Lilibet Bombshell's Reviews > The Widow

This book was so much dang fun to read! I knew from the very beginning I was going to love it, and I was totally sucked in from page one. I just sat here all day, avidly reading page after page, only getting up to grab some lunch (which I ate one-handed while I continued to read) and to refill my iced coffee (because caffeine).

I knew I would love a book about a total boss woman who decides to defend the legacy her and her husband built in Washington after he went and tarnished it like an idiot. What I didn’t expect was to love this greedy, ambitious, shallow, vain, unscrupulous, whip-smart, and borderline sociopathic boss woman so much. She’s everything I’ve always imagined the ideal politician’s wife to be, save that most politician’s wives don’t see people as toys that can be taken out and played with at will and then discarded carelessly when she feels they have no use anymore. Her lack of impulse control and her childlike understanding of politics only made me love her more, because it caused the book to edge on satire at times, showing the true colors behind all politicians: they are all just petty children looking to not be picked last for kickball on the playground. They are all adolescents in a high school cafeteria looking for the ideal place to sit for maximum popularity. They are all part of a clique facing the peer pressure to take this or try that. But Jody Asher? Jody Asher is a singular woman who wants to be Captain of the kickball team, the most popular girl in school whom everyone wants to sit next to at lunch, and never have to fit into a clique because she is every clique and everyone both loves her and fears her.

In short? She’s the Regina George of Washington D. C. and I am here for it.

This book would be a good book if it was just about Jody and her efforts to restore the glory of the Asher legacy her idiotic husband left her with, but Rouda adds a layer to the cake with a glorious game of bad blood between Jody and her college friend/Think Tank founder, Mimi. That whole layer of the cake should and will remain a huge spoiler should it be revealed in a review, so this reviewer will keep her trap shut and let you find out when you go to read the book, because it’s catty, juicy, and metaphorically bloody. In short, it’s a delight.

I’m here for all of Jody Asher’s blind ambitions and political fumblings, coasting on her husband’s years of service and a lot of hidden dirt to get what she wants. I’m here for her efforts to try and at least give somewhat of a crud about her fellow humans. Most of all, I’m here for what was just a really clever and sharp book.

Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for granting me access to this title.

File Under: Thriller/Political Thriller/5 Star Books/Crime Fiction/Mystery/Suspense