Riveting and engrossing mystery, Her Husband's Secrets keeps you on edge until the very end.

Synopsis:
Matt seems like perfect husband material – especially when Lucie discovers he’s from a wealthy family. But Matt’s dark side soon emerges. Manipulative, controlling and abusive, he is anything but perfect and will tear the life she has built for herself and their six-year-old son JP apart.

Then, one fateful night, things come to a head in the most shocking way . . .

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

After dropping out of Uni to take time out to travel, Lucie finds herself at a bar in Switzerland. She also catches the eye of Matt and gradually they become friends and her travel plans are on hold as they gradually form a relationship. There had been the odd mysterious comment about them being together and Lucie didn’t feel exactly welcomed into the family. So where did it all go wrong?

This was an intriguing read and one that I really enjoyed. It is set out in a past and present format. I like this style for this type of book because it means I get to understand the backstory that fills in the details that bring things up to date. I found this back and forth style very easy to keep up with and was eager to see what happened next in each of the tenses.

What started out as a potential holiday romance that then became a relationship sounds like a good basis for a story, but then as it progressed the little doubts and niggles started to creep in. Understanding the lead up to Lucie’s incarceration makes for good reading. Also making good reading was the mystery around what happens after her arrest.

Lucie was a naive character and it was easy to see how she fell for Matt. There are several other characters and if I am being honest I didn’t really like that many of them, Lucie and her friend Anne were nice and likeable, but some others felt devious and cold suiting the part they played perfectly.

The story had a good deal of tension and this was increased as the pressure of time began to play its part. This meant the pacing gathered momentum the latter half of the story. Mystery, intrigue, suspense and tension were all evident, then the manipulation, lies and secrets are added to the plot making for a tense thriller. I enjoyed this a lot and would recommend it to readers who like a domestic thriller read.

A fun thriller that keeps you guessing what the husband is hiding from his wife! Well developed characters and a good plot.

Really enjoyable read. Good characters and a Good story. Well worth a read. Think others will enjoy.

A page turning that keeps you guessing about what happened.

This is a psychological thriller is the first book by Louise Mangos I;ve read. The book follows Lucie Smithers, who is serving time for the murder of her husband. The book makes you question if Lucie really did murder him.

The flashbacks in the story give the reader insight in how Lucie en Matt have met and why Lucie is in prison.

Also called The Art of Deception

3.75*

Lucie is in prison and as the book opens it is not evident what her crime has been. She clearly has a son without whom she is whiling away her days.

Go back over the last seven years and the author sets the scene for her imprisonment. As the novel opens, she has decided to quit art school and has set off on her travels through Europe to the Mediterranean but finds herself rather short of money up a mountain in Canton Vaud in Switzerland, just as the ski season is coming to a close. She organises some work and embraces a fling with Matt. But there are early warnings that he is man of moods and that he demonstrates a philandering nature.

However, Lucie is smitten and despite the desperate warnings, she wallows in his attention and seeming commitment, choosing to overlook his apparent infidelities and misdemeanours.

She meets his domineering Russian mother and acquiescent father. The former treats her with imperious curtness. But with their common interest in art, they have at least something over which they can connect.

Pregnancy throws her carefully built house of cards into disarray and gradually it becomes apparent why it is she is in prison.

The author constructs a tightly woven narrative until it comes to the ‘event’ that explains her incarceration. At this point I had to read the storyline several times as I felt I blinked and missed the almost coy description of what happened, which verged almost on a farcical rendering. The narrative then picks up again and there is a scamper to the end.

I did enjoy the story, for the most part it was an engrossing read.

Another thrilling read by one of my favorite authors. I was gripped from the first page and couldn't wait to find out what the husband was hiding from his dear old wifey. Recommended.

I enjoyed this book and found it gripping, especially as the past slowly unfolded and we got glimpses of why Lucie is in prison. Enjoyed the twist at the end too!

This is the first novel I have read by this author, although I have just purchased her debut novel Strangers on the Bridge, after reading this one. This is a stand-alone psychological thriller.

