they end up been the best of friends....or maybe frenemies. A tragic event splits them up but 20 years later they are all back in their college town with their respective husband's. But secrets and betrayals lead to a deadly date for one of them....the police assume it's the husband but there are a lot of people with a motive in this story.

Ok firstly don't expect to come into this book liking anyone....not one person comes out of this looking good. And I usually hate books like that - I need someone to root for or sympathise with. But this was oddly satisfying. I really enjoyed detesting everyone of the characters in the book. The story isn't amazingly fast paced but I found it engrossing and compulsive. As a debut novel it is accomplished and hopefully a promising start to this authors career.

Kate, Aubrey and Jenny met as freshmen at Carlisle. Kate came from a rich New York family, she was beautiful and could get any man she wanted. Aubrey was the poor kid from Las Vegas who yearned for acceptance and wanted to be everything that Kate was. Jenny was the smart local girl who wanted to succeed in life. The three roommates quickly became best friends.
Twenty years later, they are still friends and they still live in Carlisle with their husbands and children. Their lives are far from perfect and there is a dark secret from their past that threatens to destroy everything they worked for.
I didn't like any of the characters in the story. They are either selfish, weak, self-destructive - or all three of these things - and I couldn't sympathise with any of them. But their flawed nature fits perfectly into the compelling and twisty plot. It took me a few pages to get into the book, and once I did I was completely captivated by the story of these three friends and their dysfunctional relationship. Add a small town with its own rules and a surprising ending and you have a thrilling and engaging novel.

After reading very mixed reviews about this book on Amazon, I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed it.
There’s lots of twists and turns and I found it easy to read. Stick with it as the ending is well written and unexpected.

I'm really unsure about this book. On one hand, I enjoyed but on the other I was just really confused about what was going on. I found bits a bit far fetched, and unnecessary really. Not sure I'd recommend

This book is about the friendship and betrayal between 3 women. Kate, Jenny and Aubrey have known each other since college. Sometimes love can turn to hate very quickly. The story itself was a good read. However I did not like any of the characters. That made it hard to feel empathy for them.

A great thriller with vivid descriptions which helped me to picture each scene.

I enjoyed this book and would definitely like to read more by this author.

Loyalty and friendship play a major role in this story, especially the friendships between women. The friendship between Kate, Aubrey, and Jenny is forged during their college years. The three of them are from different walks of life and are thrown together when they become roommates, which is the beginning of this tale of betrayal and secrets.

Kate returns to the roost, and her friends, after many years of hiding from the truth. Well that isn’t really true, Kate is only interested in the here and now, and herself. So nothing has really changed except maybe that her friends are now no longer as willing to put up with her narcissistic ways. Friends can become enemies in a heartbeat.

Campbell examines the boundaries of the friendship between the women. How would you define loyalty between your best friend and yourself? Is there really any such thing as complete and utter loyalty or true friendship? Personally I think you have to go through your absolute worst times to find out just how tight your friendships are. Count the people still stood there after the walls have come tumbling down around you, and the majority of your so-called friends have suddenly forgotten you exist, there is no better eye-opener.

The other element of the story the author explores is whether or not we are all killers at heart. In some of us the urge just sleeps more deeply than in others. Also whether the still developing brain of a young person makes them as culpable as an adult committing the same crime. A rash decision, a gut reaction with fatal consequences. It could happen to anyone, unless of course it isn’t an accident at all.

Kudos to Campbell for the ending, it’s sneaky and done in an almost nonchalant way. You sort of think it’s that person, then get diverted by a few red herrings, and end up being surprised.

It’s Always the Husband is an in depth look at our closest relationships and if they can weather the darkest of secrets. It also examines the thin line between love and hate in friendships. Is there really any such thing as loyalty when your own survival is at stake?

It’s Always the Husband tells the story of three very different girls brought together through the randomness of university dorm placements. They get wild, far more so than my own university friends and I ever did, and there’s a real sense of hedonism, excess and adventure to the scenes that take place when the girls are young adults that I really love. It almost brings the same vibe as popular series such as Gossip Girl; one of great wealth and teenage mistakes. If the story took place solely at university, maybe then it would have gotten a higher rating from me, but alas, this is a novel of two parts.
The characters as young adults feel far more fleshed-out and believable than their middle-aged counterparts and the whole plot becomes a small-town, run-of-the-mill mystery in the latter scenes. The pace slowed, the excitement dimmed and, despite the excesses of the scenes set in the past, it was only then that the tale became too far-fetched to be wholly believable. The murder investigation was conducted terribly, the town politics were ridiculous, and everyone’s motivations were contrived and bizarre.
I think the main issue are the characters. All of them (except probably Jenny) were horrendous people and most insisted on putting Kate on a pedestal that she couldn’t possibly ever live up to because, frankly, she was a humongous fuck-up. The idolisation of the girl and the legends that were spun around her became like something out of a bad movie, I mean, have you ever seen that happen in real-life to someone other than a celebrity? Because I sure haven’t. The two main culprits of this were Aubrey, who was so far up her arse that she could probably see out of her eyes, and the police chief, who really should be arrested for being a potential killer himself. Obsessed, much? When he came along I thought that we were finally getting a respite from the fucking awful cast of characters, but oh no.
Frankly, there is a BIG difference between having a book filled with characters that the readers love to hate, and having ones who are just downright abhorrent. It’s Always the Husband falls in the category of the latter. I couldn’t understand why Kate was so amazing, and so then I didn’t understand everyone’s insistence on fawning over her. To turn someone into something of a manic pixie dream girl, you first have to make them a dream girl.
Which Kate wasn’t in the slightest.
For me, It’s Always the Husband, was a huge contradiction, I mean, after-all, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. But if that’s the best you can say about it, that’s probably a sign it’s not a good book.

I was drawn to this book by the captivating cover, which just begged me to read it, well that’s my excuse anyway.

It was a brilliant read from start to finish, I love how the story was told from the past, back in their college days and then in the current day. Also thought it was great how the story wasn’t told by the same character all the time. It really sets the scene and helps you get to know the characters in great depth.

I was pretty much gripped throughout, and could not turn the pages fast enough for wanting to find out what would happen next. It certainly had been guessing the whole way through as to ‘who did it’.

As for the ending, what a surprise and a twist, never saw that coming. I thought the whole story plot was very cleverly written. I can’t believe that this is the author first debut book, amazing.