I started this one evening and then read the rest of the book in one day. It’s such a fast read, and you just want to keep going.

Eliza hates confrontation. I know the feeling. She makes jokes rather than come back with a sharp retort. She’s basically a doormat.

She was a successful classical pianist, but when Richard Sheridan helped her escape her tyrannical father, she became his doormat instead. She gave up her career to focus entirely on her daughter Mara, and support Richard’s flourishing career. But in reality, she resents his success while her life is unfulfilled.

Mara is lonely and withdrawn, and Eliza doesn’t know how to fix it. She struggles to make friends herself as she doesn’t identify with the stay at home mums or the working mums. Then she finds a business card on her table in the Honey Cafe and decides to contact the therapist Ellen Early for help. But who is this woman? Her methods are very strange and Eliza really should have done her research.

I found Ms Early the most fascinating of all the characters in the story. Eliza needs to wake up and smell the coffee, she really does, but if she’d done the aforementioned research, she might have been more suspicious.

I just loved this book. It’s not only witty and at times laugh out loud funny, it’s a fascinating insight into marriage, relationships, jealousy and obsession. I just hope Mara comes out OK.

Many thanks to @Tr4cyF3nt0n for inviting me to be part of the #CompulsiveReaders #blogtour and to NetGalley for an ARC.

I think the best way to describe The Marriage Vendetta is a quirky, very unique & entertaining read. This was a very funny read packed with that dry black humour I love. The plotline was so clever & I was so surprised to discover that the author based this story on a real woman from history but put a contemporary modern twist on it.

The Marriage Vendetta was a funny, cleverly written page turner that was full of twists & turns, I honestly didn't know which way was up at times. I loved the characters, the perfect mix of likeable, unlikeable, despicable & very unhinged characters.

If you're a fan of anything the genius Sharon Horgan is involved in you will love this, it's that exact delicious dark humour.

A brilliant debut from an author that I'll be watching out for what comes next.

this was a totally original plot. i loved how much i didnt see coming and how much the book allowed me to see what was coming. it was the perfect match of intrigue and twisty surprises all the way through.
when built up resentment grows from Eliza i expected something like an affair, or she left, or in a really dark based book she might even murder him! but this was all new. and that darkness was still there but also was this niche new angle to it. because she goes to see a marriage therapist, so far so normal. but what comes next is nothing of the sort. this quirky little twist was fab. and putting morals aside oh how much do we love a character like Ellen. her plans on how to get the marriage back is as weird as they come. but a blooming romping of a read. and i really enjoyed how original this was. how something totally new was bought to the table in this books plot that gives a little bit of humor plot points throughout. or maybe it was just shocked giggles that kept coming up for me. either way it was a welcome new book to read and i had fun doing so.

4.5 ⭐️

Isn’t it the best feeling as a reader when you come across a debut that is just plain ‘different”?

Rosamund Pike hit that spot for me last year with A Little Trickerie. And now here’s The Marriage Vendetta by fledgling Irish author Caroline Madden, a quirky, engaging blend of domestic drama, mystery and deliciously dry humor that coalesces — for want of a better description — into a dark, modern fairytale. With its whiplash shifts in tempo and direction, there are surprises waiting on almost every page.

Eliza, a former, world-renowned classical pianist, has given up her glittering career to be wife to Richard and mother to 6-year-old Mara. They’ve just moved back to Dublin, where Richard has landed his dream job as a theatre director. Eliza’s days are spent caring for her family and avoiding the judgmental “momfluencers” at the school gates, while her piano sits gathering dust in the music room. She’s not a happy bunny.

What follows, when Eliza’s simmering resentment is turbo charged by a photo showing Richard escorting an unknown woman into a hotel, is at times the stuff of high farce, at others scarily unnerving.

Madden gives generous insight into Eliza’s past, casting her as a sympathetic character: someone who has never had the chance to fully be her own person or carve her own path. This becomes ever more evident as the plot unfolds and the extent of her manipulation and betrayal becomes clear.

Star of the cast, however, has to be Eliza’s unhinged marriage counselor, Ellen Early, whose advice and ‘treatment plan’ range from the unconventional to downright, off-the-scale bizarre. I loved her!

I also loved the ending. Just when everything seems to be nicely wrapped up, Madden throws in one final twist. This caught me completely off guard, sending shivers down my spine and adding an extra frisson to an already thoroughly enjoyable read.

An exciting new Irish talent to watch.

"The Marriage Vendetta" was quite an engaging read. What Caroline Madden has done well was not revealing all the cards too early and to let the reader slowly discover what's going on in Eliza's current life (which is not great) but also what events brought her to this point (which were not great either). On a surface it's a simple story of a wife trying to get back at an unfaithful husband without loosing herself in the proces (hence the therapy). But there is so much more to it.

The author seamlessly combines the elements of magical realism, Irish folklore, domestic-not-so-noir (but still kind of touching on the genre) and her afterword shines yet completely new light on the whole story.

Well-executed plot with complex characters. Definitely a must-read.