After dropping out of Art college Lucie finds herself in a Swiss ski resort looking for em-loyment, but instead of finding a job she meets the handsome charismatic ski instructor Mathieu Favre or Matt for short and falls in love. But Matt doesn’t really do love for him it’s more like lust.

Despite warnings from her friends about Matt Lucie doesn’t listen, she is in love why would she, she is still young and a little naive, believing in happy ever afters.

The story is told in the present where the beginning starts with Lucie incarcerated in the only all woman prison in Switzerland, for the murder of Matt, and the past where Matt and Lucie met and got together through to his death. Initially I found the pace a little slow but the more I read the more connected I felt with story, I was desperately rooting for Lucie to be free and get back to her son JP.

Matt had been cruel and abusive to Lucie over a number of years, had this pushed her in some way to kill him, was it self defence, or was Lucie totally innocent? I like the way the author handled the abuse, it was done in a compassionate way and sensitive, it’s such a difficult thing to write because there are so many forms of abuse, many that don’t ever get seen by outsiders, all cleverly done behind closed doors.

The setting for this story is beautiful as well with the snow capped mountains of Switzerland, which is a sort of stark contrast to what is happening in the story, where things aren’t so beautiful..

This was a great read, I enjoyed the plot and the characters, ok Lucie was a little naive and at times a little annoying, but to a certain extent we all are when we first set out in life, sometimes we don’t see what’s going on under our noses, or we don’t want to see, especially if you are in love with someone, until you take off the rose tinted glasses, but then you can find yourself stuck in that situation and don’t know how to escape especially when you also have a child, add to the fact that Matt was from a wealthy background.

I would like to thank #netgalley # LouiseMangos and #HQdigital for an ecopy of this book in exchange for an honest, fair and unbiased review.

i found this book slow to begin with and struggled to finish it. The book was an ok book.
Lucie was put into prison for killing her husband, you get to meet other inmates, she is in with. it takes you on a journey of how she met her husband, married him and had there child together.

3.5 stars
This is a good read but a bit slow at times.
Lucie is in a Swiss prison for the murder of her husband but all is not as it seems.
However, can Lucie prove her innocence before she loses her son forever?
Lucie fell deeply in love with Mathieu, and, although she was warned off by various people, the two marry and have a son. Matt's infidelity and abuse quickly become part of everyday life until seven years later, and Lucie is six months into a sentence for murder. Lucie maintains she’s innocent, but what really happened?
A gripping thriller.
Thanks to HQ Digital and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

A thrilling read which kept me turning the pages, characters you care for and just brilliantly written. Great novel!!

Dark mystery that sucks you into a different place. A nightmare where no one wants to be. Good read. Can’t put it down. Wondering where it’s going to go And which way to turn

This latest offering by Louise Mangos was a spellbinding and compulsive read which was just as enjoyable as her début novel - Strangers on a Bridge.

Art college dropout Lucie arrives in a Swiss ski resort looking for work – but instead finds love in the form of the handsome and charismatic Mathieu.

Matt seems like perfect husband material – especially when Lucie discovers he’s from a wealthy family. But Matt’s dark side soon emerges. Manipulative, controlling and abusive, he is anything but perfect and will tear the life she has built for herself and their six-year-old son JP apart.

Then, one fateful night, things come to a head in the most shocking way . . .

Wrongly accused of her husband’s murder and left fighting for her freedom in a foreign prison, Lucie is starting to lose her grip on reality. Now, she must summon all her strength to uncover the truth about Matt’s death and be reunited with her son – before it’s too late.

