Entertaining read. ( )

In Barbara Delinsky's The Woman Next Door, three women who live next door to a lovely, pregnant and reclusive widow have their lives turned upside down by their husbands' interest in her. These three wives are friends, but each can't help but wonder if her husband is the father of the baby. As a result, each woman reevaluates her life and finds out what's truly important to herself.

Amanda and Graham O'Leary have an ostensibly happy life, but infertility treatments have put a strain on their marriage. Russ Lange is a house husband while his wife travels the country to promote her juice company. Karen Cottar has dealt with her husband's infedelity before. When a crisis happens at the high school, it adds to each household's tension. I liked this story very much; the type of book women like to read. I give it an A! ( )

Four Victorian style homes sit on a quiet cul-de-sac in a small town in Connecticut. Amanda, Karen and Georgia, along with their husbands, have been neighbors and friends for many years. Gretchen, the second wife and young widow of Ben, has been an outsider with her standoffish ways. The three friends learn that Gretchen, a widow for a year and thought to be unattached, is pregnant. Speculation runs rife in the neighborhood. Each woman wonders if it is possible that her husband has strayed while helping the young widow. And the three marriages seem to be on shaky ground.

This is a story about the ups and downs found in most marriages. It examines multiple family relationships, wife and husband, young children and parents, adult children and their parents. And the biggest issue in each is the ability to trust. While examining these relationships, the overall story seemed to plod along and was not one of the author’s best books. ( )

I wish there had been an epilog. Though I knew of the pregnancy, I would have loved to know she had twins or even tripplets. I would have loved to know that Gretchen ended up with the attorney, Georgia sold her business and Jordan made something of his life. ( )