The clock is ticking . . . but who can she trust?
~~~
Louise Mangos bestows the reader with a multi-faceted story and draws from different genres to create a wonderful and thought-provoking read. The novel was both interesting and intriguing throughout and kept my attention all the way.

The Art of Deception was beautifully plotted with a vivid sense of time and place. Not only was it intense and compelling but it was also an emotional read, with themes of domestic abuse, control and manipulation.

Bittersweet and heart-wrenching, I felt undeniably moved by Lucie and her son's battle to survive and was rooting for them to carry on, becoming emotionally invested in her and her fate. First-class characterisation and plot twists were set amongst a slow-burn pace and this quickly became a rather addictive page-turner. This was a novel that illustrated how willpower, resilience and strength can overcome the most dreadful of scenarios.

Obviously the reader was party to much more information about Matt and his family than Lucie but she did ignore all her friends and colleagues regarding his past. I swung between sympathising with Lucie and exclaiming over her stupidity.

I really appreciated that the abuse battle was depicted accurately, authentically and compassionately and for me, this book was one of this year's best reads!

I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel, at my own request, from HQ Digital via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

I received a copy of this story from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was my introduction to Louise Mangos and if I only go by this novel, I don't know that I'll be reading more. The imagery was great and I love things set in countries that are not my own but that's not enough to keep me interested. The story was slow; it only picked up in the last 20% or so. It's touted as a psychological thriller but I think it sits on the fringes of that genre. There was nothing thrilling about it. The story was rather predictable and there weren't any twists I didn't see coming.

I also had an issue with the characters and their development. I was generally annoyed by most of them, especially Lucie's naivete. Not enough time was spent developing Lucie and Matt's relationship so I didn't care/understand her devotion and professed love. I finished it but I wasn't overly concerned with how it would end.

I can't say I'd recommend this, unfortunately.

I didn’t really enjoy this book, it was rather confusing where the setting was. The story was okay itself but I wouldn’t call this a psychological thriller. A bit disappointed really as I was expecting more from it. But all the same thank you netgalley for the opportunity to read this

In Louise Mangos's The Art of Deception, this spell-binding thriller will leave you at the edge of your seat. Lucie Smithers is a twenty-year-old college dropout in Switzerland and falls in love with a ski instructor named Mathieu Favre. Instantly, she falls in love with him, when everything doesn't appears at it seems. When we first meet Lucie, she's in the only all-woman prison in Switzerland, behind bars for a crime she doesn't commit. While she fights for her freedom and to her with her young son JP, she learns the hard way in prison life when drugs, sex, and bribery takes center stage behind closed doors. Told in flashbacks, we learn how she met Matt and what kind of relationship they had even when they married. But while she struggles to get out of prison, she works at the atelier and paints, holding onto hope that someday she would be set free. With her Russian mother-in-law, it appears she's taking everything away from her and wants her son to move to Russia. It would be up to Lucie to stop them and find the proof that Natasha is a monster-in-law who isn't what she cracks up to be and what dirty little secrets she's been keeping and hording. With one proof of evidence of backhandling behind the scenes, it might be the ticket to freedom and stop them in the tracks before it's too late.

This is the first book I have read by this author and I found it to be an excellent read, although I did find Lucie annoying at times and couldn't understand why she did some if the things she did! A lot of the book is set inside the prison and I loved the interaction between Lucie and the other inmates. The story kept me interested to the end and I would certainly read more by this author.

Who is Lucie and why is she in prison? That’s the first question that popped in my mind in the beginning of the book; after a little bit you discover that she is in prison convicted for killing her husband; but she doesn’t want to talk about it, at all… Is she really a killer or there’s something more? You can expect a lot more; this for sure!
Lucie will tell her story; since the moment she met Mathieu and fell deeply in love with him till now, living in prison… The story from the past will tell you some happy and not so happy memories, because Matt is handsome and charming but not all that glitters is gold, he has a secret side that will make you re-think if being near him it is worth the price.
On the other side we have Lucie, she is young and she falls in love with the wrong man, but now she is in prison and can not see her beloved son; you would think that what makes her suffer is the prison, but is not being able to talk and touch her son, because he is living with his aunts and they are not eager to allow any type of connection between them, the less the better.
This is a different type of psychological thriller, yes, there are twists and surprises, but this is more personal, you’ll want to help and hug Lucie, you’ll feel the pain and sadness on your skin.Just thinking about not being able to see my son for a week makes me weak and sad, imagine for more than 6 months! Lucie doesn’t want friends or connections with the women she is cohabiting in prison, but day by day she will start to connect with them and start taking care of them; now she just needs someone to listen to her and help her in the case.
Ready for The Art of Deception?